Editorial: Newport Beach takes its own wrong path on housing
Anyone who follows California housing policy is well aware of Huntington Beach’s losing efforts to defy the state’s effort to permit more housing development. The courts have repeatedly rebuked that Orange County city’s lawsuits and the city is now facing a loss of its local zoning control and potential fines. Down the coast, Newport Beach is likewise resisting new construction, although it’s taking a different approach.
Newport Beach officials have, to their credit, approved general-plan amendments that allow the construction of 8,174 new housing units. But local NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yarders) sued the city over the plan and lost. Now local activists have qualified an initiative for the November ballot that would slash those numbers to 2,900. It’s a short-sighted and dubious approach that’s likely to be challenged for its transparent defiance of state law.
But the measure also has a man-bites-dog element to it. As VoiceofOC reports, the initiative campaign as of January 7 “has been entirely financed by developer Ken Picerne, who donated $150,000 to help get the issue on the ballot.” Typically, developers want cities to approve more housing units, but in this case the developer wants it to approve fewer units. Picerne’s office did not return our call.
The publication hints at the answer, per comments Councilman Noah Blom made at a November council meeting: “Why is the person that has the most apartments under construction funding a voter initiative to stop anyone else from building anything?” The Newport Beach city manager’s office told us that the Picerne Group “has 1,460 units entitled in the city of Newport Beach. That doesn’t count any other partnership he has with any other developers.”
If a city approves fewer new units, then those who already have entitlements gain a competitive advantage. This reinforces the importance of creating by-right development approvals that make it easier for any developer to build housing based on market forces. Newport Beach’s NIMBY efforts probably won’t fare better than Huntington Beach’s, but at some point it might be simpler for cities to just build housing.