On behalf of the City of Huntington Beach, I want to congratulate the City of Redondo Beach for winning its court case against the State of California challenging the constitutionality of SB 9. Passed into law in 2021, SB 9 is a State-mandated lot-splitting scheme that seeks to densify our precious neighborhoods – sidestepping our regular single-family zoning which protects the health and safety of the communities we live in. I applaud Redondo Beach for having the courage to stand up to Sacramento’s overreach on housing. Redondo Beach is an example to other cities that the fight is worth having and we can win.

City Attorney Michael Gates also congratulated the City of Redondo Beach, “this is a great win for Charter Cities and local control. In the Court’s decision, it cited the very same authorities that the City of Huntington Beach is relying on in our legal challenges over the “home rule” doctrine with the State – Article XI, Section 5, of the California Constitution. The Court held today that ‘SB 9 is neither reasonably related to ensuring access to affordable housing nor narrowly tailored to avoid unnecessary interference in local governance. SB 9 is therefore unconstitutional as violative of the “home rule” doctrine.’ SB 9 is, therefore, invalid as unconstitutional.”