Simon Ha

California is suffering from a housing shortage. While the problem is complicated, Simon Ha of Steinberg Hart says that a provision in the general plan should require cities to meet housing needs. General plans throughout California are routinely updated, and cities are required to meet the needs for housing based on current and projected population.

“The general plan's housing element gets updated every eight years,” Ha, the head of Steinberg Hart's mixed-use practice, tells GlobeSt.com. “The state sends regional housing assessment numbers to each county or city, and the city then has to try to meet the housing goals. There is a component of the general plan where the general plan has to meet the housing needs of the projected population growth.”

For example, according to Ha, Los Angeles' general plan was last updated in 2013, and estimated a need for 82,000 new apartment units, half of which were affordable housing. While that should be good news, there is no penalty for cities that don't comply, and with building tension between residents and developers, cities have instead opted to limit new construction. “The general plan is saying that we need a certain amount of housing, but if you don't meet it, there really isn't a penalty,” says Ha. “At the local level, we have seen pro-housing people getting voted out, and now the state is coming in and saying that local governments aren't solving the problem. That is what the state is trying to set up. Now, you see Gavin Newsom suing cities like Huntington Beach for failing to produce housing.”