Sacramento-area city violating state housing law, officials say. Fines, lawsuits may follow

The city of Davis is violating state housing law by failing to adopt an acceptable plan for how it intends to encourage enough housing development this decade to meet demand, state housing officials said.

Davis is more than two years overdue in adopting what is referred to as a “housing element” that complies with state policies, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) contends in correspondence with city officials.

In an Aug. 31 letter to Davis City Manager Michael Webb, the state housing agency said the city is at risk of facing legal action and fines from the state Attorney General and could miss out on key state funding if it does not approve an acceptable housing element. Davis is violating the State Housing Element Law despite receiving $610,000 in state funding intended to “assist local jurisdictions in creating comprehensive housing elements,” HCD officials wrote.

For their part, Davis officials countered in a Sept. 1 letter to the state that they have “been working diligently and in good faith to prepare further revisions to the housing element to address” HCD’s concerns and plan to bring an updated plan to the City Council by the end of the year.

“The City is collaborating with HCD, and City staff met with the agency (last) week to get further direction on revisions to the Housing Element,” Sherri Metzker, the city of Davis’s community development director wrote in an email to The Sacramento Bee. “Once completed, the new version of the Housing Element will then go through the public hearing process.”

A regional housing needs assessment approved by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments in 2020 showed Davis needs to zone enough land to accommodate 2,075 new units of housing this decade, including 930 units for very low- and low-income earners.

Davis has not planned for enough housing to meet that need, especially after more than 260 units of housing were removed from a project called University Commons, state housing officials wrote in an April letter to Webb.

City officials have begun analyzing land that can be zoned to accommodate its housing shortfall and has hundreds of units under construction or waiting for city approval, Metzker wrote in the Sept. 1 letter to HCD officials.

Davis is one of 61 local jurisdictions in California whose housing element is considered out of compliance by the state. Two other cities in the six-county Sacramento region – Wheatland and Live Oak – are also on that list, according to a state dashboard.

The state threatened to sue San Bernardino over that city’s inadequate housing element before reaching a settlement in August that will require the city to plan for more housing.

“California has put in place strong laws to ensure we meet the housing needs of residents at all income levels, but those efforts cannot succeed without the partnership of committed cities and counties,” Melinda Coy, proactive housing accountability chief at HCD wrote in an email to The Bee. “We will always work with communities to help bring their housing plans into compliance, but eventually stricter enforcement measures must come into play.”

The lack of a state-approved housing element has already exposed Davis to litigation. Without an approved plan, the city is under what is called a “builder’s remedy,” essentially prohibiting it from denying development proposals that include affordable housing.

Last week, developer David Taormino sued the city of Davis for not approving his proposed 163-unit Palomino Place development. The developer said that 20% of the units in the planned development will be set aside for low-income households.

“I really wish it would not have come to this,” Taormina said in a news release. “My only desire has been to build housing for people working in Davis and for young families in order to put kids back into our schools.”

Davis officials said in a written statement to The Bee that they had deemed Taormino’s application for a subdivision map “incomplete” last month. What’s more, officials said the city “has not taken any formal action to deny the project, nor has the City refused to process Mr. Taormino’s application; on the contrary, the City has informed Mr. Taormino of the next steps required in order to complete his subdivision map application.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2023 at 5:00 AM.