Despite recommendations from planning staff, the Beverly Hills City Council will contest a mandate that it must build 3,096 new units by 2029 as part of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment. The state of California requires every city to have a housing element in its general plan in an effort to meet the regional needs of the community.

At Tuesday’s study session, both Assistant Director of Community Development Ryan Gohlich and John Douglas, planning principal with JHD, the planning consulting services firm hired by the city for its expertise in housing-related matters, told council members that contesting the allocation would not be in the city’s best interest.

“We’ve looked at the options for appeal and based on a number of factors, we are not recommending appeal at this time,” Gohlich said.

Even if the city were to be successful in its appeal, Douglas noted that there would not be a “meaningful” reduction and certainly no more than 20% fewer units.

Based on the official draft RHNA requirement, which Beverly Hills received on Sept. 11, the total number of units to be built must be broken up by the following income categories: 1,005 very low-income units, 678 low-income units, 601 moderate-income units and 812 above-moderate units.

While the Department of Housing and Community Development determined the overall number and type of housing units that must be built for this cycle, the city’s requirement was specifically determined by the Southern California Association of Governments, the local regional planning agency for Beverly Hills, which allocated the region’s mandate to build over 1.3 million new units. Los Angeles county is tasked with building more than 813,000 of those new units.

In furtherance of filing an appeal of the final draft RHNA requirement, after hearing that there was consensus among his colleagues to fight the allocation, Mayor Lester Friedman assigned Vice Mayor Bob Wunderlich and Councilman John Mirisch to the ad hoc committee that will work to craft the appeal letter, which is due on Oct. 26.

In the previous RHNA cycle from 2014 to 2021, Beverly Hills was required to build a total of three units. According to Gohlich, the city built a total number of new units “in the low double digits” during the entirety of that eight-year period.

Councilman Julian Gold characterized this cycle’s dramatic allocation increase for Beverly Hills as a “bait and switch.”

“So now we’re trying to catch up for decades worth of their underestimation of what the actual number ought to be and they’re putting it on us to kind of make the difference up in this next cycle. … It should be appealable. It just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The methodology of this is just wrong. It’s like saying, ‘we’re going to charge you interest on your house and oh by the way, we’re going to actually double the value of what we think your house is so you can pay us twice as much.’”

Councilwoman Lili Bosse said she felt “very strongly” that the city should appeal the housing requirement.

“When you look at the last time, we were designated only three, and now they’re asking us eight years later to do 3,096 … even when you spread it out and say, three is not a lot and 3,000 is too much and cut it down the middle and say 1,500 for eight years … [Gohlich] had said to me that is also too high and didn’t represent the right number for our city,” she said.

While Gohlich said he did not believe that any of the cities planning to appeal this cycle’s requirement would be successful, he said given that Beverly Hills already had “a target on its back from the public perception” and if anything, appealing would be detrimental to the city. West Hollywood, which is appealing its requirement, built thousands of additional units in the previous RHNA cycle which were not mandated at the time.

In moving forward to update its housing element, like all cities, Beverly Hills must demonstrate how the city plans to accommodate the number of units assigned through the RHNA process. Ultimately, the state will need to certify the plan.

Douglas said that the “goodwill” engendered by not appealing the decision, while subjective and not quantifiable, would prove particularly helpful for Beverly Hills when the state reviews the city’s housing element.

“It’s a negotiation and goodwill is helpful in getting approval for the plan,” he said. “I think whatever the city can do to maintain its appearance of being a team player … is going to help the housing certification process.”

“What’s important is both the appearance and the substance in being a good team player in the fight for housing,” he added.

A RHNA reduction for any jurisdiction must be offset by increases in other jurisdictions.

In order to appeal an allocation under state law, there are three arguments that can be made: the methodology used to make the determination was flawed, SCAG failed to consider specific information submitted by a local jurisdiction related to affirmatively furthering fair housing, or there has been a significant and unforeseen circumstance for the city. Based on prior court decisions, the final RHNA allocation by SCAG cannot be challenged in court, according to Gohlich.

“It is important to note that the RHNA is a planning requirement, not a development mandate, and at this time the legal consequences for not actually achieving housing production commensurate with the RHNA allocation are limited to a requirement for ‘streamlined’ development review for some types of projects,” stated the Oct. 13 staff report, which was authored by Gohlich. “Certification of the housing element allows a city to receive certain funds, update the housing element less frequently and retain local control over housing project decisions.”

While jurisdictions are not required to actually build housing or issue permits to achieve their RHNA allocations, according to Gohlich, cities that don’t meet their RHNA allocations will be required to approve certain housing development projects.

“It’s obvious that the RHNA numbers are not realistic,” Douglas said. “But if I were to channel my inner governor, I would say that the purpose of the RHNA number is to remove any constraint that’s in your housing development.”

Mirisch strongly advocated that the city appeal its allocation number.

“RHNA was originally a planning tool which has since become weaponized,” he said. “We’re being held accountable for something we don’t have control over.”

After the appeals are considered, SCAG is expected to adopt the final RHNA plan in February 2021.