DAVIS, Calif. — Two developments this past week reinforced a point the Vanguard has been making for years: California’s approach to housing has fundamentally changed. Communities that continue to view housing through the lens of local control alone risk overlooking a legal and political landscape that has shifted dramatically over the past decade.
The first development came from Sacramento, where Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta filed lawsuits against five California cities for failing to comply with state housing law. The second came just south of Davis, where the City of Dixon launched environmental review for a sweeping long-term planning effort that could ultimately accommodate more than 7,100 housing units.
California is no longer relying primarily on legislation to address the state’s housing shortage. It is increasingly enforcing those laws, while cities across the state are adjusting their planning to reflect a new legal reality.
Debates over housing often focus on one question: Has the state’s housing strategy worked?
Critics point to persistently high housing prices, continued affordability challenges and an ongoing shortage of homes as evidence that California’s RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) process, Housing Element requirements and broader housing reforms have failed.
California remains millions of homes short of projected demand, affordability remains out of reach for many families and communities continue to debate new development.
But the critique overlooks a broader transformation that is already underway.
Recent developments suggest the Governor and state are playing a long game
The Governor and state seek to change the legal, political and planning culture surrounding housing—to make planning for growth an expectation rather than an option and to replace decades of local obstruction with a statewide framework that requires every community to participate in addressing California’s housing shortage.
Recent events illustrate that indeed this transformation is already occurring.
The lawsuits announced last week are a clear shot across our bow.
Newsom and Bonta sued Calexico, Costa Mesa, Half Moon Bay, Ridgecrest and Turlock for failing to adopt legally compliant Housing Elements as required under California law.
The lawsuits seek declaratory relief, injunctive relief, statutory penalties and court orders requiring each city to bring its Housing Element into compliance.
The administration noted that litigation came only after years of unsuccessful efforts to obtain voluntary compliance.
According to the Governor’s Office, each jurisdiction received notices of violation, opportunities to respond and repeated meetings with the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Each remained out of compliance for at least two-and-a-half years after its statutory deadline.
The lawsuits were presented not as isolated actions but as part of a broader enforcement strategy.
“California can’t solve the housing crisis while some cities sit on their hands and dare us to do something about it,” Newsom said.
“These five jurisdictions had every chance to follow the law and plan for their fair share of housing. They chose not to, so now they’ll answer for it in court. Housing law applies statewide, and no city gets a pass.”
Furthermore, the administration did not limit its enforcement efforts to California’s largest metropolitan areas. It did not focus solely on the Bay Area or Southern California.
Among the cities sued were Ridgecrest and Turlock.
Neither is larger than Davis. Neither occupies a central role in California’s housing market.
The lawsuits suggest that population, geography and local political culture no longer determine whether a jurisdiction becomes the subject of state enforcement.
Attorney General Rob Bonta described the lawsuits as part of California’s broader effort to ensure every community contributes toward addressing the housing shortage.
“California’s housing crisis demands action, not excuses,” Bonta said.
“Jurisdictions that remain out of compliance with our Housing Element Law are standing in the way of the homes Californians need. While no local government has to solve this challenge alone, every local government has to do its fair share.”
Housing and Community Development Director Gustavo Velasquez echoed that message.
“The vast majority of California’s cities and counties have stepped up to achieve housing element compliance,” Velasquez said.
“For the small number that are still falling short, the actions we are taking today should send a clear message: no community is exempt from doing its part to solve our housing crisis.”
If the lawsuits represent the enforcement side of California’s evolving housing strategy, Dixon illustrates how those changes are already influencing local planning.
Last week, the Dixon Planning Commission began environmental review for a series of proposals that together would reshape the city’s long-term growth strategy.
The proposals include the Harvest Master Plan, Lombardo Ranch, the Southeast Annexation Area and amendments to Dixon’s General Plan.
Combined, they contemplate more than 7,100 housing units over the coming decades while expanding Dixon’s planning area by more than 2,000 acres.
The proposals remain in the early stages of environmental review, with additional public hearings and environmental analysis still required before Dixon officials determine whether any of the projects move forward.
Regardless of how many of the proposed homes are ultimately built, the larger significance is that Dixon is planning for growth at a scale that reflects California’s changing expectations for local governments.
As the Vanguard previously reported, the city’s planning effort reflects “the growing pressure California cities face to accommodate housing growth under increasingly stringent state housing laws.”
The article also noted that Dixon’s proposal “highlights the different paths local governments are taking to meet state housing requirements—and highlights the likelihood that Davis will eventually face similar decisions.”
During the past decade, California has fundamentally reshaped housing policy.
The Legislature has enacted dozens of laws strengthening Housing Element requirements, expanding the Housing Accountability Act, limiting local governments’ ability to reject compliant projects, streamlining approvals for qualifying developments and recognizing the Builder’s Remedy when jurisdictions fail to maintain compliant Housing Elements.
At the same time, the state has steadily expanded enforcement.
Rather than relying exclusively on legislation, California has increasingly used compliance reviews, notices of violation, Housing and Community Development oversight, Attorney General investigations and litigation.
According to the Governor’s Office, those efforts have produced measurable changes.
More than 95 percent of California jurisdictions have now achieved Housing Element compliance during the current planning cycle.
That figure alone neither solves California’s housing shortage nor guarantees that enough housing will ultimately be built, but it does suggest that local governments are responding to the state’s increasingly assertive approach.
In Davis, housing frequently center on Measure J, farmland preservation, infrastructure capacity, water supplies, traffic impacts and neighborhood character.
Those issues are likely to remain central to future development proposals.
Measure J continues to require voter approval for most peripheral residential development, giving Davis residents a level of direct control that relatively few California communities possess.
While that fundamentally is not changing at least at this point, Davis should remain mindful that we are not operating in a vacuum and these two trends may point the way toward what the state will do with respect to Davis and its inability to build sufficient housing under the Measure J regime.
Some assume that California will eventually abandon its housing agenda or cease enforcing state housing law appears increasingly inconsistent with recent events – indeed the trajectory points in the opposite direction.
As the Legislature continues to strengthen housing statutes, the Department of Housing and Community Development expands its compliance oversight, and the Attorney General increasingly turns to litigation, neighboring communities are adjusting their long-term planning to this new legal reality.
Let’s be clear: California’s housing crisis remains unresolved. At the same time, the state has changed the game and the next governor is more likely to double-down on this approach rather than reverse it.
While early polling suggests Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton remains a longshot to defeat Democratic nominee Xavier Becerra, his housing platform is, if anything, even more aggressive than Gov. Gavin Newsom’s, underscoring that the push for increased housing production has expanded beyond a single administration and is not limited to Democrats in Sacramento.
Housing affordability continues to challenge families throughout the state, and experts continue to debate whether current policies will produce enough homes to meet long-term demand.
Those debates will continue, but the events of the past week suggest another debate is becoming increasingly settled with questions no longer focusing on whether California intends to reshape the way cities approach housing planning.
The evidence suggests that transformation is already underway: one story demonstrated the state’s willingness to enforce compliance, while the other showed how local governments are responding.
Together, they illustrate that California’s housing landscape has entered a new phase—one in which the conversation is shifting from what the law requires to how communities choose to respond. That new reality will increasingly shape housing debates in communities across California, including Davis, regardless of the outcome of any individual project.
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