Newport Beach's NIMBYs Are Trying To Rewrite the Law to Block New Houses
/An idea so bad it’s self-defeating
Newport Beach is one of the richest cities in California. If you lived there, you'd assume you wouldn't have any reason to throw a tantrum. But then again, for some NIMBYs, there's no excuse too small to try to block housing. Newport Beach is one of a growing number of cities placing itself in legal jeopardy through exclusionary local decisions. An initiative slated for the November 2026 ballot would toss out a zoning plan that tooks years for the city’s staff to write and is already approved by the state for one cobbled together by local NIMBYs that would allow a fraction of the housing the city needs to be built.
U.S. News and World Report lists Newport Beach, a coastal city in southern California, as the most expensive place to live in the entire country. Thanks in part to being infected with dozens of homeowner associations, median home prices are over $2.4 million. According to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the city is falling far behind its legally required production. But, as vigilant as they are exclusionary, some local residents, funded by one of the area’s wealthiest developers, are out to trash the city’s new Housing Element.
The initiative seeks to preserve Newport Beach as an inaccessible city to all but the wealthiest people, but its practical effect would be to push the city out of compliance with state law, exposing it to Builder’s Remedy projects that could bypass local zoning and development standards.
Caption: Official data from HCD shows Newport Beach far off target from its housing goals
In an attempt at morbid humor, local NIMBYs have named their exclusionary proposal the Responsible Housing Initiative. However they want to describe it, the impacts would be immediate, ongoing, and disastrous. Within ten days of passage, it would:
Reduce the total new housing units accommodated from 8,174 housing units to 2,900.
Limit those 2,900 units to extremely-low, very low-, low-, and moderate-income households (effectively establishing a 100 percent inclusionary policy where no market rate units would be allowed).
Limit the number of new units allowed under the new policy by area. Once the designated caps are reached in a particular area, no further housing development would be allowed in that area.
None of this idea is good, and none of it is cheap. The City Council estimated that it will cost up to $143,606 just to put it on the ballot. That total doesn’t include the inevitable legal challenges that this measure will face, the many procedural steps it will take to finalize the zoning changes, or the work that the staff would have to do to accommodate a decertified Housing Element.
That’s because California’s Department of Housing and Community Development has already weighed in, approving the existing plan. But if this initiative were to pass, Newport Beach would immediately fall out of compliance with Housing Element law until the city secures a new HCD certification. During the intervening months or years, the entire city would be subject to the Builder’s Remedy. Under the Builder’s Remedy, qualifying housing projects can bypass local zoning and development standards. As long as a project includes at least 20 percent affordable units and meets narrow statutory requirements, it can proceed at any height and density and may be denied only for objective, pre-existing health and safety reasons.
So, in an effort to keep people out of Newport Beach, its wealthiest residents may instead open the door to a massive, effectively unlimited, expansion of new housing. What are we at YIMBY Law going to do about it? Nothing. If NIMBY incompetence opens the way for new housing, we’re happy to sit back and laugh. If this initiative succeeds, Newport Beach could see residential towers constructed all around the city, with no opportunity for input by locals.
Unfortunately, these initiatives are not so funny for all cities. Ongoing exclusionary initiatives in Menlo Park, California and cities across Colorado are threatening affordable development, violating state laws, and causing chaos for local planning staff. Our message is simple: we're going to keep up the pressure on NIMBYs and work with local organizers on real solutions. States are finally taking the housing crisis seriously, and that means our work is to make sure wealthy homeowners don't get to stop it by throwing tantrums.