Santa Cruz County’s “Retroactive Certification” Stunt is a Waste of Time and an Insult to Housing Law (opens in new tab)

In March, Santa Cruz County asked the California Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) to ignore California statute, case law, and go back in time two years to change its own decision on the off chance that it will kill two housing projects, one of which the Board already approved. This absurd dysfunction is everything wrong with Californian governance. Instead of building housing, something the County was already legally obligated to do and had agreed to do in its Housing Eleme...