Lakewood officials supported HOUSING MANDATE proponent
Speaker Anthony Rendon got reelected in 2020 before passing more housing mandates.
By Brian Maquena
May 26, 2022
LAKEWOOD, CA — As residents panic on social media over a single developer replacing 11 homes with triplexes, they should know that two longtime City Councilmen helped make that possible.
Todd Rogers and Steve Croft—who have served on Council a combined 38 years—proudly endorsed Lakewood resident and state Speaker Anthony Rendon in his 2020 reelection campaign. Rendon went onto pass Senate Bill 9, commonly referred to as SB-9, which took away from cities their ability to zone for single-family residences.
Rendon has also endorsed Lakewood’s incumbents and recently took a campaign-styled photo with Rogers and a $2 million check.
California Senate leader Toni G. Atkins said in August 2021 that the SB-9 housing mandate was passed “in large part due to the partnership and leadership of Speaker Anthony Rendon.”
The Lakewood Populist earlier broke the news on Council announcing Tuesday that a single developer has purchased 11 single family homes with plans to turn them into triplexes. Rogers said the negative impacts, such as congested parking, were “going to be permanent.”
This begs the question: Why did Rogers and Croft back Rendon without receiving a promise from him to not pass additional housing mandates, which had been a years-long issue? Rendon in 2020, just like this year, was facing a more far-left candidate. He probably depended on Lakewood voters to keep him in office.
Rendon ALWAYS backed housing mandates - Lakewood leaders supported him anyways
Every eight years, the Southern California Association of Governments—a metropolitan planning organization commonly referred to as SCAG—updates the state mandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) for cities in the SCAG region. The RHNA assessment forces cities to provide zoning that would allow developers to build these housing units, wrote Abel Avalos, community development director for Lakewood.
The Lakewood Populist reported last year how the RHNA increase for Lakewood was put at 3,922 additional housing units. This was extraordinarily high considering that the former RHNA number for the previous eight-year cycle was only 403.
Lakewood and nearly 100 other Southern Californian cities fought the additional RHNA-forced housing units, filing an appeal and attending a hearing Feb. 16, 2021.
However, such cities faced opposition as Long Beach wrote a letter specifically opposing the transfer of any additional RHNA mandates to the large coastal urban city.
When asked how this increase in RHNA housing mandates came about, a representative of the city’s contractor responsible for drawing up Lakewood’s housing plan pointed to Senate Bill-828 (2018) and Senate Bill-6 (2019).
SB-828 changed the way housing needs were calculated and led to larger RHNA numbers for Lakewood, wrote Monika Troncoso, senior housing advisor for contractor Michael Baker International. SB-6 gave a state agency more authority over the housing plans of cities.
Both SB-828 and SB-6 were passed by Rendon in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Yet Rogers, Croft and DuBois endorsed him anyways in 2020.
Rendon continued his pro-housing congestion ways by passing SB-9 in 2021. It was this 2021 vote that led to the 33 new triplex units now being developed in Lakewood on 11 formerly single-family homes.
Blowback from supporting pro-housing congestion state speaker
Rogers is running against Michelle Hamlin for Council district 1, while Croft is running against Gregory Slaughter and Laura Sanchez Ramirez in Council district 2. Because of a lawsuit, both incumbents are no longer able to rely on what some saw as their citywide apparatus of supporters, thus giving opponents a better shot at an upset.
Disclaimer: The Lakewood Populist is endorsing Hamlin for district 1 and Slaughter for district 2.
Slaughter’s signs dominate the neighborhood directly behind the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station where “The Purge” in Lakewood crime occurred. He has also reported his signs being taken down and even put in illegal spots by others before being reported to the City Clerk’s office.
Slaughter and Croft are running competitively, campaign signage wise, west of the Lakewood Mall, while Croft’s signs dominate a small neighborhood northwest of the Lakewood Boulevard and South Street intersection.
Recent canvassing showed many Ramirez’s signs west of the Lakewood Mall, yet not much support was seen in other residential areas. (Our canvassing is incomplete, though.)
Slaughter has been critical of Croft’s leadership, particularly in regard to public safety, redistricting, elected officials’ salaries and retirements. Even Ramirez has questioned Croft’s leadership on redistricting.
Hamlin in Council district 1 faces a tough battle against Rogers, who was the Lakewood leader most prominently featured in Rendon’s 2020 campaign mailer. His campaign signs dominate the Lakewood Country Club neighborhood centered around the golf course.
The Hamlin campaign features significant signage just south of Candlewood Street and reports positive interactions with residents while campaigning. She has also taken to doing live Facebook videos on housing congestion issue as she continues to call out Rogers for not guarding Lakewood’s interests against the agendas of state and regional politicians.
“Any and all people who are making decisions and writing legislation...at odds with the safety and best interest of Lakewood citizens,” said Hamlin for a recent article, describing whom she would challenge publicly. “Everybody will be put on blast.”
Such an approach would be vastly different to that of Rogers, who endorses and takes campaign-styled photos with the very state leader making the 33 triplex units a reality in Lakewood.
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