The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday against Huntington Beach in its ongoing fight against state housing mandates. Huntington Beach’s conservative City Council majority voted to sue the state in March 2023 over its state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation requirement to zone for 13,368 new units in the current cycle, including a percentage of low-income housing. Huntington Beach City Atty. Michael Gates said at the time that state mandates could not have preemptive power over Surf City’s authority as a charter city.