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RESOLUTION NO. 1274
RESOLUTION URGING THE STATE LEGISLATURE TO TERMINATE
THE EXISTENCE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
RESOLVED, by the City Council
of the City of the Town of
Los Altos Hills , County of Santa Clara, State of California, that
WHEREAS , in 1977 the State Legislature continued the Depart-
ment of Housing and Community Development in existence in the
Business and Transportation Agency, and
WHEREAS, the Department of Housing and Community Development
is authorized to prepare a statewide housing plan, to provide
advice , technical information and consultive and technical ser-
vices , and to adopt guidelines for the preparation of Housing
Elements as part of the General Plan of each city and county, and
WHEREAS, notwithstanding that each city has exclusive control
and jurisdiction over the planning and land use matters within its
respective boundaries , and notwithstanding that the Housing Element
required to be - included within the General Plan for a city is only
required by State law to consist of standards and plans for the
improvement of housing and for provision of adequate housing sites ,
and adequate provision for the housing needs of all economic seg-
ments of the community, the Department of Housing and Community
Development has within recent years taken the position that the
guidelines which it is authorized to adopt are mandatory and not
discretionary, and
WHEREAS , the recently adopted position concerning the nature
of the Housing Element guidelines was adopted by the Director of
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the Department of Housing and Community Development without
concurrence by either the State Legislature or the Appellate
Courts of California, and
WHEREAS, there is now pending before the District Court
of Appeal the case entitled "Bownds vs . City of Glendale" , in
which at issue directly is whether the State Housing guidelines
are mandatory or advisory, the Los Angeles County Superior
Court having found the guidelines to be advisory only, and
WHEREAS, the City of the Town of Los Altos Hills together
with other cities has joined in this lawsuit as amicus curiae , and
WHEREAS, the arbitrary actions taken by the Director of the
Department of Housing and Community Development , if unchallenged,
will have the following inevitable results :
1 . The home rule rights of cities to control their own
planning and land use development matters will be des -
troyed, thereby further eroding the constitutional home
rule rights of California cities .
2 . The administrative bureaucracy within the Department
of Housing and Community Development will increase and
be increasingly burdensome upon residents and taxpayers
of this City and all other cities within California, and
will contribute to the inflationary spiral which threatens
to destroy our system of government while doing nothing
to solve the housing problem within California, and
WHEREAS, in the opinion of this City Council the State of
California should be reducing its expenditures and cutting back
its administrative structure in order to help the fight upon
inflation,
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410
NOW, THEREFORE , IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, FOUND AND DETERMINED,
as follows :
1 . The City Council of the City of the Town of Los Altos
Hills does hereby go on record as encouraging and urging the
State Legislature to consider and adopt legislation which would
dissolve the Department of Housing and Community Development
forthwith .
2 . The City Councils of all of the cities of California
are hereby petitioned to join in urging the State Legislature
to take this remedial action.
3. The City Clerk shall forthwith transmit certified
copies of the within Resolution to the members of the Santa
Clara County delegation of the State Legislature , namely,
Alfred Aiquist , 11th Senatorial District ; Victor Calvo , 21st
Senatorial District; Alister McAlister , 25th Assembly District ;
Leona H. Egeland, 24th Assembly District ; Richard Hayden, 22nd
Assembly District ; and, John Vasconcellos , 23rd Assembly District .
REGULARLY passed and adopted this 2nd day of April , 1980 .
By
May ia41
ATTEST:
City C -erk _
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