LandWatch drops its lawsuit against Del Rey Oaks over city’s housing plan.

Last fall, the city of Del Rey Oaks stretched to meet a year-end deadline for approving a state-mandated analysis of future housing needs, known as a housing element. It’s not a project in itself, but a roadmap for where future housing, including affordable units, could be built. The DRO City Council approved the element – the city’s first in two decades – on Dec. 17, only to find itself the target of a lawsuit by sustainable land use advocacy nonprofit LandWatch Monterey County on Dec. 31.

The good news for Del Rey Oaks is that the lawsuit was dropped as of June 10. The bad news is that the state Department of Housing and Community Development rejected DRO’s element in a letter on March 16, stating that because the plan was found to be deficient the city missed the deadline and has to start over. LandWatch Executive Director Michael DeLapa says his group dropped their lawsuit because the state’s decision made their case unnecessary.

DRO City Manager Dino Pick contends that LandWatch was attempting to block the city from ever including affordable housing on about 300 acres of former Fort Ord land, off South Boundary Road. The city was prepared to fight the lawsuit in court. Pick says the two sides reached an agreement with LandWatch withdrawing the suit in exchange for the city not seeking attorney’s fees and expenses, which he estimates were roughly $20,000.

“We were very dismayed that LandWatch chose to be a bully rather than a partner in this very important area,” Pick says. “We’re pleased with the outcome, but we ended up right where we started. From our perspective, it was a frivolous suit.”

One of the key points of LandWatch’s lawsuit was that the city’s Fort Ord land lacked a sustainable water source. The city made the case in the housing element that future water would become available, but the Department of Housing and Community Development rejected that claim, saying the city’s argument lacked sufficient analysis “to establish water availability during the planning period.”