Due in 2021, Still Not Compliant: Compton's Second Notice of Violation

You're sizing up a housing project in a California city, and the local zoning doesn't pencil — the allowed density is too low, the height limit too tight, the general plan says no. Before you redesign around the barrier, there's a prior question worth asking: does the city actually have a compliant housing element? Because if it doesn't, the limit you're fighting may not be one the city can enforce the way it thinks.

Compton is the live example.

What the letter says

On May 28, 2026, HCD sent the City of Compton a Notice of Violation — its second. Compton's 6th cycle housing element was due October 15, 2021. As of the letter, HCD found, the city still had not adopted one in substantial compliance with Housing Element Law.

"HCD finds that the City has failed to adopt a substantially compliant housing element and is therefore in violation of state law."

That is HCD's finding — its interpretive position, not a court judgment. But it is the finding that sets everything else in motion.

Verified against HCD's Notice of Violation to the City of Compton (Housing Element Law), dated May 28, 2026.

Four years of slipping dates

The letter reads as a timeline of near-misses. HCD issued Compton a first Notice of Violation on September 29, 2022. The city then put its housing element on hold on January 11, 2023, HCD writes, "due to an administrative error regarding the City's budget." Drafts followed, and HCD returned three findings letters — in May 2024, September 2024, and March 2025 — each noting revisions still necessary.

By April 22, 2026, per the letter, Compton was "tentatively scheduling the Planning Commission hearing in early June 2026 and subsequent City Council Hearing in July 2026." The adoption dates, in other words, were still moving month to month.

Why a developer should care: the Builder's Remedy

Here's the thing: a missing housing element isn't only the city's problem. HCD spells out the consequences it says flow from noncompliance, and one of them is the one builders watch.

"under the Housing Accountability Act, jurisdictions that do not have a substantially compliant housing element are subject to the Builder's Remedy."

In broad strokes, the Builder's Remedy limits a noncompliant city's ability to deny a qualifying housing project on zoning or general-plan grounds. That is the throughline of this whole stream: a barrier you're hitting may be unenforceable.

HCD's letter stacks other consequences on top:

• Lost state money — ineligibility or delay for funds that require a compliant element, including the Permanent Local Housing Allocation and Infill Infrastructure Grant programs. (Compton was already awarded $310,000 through SB 2 and $297,000 through LEAP, HCD notes.)
• Attorney General referral, which HCD says it may make under Government Code section 65585.
• Court fines — HCD points to a statutory minimum of $10,000 per month, up to $100,000 per month for a jurisdiction that defies a court order to come into compliance, with multipliers and even a court-appointed receiver for persistent noncompliance.

How hard you can actually lean on this

None of it is self-executing. An HCD Notice of Violation is the department's position, not an adjudicated fact. Courts are the final arbiter of whether a city is out of compliance and whether the Builder's Remedy reaches a given project (see Martinez v. Clovis, 2023); only decertification of the housing element itself takes effect on its own. HCD gave Compton until June 26, 2026 to respond before it takes any of the actions the statute authorizes — including that referral to the Attorney General.

So treat the Builder's Remedy here as leverage and risk, not a settled green light. If you're a developer, a long-noncompliant city may open a door; if you're on the city side, it is the exposure the clock is running on. Either way, the answer is specific to your project, and a city's compliance status can flip the week you file.

Verify your target city's current status with the jurisdiction and your own counsel before you rely on any of it — this is reporting on an HCD letter, not legal advice.

What CrossBeam does with it

When the letter lands on your desk, CrossBeam turns it around the same day: what each item is actually asking, the code or law behind it, and a written response you can hand to your team or your attorney — the back-and-forth that used to eat weeks, done in a couple of hours.