"We'll Hear It Later" Can Be an Illegal Moratorium — Just Ask Simi Valley
A city that postpones housing hearings indefinitely isn't just slow. The state treats that as a prohibited moratorium.
Your project is on the agenda. Then it's continued. Then the city announces that all land-use hearings are postponed — with no new date. Your project isn't denied. It's just parked, indefinitely.
Here's the thing: an indefinite postponement isn't a scheduling quirk. The state treats it as a housing moratorium — and moratoria on housing are prohibited.
What happened in Simi Valley
In 2020, as a 278-unit project (84 of them affordable) worked through review, the City posted this on its own agenda:
"PUBLIC HEARINGS: ALL LAND-USE PUBLIC HEARINGS ARE POSTPONED DUE TO THE COUNTY STAY WELL AT HOME ORDER…"
HCD took the City's own words and answered them directly:
"Postponing land use hearings indefinitely is tantamount to a housing moratorium, which is expressly prohibited under the Housing Crisis Act."
Verified against HCD's Notice of Potential Violation to the City of Simi Valley (July 22, 2020), quoting the City's own June 2020 agenda and Gov. Code § 65905.5.
The second clock cities forget: five hearings
There's a hard backstop on this kind of slow-walk. The Housing Crisis Act caps how many hearings a housing project can be dragged through:
"…the Legislature adopted a maximum five-hearing limitation on housing development projects. (Gov. Code, § 65905.5, subd. (a).)"
Five hearings, then the city has to approve or deny — it can't keep continuing a project until the applicant gives up. Between the anti-moratorium rule and the five-hearing cap, "we'll get to it eventually" stops being a lawful answer.
Why it matters
The endless continuance is the quietest way a project dies — no denial you can appeal, just a calendar that never turns. Naming an indefinite postponement a moratorium, and pairing it with a hard hearing cap, takes that tactic off the table.
As always, this is HCD's enforcement position rather than settled law, and it isn't legal advice — check with your jurisdiction or counsel on your specific timeline. But the direction of the law is unambiguous: cities have to decide, not just delay.
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.