CA congressman: Defense Department should explain why it urged Katie Hobbs to veto an affordable housing bill

A California congressman wants to know why the U.S. Department of Defense lobbied Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs to veto a bill aimed at spurring “starter home” construction. 

“To me, this DOD kind of effort goes against (Biden’s) broader plan for the country,” Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia told the Arizona Mirror, citing efforts by the president to build more affordable housing. “It certainly raises a lot of questions for me as a former mayor who tried to build more housing development.” 

Garcia is a member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

The vetoed legislation would have overruled local zoning decisions for many Arizona municipalities by barring cities and towns with more than 70,000 residents from regulating the size of lots for single-family homes. It also sought to bar cities and towns from forcing a homeowner into an HOA interfering with the “right to choose the features, amenities, structure, floor plan and interior and exterior design of a home.”

Proponents of the measure said that it would have helped address the skyrocketing prices of homes in the state and also help address the state’s growing affordable housing crisis. But critics, including more than 30 municipalities and the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, said the bill takes away fundamental rights of cities to control development. 

In her veto letter, Hobbs cited a letter from the DOD in which it said the U.S. military was concerned about how the measure could lead to developments creeping into areas around military installations and could create a risk of accidents in communities.  

Garcia wrote a letter to the DOD, obtained exclusively by the Mirror, asking military leaders a series of questions about their stance on the measure that received bipartisan support. 

“Congress fully shares the Department’s interest in ensuring the safety of communities adjacent to military facilities and to support the long-term mission sustainability and economic health of military facilities. Further, we recognize the challenges which encroachment by development can pose to training and testing,” Garcia wrote. “However, Congress has a responsibility to conduct oversight of any federal agency which weighs in on matters of housing affordability.”

Garcia wants the DOD to respond to six questions by May 31 regarding the agency’s opposition to the bill. Specifically, he wants to know what criteria the DOD used to determine which developments are harmful, what documents or analysis the DOD relied on to decide to oppose the bill, what outreach the DOD did in Arizona and when the bill came to its attention. 

“If the DOD is going to weigh in on Arizona, they have interests in every single state,” Garcia said, adding that the questions impact not just Arizona. 

“I think in order to understand what the DOD’s kind of approach of injecting themselves into this conversation is important,” Garcia said. “If the DOD is engaging in conversations around density and housing we need to know why.”