Affordable Housing in Orange County -- Apartments, Student Apartments, Senior Housing

Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) continues to put undue pressure by way of decree on cities to build affortable housing. Irvine is fighting back. SCAG is requiring 35,000 affordable housing units by 2014 in this city alone. A total of 82,000 affordable housing units (often apartments, senior housing, and student housing) are required by SCAG by this deadline for Orange County. Anaheim is required to build 9,498, Santa Ana 3,393 and Huntington Beach is mandated to provide 2,092 to its housing stock. Similiar decrees are being required of cities in the counties of Riverside County, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The state appeals court recently refused to throw out the mandate for the City of Irvine to comply. Several OC cities are backing Irvine's stance. My questions are many: "Is government bullying cities?"  "Should Irvine refuse to comply?" "What's next?" Affordable housing is important and should be encourged by economic incentives, but mandates and decrees seem dictatorial. Let me know what you think. Michael Duhs, an apartment and senior housing broker in southern California, at http://www.EastWestCommercial.com/