Current policy evolution in Los Gatos, CA demonstrates the power that urban planners have to alter property rights. The Silicon Valley municipality is currently debating whether or not to upzone a parcel where a developer would like to build 550,000 square feet of office space, replacing 250,000 … [Read more...]
Affordable Housing for the Rich and the Failure of Zoning Bonuses
In the past I have not been kind to affordable housing programs. I have a lot of deeper problems with them that I'll get to in a minute, but I think the extraordinarily high upper income limits on some of the projects are indicative of the broader problem of the essentially arbitrary and random … [Read more...]
When “affordable housing” is just a random middle class housing subsidy
Affordable housing and inclusionary zoning are complicated subjects and it's hard to sum up all my thoughts and objections to the schemes in one post, so I'm going to take the death-by-a-thousand-cuts approach. Today's installment: income eligibility levels.Now, the stated intent of affordable … [Read more...]
A question for the blogosphere: How much affordable housing is enough?
Reading about a new ultra-luxury Far West Side rental project going up where over 40% of the apartments are going to have controlled rents ("affordable housing"), I'd like to pose a question to supporters of affordable housing mandates in the planning blogosphere (which includes pretty much the … [Read more...]
Obama administration pushing dissolution of Fannie and Fredie
Big news out of Washington: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – which many (including me) think were at the heart of the financial collapse, and currently have some stake in the vast majority of post-crash mortgages – may be getting wound down soon. This NYT is reporting that the Obama administration may … [Read more...]
Why I don’t like Inclusionary Zoning
Inclusionary zoning is a hot item among urban planners today, and is often seen as a solution to residential segregation and high housing costs. Exact implementations vary, but the general idea is that developers of multi-unit housing projects are encouraged to set aside a certain percentage of … [Read more...]
This is how gentrification happens: Northwest DC and the height restriction
Lydia DePillis wrote the Washington City Paper's cover story on the case for Congress overturning DC's height limit, which should be very familiar to readers of this blog. It's got some interesting history in it (DC's height limit was apparently influenced by George Washington's personal aesthetics, … [Read more...]
The economics of redevelopment and the shape of socialist cities
Earlier today I read an article by Daniel Garst about Bejing's awkward population distribution that reminded me of a journal article about the general shape of socialist cities that I read a while back. Garst talks about Beijing being a "circus tent" when it comes to density, with population … [Read more...]