Re:SF YIMBY Platform
by twblalock on Thursday August 18, 2016 @12:45AM
(#12310466)
If as-of-right passes, and NIMBYs shift to downzoning, we can pass another law to deal with that. After all, if as-of-right passes, the legislators who voted for it would probably also be willing to vote for restrictions on downzoning -- especially when downzoning is done in direct opposition to the intent of the as-of-right law they just passed.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
There already is a law[1] that prevents downzoning: the Housing Element law. Every 7 years, local governments are required to create a document (the Housing Element) that demonstrates that they have zoned enough housing for their share of the estimated regional population growth (Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA)). But almost every locality (especially San Francisco) routinely falls short of the allocated housing production[2]. The housing by-right bill is the Governor’s attempt to fix the perceived flaw with the Housing Element law that localities promise that they will allow a certain number of housing units but break their word by rejecting the actual projects during discretionary review.
[1] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.x....
[2] http://www.abag.ca.gov/planning/housing/datasets.html#report...