Re:The stuff we need is getting more expensive, other stuff ...
by stale2002 on Friday August 19, 2016 @07:45PM
(#12324286)
The regulations that are overwhelming and unnecessary exist mostly in San Francisco (the biggest audience of HN).
In SF, zoning limits prevent you from building too high, and you have things like abandoned warehouses sitting unused because they are zoned for "light industrial" instead of residential.
And even IF your awesome new project to increase the housing supply follows all the zoning rules, it is likely to be blocked anyway. This is because the not in my back yard community will retroactively change the zoning laws to prevent the construction of new buildings.
And I'm not talking about governments preventing shitty buildings from being created. I'm talking about developers who want to build extremely high quality luxury apartments, while offering the community 30 percent of the units as rent controlled apartments and still getting blocked, because apparently some people prefer 100 percent rent controlled of a 5 story building instead of 30 percent of a 50 story building.
In SF, zoning limits prevent you from building too high, and you have things like abandoned warehouses sitting unused because they are zoned for "light industrial" instead of residential.
And even IF your awesome new project to increase the housing supply follows all the zoning rules, it is likely to be blocked anyway. This is because the not in my back yard community will retroactively change the zoning laws to prevent the construction of new buildings.
And I'm not talking about governments preventing shitty buildings from being created. I'm talking about developers who want to build extremely high quality luxury apartments, while offering the community 30 percent of the units as rent controlled apartments and still getting blocked, because apparently some people prefer 100 percent rent controlled of a 5 story building instead of 30 percent of a 50 story building.