The following is what I would say to the Planning, Land Use, and Zoning (PLUZ) Committee before it meets on Tuesday, August 2, with my two minutes if I am able to get them. Being able to give public comment these days is always hit or miss. I limited myself to 300 words. This is my summation on why I think Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning is the wrong thing at the wrong time for our city. If you agree, feel free to use this to shape your own statement to the PLUZ Committee. Rob.Johnson@Seattle.gov, Lorena.Gonzalez@Seattle.gov, Lisa.Herbold@Seattle.gov

Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning (MIZ) is a mistake of generational proportions. It seems MIZ would bridge the differences between those who know that more new housing will ameliorate higher prices with those who say that more housing will make prices higher. However, that is a bridge too far.

When housing is scarce the asking price for it goes up until demand for it drops, usually during a recession. It’s called supply and demand and it isn’t a point of view, it’s the way the world works; trying to compromise with it is like trying to compromise with gravitational pull. It’s impossible.

However, the market will never produce enough housing to make it free. There will always be households that struggle to pay for housing because they don’t have enough money. Some households need help to offset housing costs. The best way to generate that subsidy is through a broad tax that redistributes wealth from those who have to those that have not, discourages inefficient use of land, and generates enough money for those who need it the most.

Instead, MIZ will force housing production and tax all new housing to build a very small number of expensive subsidized units. Putting a MIZ mechanism in the code ensures higher prices by reducing the incentive to produce more housing (lowering supply), adding costs to new housing, costs paid by higher rents in market rate units. Once enshrined in the code MIZ would become an entitlement program and self-perpetuating justification for non-profit housing developers: prices will go up and so will demand to increase the exaction of fees to pay for housing to offset the higher prices created by MIZ.

Future generations will ask why is this in the code? The answer? “To create affordability.” It will have done the opposite.