Low-Rise Legislation: Still Taking Away Supply, Choice, and Opportunity
This afternoon the Planning Land Use and Sustainability (PLUS) Committee of the Seattle City Council will consider legislation to make changes to Seattle’s low-rise zones. This is legislation that we have been fighting against for well over a year with some benefit. The legislation that is being proposed is nowhere near as bad as what […]
Making S**t Up: The Problem With Zoning Regulations
I am deeply skeptical of efforts to regulate outcomes in the market place using the land use code, zoning, and housing policy. What do I mean? Well an article by John McNellis at the Bay Area real estate blog, The Registry called Big City Dreaming points out one example: mandated commercial space. Many jurisdictions, including […]
Affholter: Successful Density Opponents Mean Higher Housing Prices, Sprawl
Shannon Affholter, the Executive Director of the Master Builders Association had an important opinion piece in the print edition of the Seattle Times. In it, he makes the point that we’ve all been making over and over again: when anti-growth and opponents of growth succeed in slowing down housing supply, prices go up. Having Affholter’s […]
