<
https://theconversation.com/how-small-wealthy-suburbs-contribute-to-regional-housing-problems-209020>
"The odd headlines about little towns in the San Francisco Bay Area just keep
coming.
First Woodside, a tiny suburb where several Silicon Valley CEOs have lived,
tried to declare itself a mountain lion habitat to evade a new California law
that enabled owners of single-family homes to subdivide their lots to create
additional housing.
Then wealthy Atherton, with a population of 7,000 and a median home sale price
of US$7.5 million, tried to update its state-mandated housing plan. Until very
recently, 100% of Atherton’s residentially zoned land allowed only
single-family houses on large lots. When the City Council considered rezoning a
handful of properties to allow townhouses, strenuous objections poured in from
such notable local residents as basketball star Steph Curry and billionaire
venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
A council member argued that the town should “express and explain the
specialness of Atherton … to succeed in reducing [the state’s] expectations of
us.”
On first glance, these might seem like extreme cases of privilege, oddities
from quirky California. But as our new book on the politics of housing shows,
the ability of small suburban municipalities to limit multifamily housing is
more the rule than the exception."
Via Kenny Chaffin.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
