Blog Posts

The practice of inviting the public to comment on proposed projects in long, often-contentious meetings is a hallmark of American urban planning practice in the post urban renewal age. However, recent research out of Boston suggests that the public that…

Image from Video: Cruel Musical Chairs (or Why Is Rent So High?), by Dan Bertolet, Copyright 2017 Sightline Institute; used with permission. Despite the expert consensus that building more homes reduces housing prices, a significant portion of the public remains…

For millions of Californians, the vision of owning their own home is at the heart of the California dream. The sense of stability that comes with owning your home, along with the ability to provide for your family while having…

In California, legislation to streamline housing production and to fund the construction of deed-restricted affordable housing often requires builders to pay “prevailing wages” to the construction workers who work on the resulting project. These requirements are based on the idea…

When did the YIMBY movement really begin? In The Uneven March of Progress: The Past, Present, and Future of Zoning Reform in the United States, Stephen Menendian draws historic parallels between the modern YIMBY movement, which arose during the aftermath…

AB 1893 makes the Builder’s Remedy a more effective tool for housing production by providing greater legal clarity and certainty for home builders who use it in localities that are out of compliance with state housing law. The bill moves…

In 2016 the California state legislature passed a series of bills that broadly legalized accessory dwelling units (ADUs), sometimes known as “granny flats” or “in-law units.” These “accessory” homes – so-called because they are legally a part of the existing…

Leaving aside the specific policy barriers to building—strict zoning, onerous permitting processes, environmental review laws that empower litigious neighbors, and so on— most jurisdictions and states across the United States struggle to build housing and infrastructure, and most policymakers fail…

In housing construction, new homes are said to “pencil out” – or be financially feasible – when the expected rental income or sales price is high enough to cover construction costs plus a reasonable return on investment. A project that…

How do urban housing shortages caused by tight zoning and other land use regulations increase the risk of climate disaster?  In Relational Geographies of Urban Unsustainability: The Entanglement of California’s Housing Crisis With WUI Growth and Climate Change, Miriam Greenberg,…