Traffic impact analyses are an important feature of US land-use regulation. In theory, they estimate how much car and truck traffic might be generated by new homes or businesses, allowing regulators to charge developers the fees and other concessions necessary…
How NIMBYs Hijacked CEQA
The SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles is a testament to the ability of elected officials to streamline new developments to accelerate construction and save money. The stadium famously qualified for streamlining under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA –…
Is SB 9 Working? Here’s What Early Data Reveals
In 2021, the passage of SB 9 in California made history by ending single-unit zoning, and making it legal to build up to four homes on properties that had previously only permitted one. The bill made headlines, as single-unit zoning…
California YIMBY Joins Labor, Affordable Housing Leaders on SB 423
Expansion of SB 35 to Cover Mixed-Income Housing – Powerful Law Built 1,000’s of Homes “Good housing policy leads to affordable homes and good jobs” SACRAMENTO – Today, California YIMBY joined with the California Housing Consortium, the California Conference of…
(Re)-legalize corner stores? Ja, natürlich
American zoning is predicated on the idea that residential, commercial, and industrial uses should all be strictly segregated—indeed, to an unusual degree by international standards. Research by Hirt (2010) compares American zoning to German zoning to reveal how much more…
The Single Stairway to Heaven
While the broader housing shortage is driving up housing costs for a huge share of the population, many cities face an acute shortage of family-sized units in particular. In a new blog post, Andrew Justus of the Niskanen Center argues…
It Actually Takes More than an (Urban) Village
To stimulate housing production, many California cities have experimented with loosening their restrictive land-use regulations. Yet not all of these reforms have been equally successful in producing housing. Indeed, Gabbe et al. (2021) find evidence that San Jose’s “urban villages”…
Location: Still the Critical Factor in Affordable Housing
It’s not enough to merely build subsidized affordable housing — housing location matters at least as much as availability; in addition to secure, affordable shelter, humans need access to quality transit, walkable neighborhoods, minimal exposure to health and environmental risks,…
Los Angeles Leads the Way on AB 2097 Implementation
By M. Nolan Gray Over the holiday break, while many of us were nestled up by the fire reading The High Cost of Free Parking, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning (DCP) circulated an interdepartmental memo explaining how certain…
Ending Criminalization of Homelessness
By Ned Resnikoff In the Tuesday press conference where Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposal for the 2023-24 state budget, he touched on a key theme addressed in California YIMBY’s report on California’s homelessness crisis (of which I am the…