Published: 2019 | Emily Hamilton | Mercatus Institute Abstract Inclusionary zoning is popular among policymakers for two reasons. First, it appears “free.” It produces affordable housing units without an outlay of tax dollars. Second, it allows policymakers to appear as…
California Zoning: Housing Construction and a New Ranking of Local Land Use Regulation
Published: 2019 | Salim Furth and Olivia Gonzalez | Mercatus Center Abstract New survey data on residential land use regulation in California have allowed us to create the Mercatus-Augmented Terner California Housing Regulation (MATCHR) Index, which characterizes formal restrictions on…
Auctioning the Upzone: A New Strategy to Induce Local Government Compliance with State Housing Policies
Published: 2018 | Chris Elmendorf Abstract States should confer on local governments the right to auction development rights created by upzoning pursuant to state policy. This is akin to a state subsidy, but it would come at no cost to…
Local Housing Politicies Across California
Published: 2018 | Sarah Mawhorter and Carolina Reid | Terner Center for Housing Innovation Abstract In order to better understand how local policies affect housing supply, the Terner Center conducted a residential land use survey in California from August 2017…
How Much Added Housing is Really Needed in California?
Published: 2018 | Dowell Myers, JungHo Park, and Janet Li | USC Sol Price School of Public Policy Abstract Realistically, how much housing do we actually need and how do we know that? In the past, USC planning scholars have…
Growth Amid Dysfunction: An Analysis of Trends in Housing, Migration, and Employment
Published: 2018 | F. Noel Perry, Colleen Kredell, Marcia E. Perry, Stephanie Leonard Abstract Wages have increased and employment opportunities – especially in the Bay Area’s booming tech sector – are attracting migrants from other states and countries. But a…
Examining the Local Land Use Entitlement Process in California to Inform Policy and Process
Published: 2018 | Moira O’Neill, Giulia Gualco-Nelson, Eric Biber Abstract As California’s housing affordability crisis persists, an important question raised is: What laws or regulations might impede housing construction in high-cost areas? To help answer this question, we focused on…
Carbon Footprint Planning: Quantifying Local and State Mitigation Opportunities for 700 California Cities
Published: 2018 | Christopher M. Jones, Stephen M. Wheeler, and Daniel M. Kammen | Cogitatio Urban Planning Abstract Consumption-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories have emerged to describe full life cycle contributions of households to climate change at country, state…
Beyond the Double Veto: Land Use Plans as Preemptive Intergovernmental Contracts
Published: 2018 | Christopher S. Elmendorf | UC Davis Legal Studies Research Paper Series Abstract The problem of local-government barriers to housing supply is finally enjoying its moment in the sun. For decades, the states did little to remedy this…
California’s Housing Future: Challenges and Opportunities
Published: 2017 | Ben Metcalf et al. | California HCD Abstract But while California’s housing challenges may appear to be overwhelming, California’s Housing Future: Challenges and Opportunities provides the data and analysis to describe the problem and frame the discussion…