Zoned Land Won't Be Sufficient for California Governor's Homebuilding Goals

California Governor Gavin Newsom wants to build 3.5 million new homes by 2025 to tackle the state's housing shortage. But a forthcoming report from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs says that only 2.8 million homes can be built on the available land zoned for housing, and the problems do not end there, reports Liam Dillon:

Because not all that land can be developed quickly for home construction, the state would probably have to double or triple the amount of land zoned for housing for the governor to reach his goal, said Paavo Monkkonen, an associate professor of urban planning and public policy at UCLA.

Newsom’s homebuilding plan also seeks to address climate change by building near transit and job centers to cut down on auto use. But land in San Bernardino, Madera, and Kern counties is in unincorporated areas, notes Dillion. "To meet goals for housing production, climate change and providing access to existing jobs, communities will have to dramatically reorient how they zone land for housing away from rural neighborhoods and toward urban centers, Monkkonen said."