Denny Zane reminds policymakers that local, community-focused decision making truly trumps the 'top-down, one-size-fits-all' legislative approach to housing.
In the last decade, the tech boom and resulting influx of high-income households to Southern California—Los Angeles County in particular—has only exacerbated the region’s worsening income inequality and need for affordable housing. TPR asked Denny Zane, executive director of Move LA and former mayor of Santa Monica, to address the merits of YIMBY, supply-side answers to the state’s housing crisis; state usurpation of local control over zoning and planning; and the political downsides of state legislation linking transit infrastructure to upzoning R1 neighborhoods.
Zane further reminds policymakers that local, community-focused decision making truly trumps the top-down, one-size-fits-all approach of bills like SB 50, which dominated debate this legislative session. He comments:
"If the state wants to solve the real problem that we have, it would be making sure that cities had sufficient resources and motivation to build affordable housing and not force them to build higher density market-rate housing on an imagined principle that if you increase the supply of market rate-housing that somehow affordable housing shows up somewhere."
Read the full interview at The Planning Report.
FULL STORY: Denny Zane on the Tech Industry's Misplaced Support for State-Mandated Upzoning
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.