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
Lack of Multi-Family Zones Contributes to Nashville’s High Housing Costs, Study Says
Nashville and surrounding communities allow for a relatively small amount of multi-family housing, according to a new zoning atlas of Middle Tennessee. A regionally focused nonprofit is using the atlas to push for zoning reforms.
Is Anti-Growth the Wrong Approach to Fighting Gentrification?
Limiting development has been a powerful tool for anti-gentrification activists, but have these policies had counter-productive effects?
New Market-Rate Housing Lowers Rents for Everyone, According to New Research
A study published by a German researcher adds ammunition to the cause of improving housing affordability by legalizing and building new supply.
Pennsylvania Mall Conversion Bill Passes House
If passed, the bill would promote the adaptive reuse of defunct commercial buildings.
Planning for Accessibility: Proximity is More Important than Mobility
Accessibility-based planning minimizes the distance that people must travel to reach desired services and activities. Measured this way, increased density can provide more total benefits than increased speeds.
World's Largest Wildlife Overpass In the Works in Los Angeles County
Caltrans will soon close half of the 101 Freeway in order to continue construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing near Agoura Hills in Los Angeles County.
Eviction Looms for Low-Income Tenants as Rent Debt Rises
Nonprofit housing operators across the country face almost $10 billion in rent debt.
Brightline West Breaks Ground
The high-speed rail line will link Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area.
Colorado Bans No-Fault Evictions
In most cases, landlords must provide a just cause for evicting tenants.
City of Costa Mesa
Licking County
Barrett Planning Group LLC
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Tufts University, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning
City of Universal City TX
ULI Northwest Arkansas
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.
