The Unintended Consequences Lurking in Gov. Brown's Affordable Housing Proposal

Governor Brown’s proposal for "Streamlining Affordable Housing Approvals" in California proposal is based on removing local planning discretion and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review from the process applicable to certain multi-family residential development. It's sure to please some multi-family housing developers, particularly because, to qualify, projects need merely:

. . . to limit market-rate (not “affordable”) units to between 80-95 percent of their projects, build on parcels that have urban uses around them on sites zoned for residential uses, and avoid dangerous and sensitive sites where they should not be building in the first place.

However, the proposal has negative consequences for the planning process and planners themselves, and ultimately, unintended negative consequences for affordable housing goals, argues Murtaza Baxamusa, a San Diego based planner and affordable housing developer. Among other things, communities will likely become much more distrustful of the planning process, thereby exacting more stringent and inflexible general plan and zoning standards. Planners who will be granting many more approvals on a ministerial basis will be the focus of community ire and pressure. The proposal would do nothing to address one of the largest impediments to affordable housing: zoning which disallows multi-family housing. Baxamusa writes: 

According to the Governor, the intent is to streamline affordable housing. But affordable housing projects are already streamlined, per state law. The proposal has received a mixed reception from affordable housing advocates. This is because many affordable housing advocates are concerned that it silences the voices of residents and neighbors, at the time that it matters the most: during the permitting of a project that will impact their lives. Some advocates are puzzled by the fact that the Governor’s proposal lowers affordability standards for projects that need it the most, when they are near transit lines. Advocates in urban areas often use the public input process to include more below-market units and other community benefits. Since the proposal only applies to land zoned for multifamily housing, it does not advance building affordable housing in counties like Marin, where there is virtually no land zoned for it. 

For more of Baxamusa's thoughts on Gov. Brown's proposal, see the source article.