Friday, March 11, 2005
As California Goes...
...so goes the nation? The Christian Science Monitor says California will make it easier to build homes: (hat tip: Planetizen)
The Golden State has a storied history of taking dramatic steps to preserve the single-family home as the dominant standard of housing. The problem, of course, is that much of the state, especially southern California, is already built right out the edge of the mountains. With so few options for greenfield development, are we about to see a new massive wave of infill and redevelopment in the LA basin's old city centers? Maybe. Resentment of traffic and the time wasted in long commutes is also gaining steam across the country. With the right regulatory environment, that could lead to density increases at major nodes, eventually making larger regional transit networks viable again.
"We're near a tipping point for public policy," says Duane Bay, a housing consultant in East Palo Alto, Calif. "There is broad consensus that we have to build additional housing."
[...] The median home price in the San Francisco Bay Area, traditionally the costliest market in the nation, stands at $666,740, according to the California Association of Realtors.
The Golden State has a storied history of taking dramatic steps to preserve the single-family home as the dominant standard of housing. The problem, of course, is that much of the state, especially southern California, is already built right out the edge of the mountains. With so few options for greenfield development, are we about to see a new massive wave of infill and redevelopment in the LA basin's old city centers? Maybe. Resentment of traffic and the time wasted in long commutes is also gaining steam across the country. With the right regulatory environment, that could lead to density increases at major nodes, eventually making larger regional transit networks viable again.
# posted by Stacy McMahon @ 12:00 PM 
