LTE in SF Chron
February 28, 2025
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/letterstotheeditor/article/housing-peace-corps-presidio-ukraine-russia-20192257.php
Letters: Zoning laws aren’t blocking new housing in California. Here’s what is
Regarding “This California law was supposed to end single-family zoning. Three years later, it’s ‘just symbolic’ ” (Real Estate, SFChronicle.com, Feb. 21): Nearly everything Sacramento has done “to boost housing production” has been symbolic, which is why despite oceans of rhetoric, the rate of housing production in California has been essentially unchanged for a decade.
The coterie of housing pundits is addicted to the politically convenient but false narrative that zoning is the broad obstacle, when research shows that the true limitation has long been the rapidly escalating construction, materials and engineering costs that dominate dense housing projects in high-demand, high-inequality cities.
To be fair, governments have only limited ability to contain such costs — construction workers must earn enough to live here, too. Yet as with any addiction, the first step to recovery must be honesty.
On any broad-impact scale, zoning has been a drop in the bucket, and the results show it.
While distracting everybody with political theater like SB9 and shunning actual economics, the Legislature, state Sen. Scott Wiener, property law professor Chris Elmendorff, the legion of nonprofit advocacies and, yes, the Chronicle, are as responsible as anyone for the dire state of housing in the Bay Area.
Eric Filseth, Palo Alto