Housing: Erase Arbitrary Lines
On a recent drive home from Vancouver, British Columbia, I listened to the Cato Daily Podcast interview with Nolan Gray discussing high housing costs and recent reforms. (Housing policy was the topic for the Vancouver Debate Academy’s Deliberative Dialogue earlier this week.)
States are starting to understand how zoning and other housing restrictions have contributed to the housing crisis gripping so much of the United States. Nolan Gray of California YIMBY explains.
2023 Was a Big Year for Housing Reformers
Nolan Gray authored the 2022 book Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It amazon.com
During college I had a summer job with a Seattle contractor supplying military bases in Adak, Alaska. For one project I worked on modular housing. These were stacked concrete housing units prepared for shipping and assembly at the military bases in Adak.
This Boston Globe story looks at a modular housing project in the Boston area:
This 12-story building underway in Somerville’s Clarendon Hill public housing complex is one of the most ambitious experiments in factory-built — or “modular” — housing in New England. By building the apartments — including kitchens and bathrooms — offsite and then stacking them like Legos on this sliver of land, this project’s developers say they’ll deliver it 40 percent faster, for substantially less cost, than a similar-sized building they’re constructing the typical way in Boston.
A similar but more advanced modular construction firm provides “one-day” assembly of an upscale ten-story building:
And back in 2012 this Vancouver housing policy overview was positive: Surprising potential in Vancouver’s affordable housing plan (Vancouver Sun, July 10, 2012, shared on Fraser Institute website)
The City of Vancouver employs various rules and regulations to attempt to control how the city develops. For example, zoning regulations specify which areas of Vancouver can be used for industrial, commercial and residential developments, and how dense these developments can be. Vancouver also imposes a requirement for public hearings where residents or businesses in a neighborhood can voice their displeasure with proposed developments. Furthermore, some new developments are required to provide space for public services such as daycare or social housing. The city also imposes expensive energy efficiency requirements on new buildings.
An earlier post Housing and Urban Development notes the interesting case of inexpensive housing on Tokyo:
For anyone who thinks urban housing has to be expensive because of high demand, consider this WSJ article: What Housing Crisis? In Japan, Home Prices Stay Flat: Supply keeps up with demand in Tokyo thanks to few restrictions on development (WSJ, April 2, 2019).
(This is a follow-up post to Notes on Vancouver Housing.)