The Fake Housing Crisis ?
By Mark Fernwood, a member of the Contra Costa Republican Central Committee and Danville resident.
State & regional governments have been forcing communities to allow the building of massive apartment complexes. Now, Newsom has signed SB9 and SB10. This has removed local control and even allows the conversion of single family homes into as much as 4-plexes. No onsite parking need be provided. This is driven by claims we have a “housing crisis” and an acute “housing shortage.”
Apartments are represented by web sites, like: apartments.com, apartmentfinder.com and hotpads.com. If one goes to one of these sites you will find hundreds of vacant units everywhere. If there really was a “shortage crisis” there would only be multiyear waiting lists.
Further, if one Googles: “Average vacancy in the San Francisco Bay Area,” one will find about a 4.2% vacancy. This is hardly indicative of a “crisis” of shortage.
There are also claims that housing here has become too expensive. The Bay Area has always been relatively expensive. The Building Industry Association represents local developers; they state it costs over $500K to build a new Bay Area unit. So we cannot build our way to cheap. Adding to congestion are the millions of illegals here, increasing housing demand and crowding of freeways.
Does anyone believe their fine single family home will have the same premium value if the neighbor becomes a 4-plex? As no on-site parking needs to be provided, so the streets will become lined with cars. Local zoning was developed to preserve the nature of and value of communities.
Claims of “crisis” implies we should rush without caution and thought. The real goal of the crisis-mongers, is to change the structure of society. They envision a future with people forced into dense communities happily riding mass transit everywhere. Cars and their CO2 will be gone. This helps to fight the ‘global warming crisis.’ Warming that stopped in 1998 (Google: “Global warming pause”)
If reducing commuting & CO2 was the goal, why are massive apartment blocks and density, being forced into outlying communities like Danville? Places where there are no jobs and no transit hubs.
There is no provision for the additional burden this will place on schools, and utilities. The laws also do not describe how development will affect Prop. 13 coverage.
Our communities are being ruined by the forced rezoning allowing massive apartments and the conversion of single family neighborhoods. How have we gone from local community control to Soviet-style central planning? Regional and State mandates have usurped our community control.