Readit NewsOur permitting and building processes are completely broken. People who lost their homes in the CZU complex fires are giving up and donating their land because of the difficulty of rebuilding. Even applying for something as simple as rooftop solar is extremely onerous and time consuming.
Every piece of the permitting process would benefit from new tech to enable the county and developers to get moving. Plans are rejected for tiny reasons "No fire testing data sheets were attached for the aluminum rails that every neighbor has already used on their roof."
A recent real estate listing described years of frustration trying to build an appropriate multifamily on their correctly zoned land, and eventually giving up to sell the house.
However:
- the size of the benefit is small
- my understanding is there is very little effort to confirm these for small owners
https://www.santacruzcountyca.gov/Departments/AssessorsOffic...
I sympathize with folks worried about changing their neighborhood. At the same time there's really no magic solution to high housing costs outside increasing supply.
A number of my neighbors are Prop 13 'princelings'. Their parents snapped up a bunch of housing, have next to 0 annual cost, and extract fantastic wealth renting them out, all while receiving a huge tax subsidy. This position passes to the next generation, who essentially become absentee landlords and are heavily incentivized to prevent more housing.
A number of places in Santa Cruz and the rest of the county are completely underutilized because these families prefer to do absolutely nothing and collect insane rents on dilapidated properties to the detriment of everybody else who lives here.
With the introduction of the rail trail, Santa Cruz has the potential to become one of the most livable places in the United States
I think San Francisco is an easy lesson in the politics of building - You get to choose density or destitution, and you don't get to opt out.
I lived in SF for 10 years and Boston for 5. SF is a worse place for the time, and Boston has only gotten better. I'm a firm believer that development is the reason.
I do think the city needs housing, for sure, but high rises? Baby steps maybe?