I’m so excited about this portion of SB 79 here in CA. Combined with the IZ requirements in the bill, it should result in more BMR units in high-resource census tracts:

I just want to live in a cosmopolitan city with reasonable rent, and not be forced to drive everywhere, and I want everyone to have that opportunity.

I mean, what favors large projects vs smaller ones is a very long list. From building/fire codes, zoning, financing, permitting, economics of construction, et c, et c. Administrative burden of IZ is small in comparison, and as you point out, variable. But it is one more thing.

Building and fire codes are a huge deal. The abuse of historic preservation rules are a huge deal. NIMBYism is a natural human impulse, and so any tools offered people that could be used to that end should be expected to be.

One thing I don’t hear discussed enough is the administrative burden imposed by IZ, which seems like it’s one of the very many incentives leading to fewer larger buildings, rather than more smaller ones. This is also one of the things that scares off small developers from munis with mandatory IZ.

Of course the amounts vary; for example, @ebwhamilton.bsky.social found that while MoCo’s IZ reqs raised prices, as would be expected from first principles, they did not appear to depress production there.

We need mixed-income public housing, ala Vienna and Singapore. Relying on private developers to subsidize rents for those of us most in need just doesn’t make sense to me. How would that not cause housing production to go down and rents to go up?

I understand that given certain local conditions, like extremely low vacancy rates, filtering and chains of moves can take too long for some households to benefit from them immediately. So there is a place for subsidy. Something like Section 8 (HCV) should be an automatic entitlement.

The La Vanguardia article in question doesn’t directly say the 30% unfunded mandatory IZ was the cause of development grinding to a halt there. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t. www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/2025/01/23/b...

I’m sympathetic to IZ if it’s carefully calibrated to not result in housing production cratering. But it working relies on with the continuation of restrictive zoning and other rules designed to segregate people geographically and encourage car dependency, which I oppose wholeheartedly.

bsky.app/profile/sama...

? I don’t follow. Do you mean by adding more housing units, that increases the demand for housing? The demand for housing is already there.

Part of the regulatory uncertainty cited is whether that 30% number will change. @4freedoms.es, what’s the take on this policy from other sources? I’m guessing La Vanguardia must be a political organ of one of the Spanish parties. Am I right?

I read it all multiple times (in the Castilian and an English translation) and you’re right. It doesn’t cite the 30% IZ directly as the cause, talking about regulatory uncertainty instead. But it strains credulity to think that level of IZ wouldn’t have huge negative effect on housing production.

I wish I could take my well-behaved but pet dog on public transport, though.
I count Stephen as a friend and trust what he has to say. Usually he’s quite reasonable. As they say, “My name’s Paul, and that’s between y’all.” (My name’s not really Paul, but it rhymes)

Right. That would count as a Place of Public Accommodation, so the ADA would cover it in the US. Often, that sort of situation is prevented by planning rules mandating separation of uses here anyway. So there aren’t many doctors’ offices in residential buildings.

Yes, in US apartment buildings (3+ if rental, 4+ if condos), all units on an accessible route, either ground-floor or on a floor served by an elevator (built since 1991) have to be adaptable, and there can’t be only stairs from the public way.

The ADA covers very little housing. Only if it meets the definition of “public housing” (which doesn’t need to be publicly owned, just receive public subsidy). The FHAct Amendments cover privately funded apartments of 3+ units. Neither requires an elevator. But I’m so glad they both exist.