State Housing Law Finally Cracks Local Zoning Cartels, Coastal NIMBYs Predictably Furious

A new state mandate forces restrictive coastal cities to allow more housing near transit, whether they like it or not

When deregulation actually happens, somebody always calls it overreach

A new California law permitting increased housing density near transit stops has drawn fierce resistance from local governments accustomed to using zoning restrictions to keep housing scarce and prices high, according to Los Angeles Magazine’s coverage of the law. For once, state policy is moving in the direction of actual deregulation, and the cities that built decades of artificial scarcity into their zoning codes are, predictably, unhappy about it.

Local control has too often meant local cartelization

Local zoning boards have functioned for decades as gatekeepers protecting existing homeowners’ property values at the direct expense of anyone trying to enter the housing market, a dynamic the Independent Institute has documented extensively across California’s coastal communities.

Surfers know this story better than most

The service workers, lifeguards and shop employees who keep California’s beach towns running have been priced out of the very communities they work in for years, a direct consequence of artificial housing scarcity enforced by local government, not by any actual shortage of buildable land.

Fazit

Cities can postpone this law until 2030 through workarounds, and several already plan to. Real deregulation should not require an escape hatch. For more housing policy analysis, visit Reason. For a similar regulatory story from across the Atlantic, see The London Prat’s Harry and Meghan Plan UK Return.