So nice to see that Building Industry Association members Saad Asad and Thomas LaCroix are watching out for their industry and sharing their “Build baby, build” philosophy with The Coast News readers in “Stop deciding who doesn’t get a home and build more homes” on Sept. 23.
I think most of us here in North County are experiencing the results of that approach! Just look around, people — at the ugly stack-and-pack “dwelling units” being built and the traffic that comes with them!
The answer to everything in California is not to build more housing — the NEED is to build affordable housing. And developers are not doing that. But LaCroix and Asad would rather sit behind their YIMBY desks and label everyone else NIMBYs! Very outdated terminology, by the way!
All our cities were growing at a normal rate and in accordance with our various general plans—the constitutions each city relies on. So what happened?
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden expanded housing law while in office. The concept was to give working people with low or middle incomes the opportunity to live in economically prosperous neighborhoods with equal opportunities and to blend in at a lower cost.
Development companies saw California as the golden goose and the chance to EXPLOIT this law and readily influence state legislators! This partnership followed. It has led to the takeover and destruction of local zoning in cities — particularly coastal cities — and to demands for 30 units per acre and density-bonus projects!
Developers get rich, and so does the state of California on all those additional property taxes! It’s a partnership made in money heaven. And, of course, capping affordable housing at 10% or 15% lets the rest of the development be market rate — which in coastal California communities starts at close to $1 million.
As I’ve written before, we citizen activists pleaded with the city of Encinitas to require 25% of these new developments to fall into affordable housing categories. Developers would still walk away with a handsome profit. But deals were made, and the citizens lost. Citizens wanted fair application of the housing statute’s intent, but greed got in the way.
So, you’ve called us NIMBYs. Ah, clearly you’d better update your vocabulary — but seeing that you belong to a group called YIMBY Democrats of San Diego, I’m curious:
Just what is in YOUR backyard where you live? How much stack-and-pack housing is in your neighborhoods? Maybe you are really NIMBYs after all!
Sheila S. Cameron is a former mayor of Encinitas.
