I'm rather skeptical that having the federal government (regulatorily) involved in local zoning is feasible, practical or even constitutional. The only way I

I'm rather skeptical that having the federal government (regulatorily) involved in local zoning is feasible, practical or even constitutional. The only way I see the federal government having any influence would be to dangle a big pot of gold in front of municipalities in the same way the dangle gold in front of school districts and transportation departments to get their way with drinking ages and school reform. In order to fund any YIMBY type program, legislators would have to agree to offer incentives to typically already affluent communities and those communities would have to agree (by vote) that the incentives were big enough to justify a change in zoning laws. Changing local zoning is notoriously difficult by the way and until you have tried to get a variance passed in a affluent bedroom community (and I have) you can't really appreciate the passion that people have for preserving the characteristics of their communities. To be clear, I am not passing any sort of judgement on people speaking out and advocating for what they see is the best thing for their community. That is exactly the kind of political action I think we need more of. More local civic participation. =============== Not related to the need for more quality housing but just to illustrate how hard it can be to change local zoning laws... I live in an affluent bedroom community that is in a suburban "outer ring" melting into rural. I have a large property (more than 200 acres / 100 hectares) with a mix of pasture and forest with a house situated in about the center of the lot. My driveway is 1000 yards/meters long and the house is not visible from the public road. When we wanted to build a horse barn we offered a site plan that placed the barn beside our house BUT critically on the side of the house that was closest to the public road. It was naturally graded already. Unfortunately, this required a variance as local zoning laws require outbuildings to be placed farther from the public road than the main house. Several neighbors, (friends of ours) stepped up during zoning hearings to oppose our request for a variance citing the need to preserve the community. Despite the fact that the new barn would not have been visible from the road we ended up having to re-cite the barn to the far side of the house requiring the extension of our driveway, the clearing of 100 canopy trees and grading of the lot.