If the state and city are putting up the money to build it, they are the customers -- and it looks to me like they are making a terrible mistake in the name of

If the state and city are putting up the money to build it, they are the customers -- and it looks to me like they are making a terrible mistake in the name of having a free market. Publish sets of acceptable plans, put together an expert committee to approve variances, make all the variance decisions published and binding precedent. Size the expert committee suitably for the workload. Then get the towns to specify where they want the housing to go and acquire the land. Pay contractors to execute the plans. That's socialism, of course, so it won't work in America.