3 ms·
I’m a developer. I do tons of work to get the right to build - buy the property, the permits, the environmental review, neighbor meetings where they oppose it,
by seibelj 4y ago
I’m a developer. I do tons of work to get the right to build - buy the property, the permits, the environmental review, neighbor meetings where they oppose it, more legal and municipal review, this drags on for years.
Now after all of these fix costs would I rather build luxury units that net me tons of money or affordable units that net me little money? And also the neighborhood itself is opposed to a lot of low-income housing for all sorts of class reasons. It’s just not in any stakeholder interest.
- api 4y agoThis is the answer, and it's kind of amazing the strange contortions people go through to not admit it. Regulation is a tax. Review requirements are a tax. NIMBY opposition is a tax. Complex irregular permitting requirements are a tax. All those taxes must be paid up front by the developer, so obviously developers are only ever going to build high-margin high-income housing. They'd probably lose money on anything else.
- zbrozek 4y agoI'd support of a constitutional amendment that makes housing (any form, from a farmhouse to a high-rise) a by-right land use across the entire United States.