California cities need to pick up the pace, says watchdog
California is mired in a housing crisis, but its laws meant to promote construction are failing to generate enough development to meet demand.
State law requires that municipalities zone enough land to meet local demand for housing, but many aren’t even reporting their progress to the state, according to the Los Angeles Times, citing a scathing report from the public policy group Next 10.
Many of those towns and cities aren’t expected to meet that demand for housing for an estimated 1,000 years, the Times said, according to the report.
Los Angeles is not in such dire straits.
The city is on track to meet its goals by 2040, but some cities in the South Bay are on pace to hit that after the year 3,000. Many other cities in Southern California are equally behind. Unincorporated L.A. County is on pace to hit its goals by 2068 and Burbank by 2266.
Last year, California passed a law meant to beef up housing requirements statewide and strengthen the state’s ability to hold local government accountable. The law is meant to spur local governments to make up ground they’ve lost after years of not meeting housing goals. Critics say the law isn’t as strong as what was originally proposed.
Cities have also been particularly bad at encouraging developers to build moderate-income and very low-income housing construction, according to the report.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will further tweak the system to meet his goal of building 3.5 million homes across the state by 2026. That will require the state to double the land zoned for housing. He has also said he intends to launch the “Marshall Plan for affordable housing” but has so far not provided details on that. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch