Many California cities currently ban multistory housing.
Bill SB-79 would automatically allow multistory apartment buildings near subway stations, bus stops and railway stations.
Some rich people are very pissed:
While I’d argue that NIMBYism is generally bad… it is definitely bad in a world where so many cannot even afford to live.
Build more affordable housing by any means necessary.
It’s important to avoid the trap of advocating against expanding the supply of available housing because the new construction is not affordable (aka left-NIMBYism).
An ideal state would be overwhelming amounts of government-built and operated apartments, but we really cannot allow perfect being the enemy of good here.
In a vacuum this is a good idea but my only concern is that NIMBY neighborhoods will demand the removal of transit stops to circumvent this.
Counterpoint, perhaps greedy real estate developers will lobby for bus stops.
Oh shit, you might be on to something here.
You want your planning permission? Sure, build 100 floors.
Gotta put in a light rail line to the nearest heavy rail station before you’re allowed to lay foundations though
Note that in the case of bus stops it only applies to BRT services (exclusive bus lanes). A regular bus service would not benefit from this bill.
Sure, otherwise it would apply to half the blocks in the city if there’s decent transit. Wait, I’m not seeing the downside to that.
We won’t let perfect be the enemy of good, plus brts are wgere density could prove most effective. Unfortunately we can’t rebuild our cities overnight but this is definitely progress if it goes through. Brts are a lot harder to get rid of than regular bus lanes so between the brt and the density it could solidify those areas as transit friendly, maybe even upgrading the brt to a tram. Then once people realize how great that is more neighborhoods might want to do the same a few years later.
Oh! I read about this very real issue in the very fictional book called Lost Cause, by Cory Doctorow.
https://craphound.com/category/lostcause/
Interesting read, if you like your fiction to address IRL topics.
