Easing Zoning Restrictions Can Facilitate Rebuilding After the LA Fires
Much of the debate over the horrible wildfires afflicting the Los Angeles areas focuses on issues outside my expertise. Thus, I’m not going to opine on such questions as the role of climate change in causing the fires, and whether federal, state, and local governments, have done a good job of running the LA fire department and managing wildfire risk moe generally. There is enough ill-informed pontification on these issues already. One relevant issue, however, is within my expertise: zoning and housing policy. Easing zoning restrictions on housing construction could help the city rebuild faster and find new homes for those displaced by the fires. It could also help alleviate the area’s longstanding housing crisis.
Even before the fire, the LA region had a serious housing shortage, caused in large part by exclusionary zoning. Some 78% of the residential land in LA is zoned for single-family residences only, which makes it extremely difficult to build new housing in response to demand, especially multifamily homes affordable for working and lower-middle class people.
The fires have destroyed an estimated 12,000 structures, a figure that is likely to rise before the conflagration ends. Not all these structures are homes. Some are garages, commercial buildings, and other nonresidential facilities. Nonetheless, there is no doubt the fires have wiped out thousands of homes, displacing tens of thousands of people. And while much media attention has focused on the losses suffered by wealthy Hollywood celebrities, most of those displaced are less affluent folk who cannot easily find new homes.
Zoning and housing expert M. Nolan Gray (in the Atlantic), and Reason writer Jack Nicastro have helpful articles summarizing how exclusionary zoning rules have contributed LA’s housing crisis, and how easing them will make it easier to rebuild. They also explain how zoning restrictions made the region more vulnerable to wildfires, by pushing development into more dangerous areas, and making i
Article from Reason.com
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