housing
The Path to Abundance, Part VI
Abundance reforms at the federal level may have the most political success if they are low-salience, and elite driven
This is the sixth post in a series of six posts. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. The fifth post is here. As I discussed in my last blog post, the politics of abundance reform are difficult. Reform often requires short-term …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Path to Abundance, Part V
Abundance reforms will require consensus and trust, which are in short supply in American politics
This is the fifth post in a series of six posts. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. The fourth post is here. In my last post I noted some important political challenges to abundance reforms: It is unlikely that they will produce immediate political benefits, but …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Path to Abundance, Part IV
Abundance reforms may not produce immediate political benefits, and may see significant backlash
This is the fourth post in a series of six posts. The first post is here. The second post is here. The third post is here. As I discussed in my last blog post, abundance policy reforms will necessarily require tradeoffs, which leads us to politics. Will the political context allow for making decisions about …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Path to Abundance, Part III
Abundance reforms will pose difficult tradeoffs, including with environmental goals and public participation
This is the third post in a series of six posts. The first post is here. The second post is here. The reforms that abundance advocates have proposed are varied, in part because they target a wide range of policy areas. I will begin with housing as an example of the reforms being proposed – …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Path to Abundance, Part II
Reducing legal and procedural obstacles to development is a necessary, but probably not sufficient, solution
This is the second post in a series of six posts. The first post is here. As I explained in my prior post, the United States (and indeed other countries) has not produced the level of infrastructure for housing or energy required to address housing demand, demand for energy to advance economic development, the needed …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Issues in the 2026 Governor’s Race: Housing and Climate
Fifth in a series of posts outlining key challenges and opportunities facing California’s next governor.
(This climate issue brief is authored by CLEE’s partners at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation.) California faces complex and integrated challenges of unaffordable housing and climate change. Failure to build adequate housing supply has resulted in high prices that have pushed home buyers and renters to locations that are further from jobs, schools, and …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Path to Abundance, Part I
Exploring the legal, policy, and political challenges for the abundance movement.
The abundance movement is having a moment. Abundance policy reformers call for legal and policy reforms to advance more housing, energy, and other infrastructure. Abundance advocacy has motivated a Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement that has pushed for major changes to local land-use regulation to build more housing in states across the country. One …
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CONTINUE READINGA State Density Bonus Loophole?
State density bonus law may allow a large mismatch between affordable housing provided and the additional density a proponent gets.
This is the second in two blog posts about state density bonus law and its potentially unintended consequences. The first post is here. As I noted in my prior post, the basic concept of state density bonus law is that if a project proponent includes a certain amount of affordable housing in their project, they …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Complexity of California Housing Law
Byzantine statutory provisions in state housing law may produce unintended consequences
One of the most important state laws to advance housing production in California is the state density bonus law. At heart, that law extends an offer to developers seeking to build a housing project. If you add some affordable housing to your project, the state will let you build higher than local zoning might otherwise …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat does BACA do? Part X
Proposed CEQA ballot initiative does seek to address important problems with CEQA.
This is the tenth in a series of blog posts on the California Chamber of Commerce’s proposed ballot initiative amending the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The first blog post is here. The second blog post is here. The third blog post is here. The fourth blog post is here. The fifth blog post is …
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