☆ Bureaucratic overreach impeding local affordability, say experts
Just build more houses. Just pass yours down to your children. Just run a profitable business. Easy, right? Not exactly, argue former Palo Alto councilmember Greg Tanaka and real estate broker Gina Tse-Louie—saying we need radical rewrites in building/business regulations and tax policy. An Opp Now exclusive.
Greg Tanaka, past Palo Alto councilmember: My top suggestion [to improve affordability] is for local government to make it radically easier and cheaper to do business and to build. The biggest driver of high costs isn't just land or labor; it's the time, cost, and uncertainty imposed by bureaucracy.
During my time on the council, I worked with a small business owner who spent three years and a small fortune just trying to get the permits to open a smoothie shop. This isn't unique to businesses. I’ve seen homeowners who, after having their building plans fully approved, were forced by a last-minute inspection to move an electrical panel to the other side of the house, adding thousands in unnecessary costs. When we create unpredictable hurdles and delays, we make it prohibitively expensive to build the housing we need.
The most direct path to affordability is to streamline regulations and create a predictable, efficient, and transparent process for everyone.
Gina Tse-Louie, Bay Area real estate broker: Local government can improve affordability for residents of Silicon Valley by supporting FiX Prop19 by Repeal The Death Tax.
Taking away truly affordable homes through bad policy like 2020 Proposition 19 from people (that includes tenants, too) who already have them is insane. Seniors are the largest demographic moving into homelessness. Support systems for the disabled are being removed, forcing them to become wards of the State. Intergenerational injustice is occurring as estates are house-rich, cash-poor, and inheritors are forced to sell the only home they may ever own.
We don’t need more homelessness or subsidized housing in deficits.
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