The state of California has mandated that cities and counties find more space for “affordable” houses — but where?

Well, that’s up to local government to change land use policies to accommodate more houses per acre and do away with single-family zoning. 

After all, it’s very selfish of people to want to live with a little separation between their family and others to allow breathing room for both.

The politicians who are concerned about the lack of affordable housing should consider that their predecessors in the same political party were the ones who created the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which has been aggressively used to prevent the construction of tens of thousands of new homes and commercial businesses.

In Santa Barbara County all of the cities are working hard to accommodate these new requirements and the county government is working equally hard to find space in the unincorporated areas.

So-called open spaces, previously required in every development, will have to be sacrificed to meet the need.

Even though higher densities mean more cars, the state has declared that land use polices can’t require additional parking; it takes up much needed space for additional housing. This will lead to congestion and eventually turf battles for the few curbside spaces that remain.

But is the new compact urban form being applied equally?
 
Recently in Lompoc the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO) rejected a plan for the city of Lompoc to annex property on the western edge of the city for some 1,500 new homes.

At least 150 of these new homes would have been “affordable.” Their reasoning – it would take up prime crop land. It sounds a lot like they imposed a local form of CEQA.

Some public spaces, like golf courses, are targets for more housing. But the polo grounds in Santa Barbara have so far escaped notice, even though there are far more golfers than there are polo players.

Is it because those who participate in and enjoy watching polo also contribute large sums to political campaigns?

And while single-family parcels in working class neighborhoods have been suddenly eliminated by allowing so-called accessory dwelling units, what about all those large estates in Montecito that have many acres of open space that could be used for tiny housing villages or low-income housing projects?

This area of the unincorporated county seems exempt from the hunt for space for more houses or rezoning to facilitate a compact urban design.

Why, well as the late Rush Limbaugh always said, “follow the money.” In this case the money that flows into the campaign coffers of county supervisors.

The housing shortage was caused by politicians who created costly development and environmental protection policies that dramatically increased the cost to build a house, encouraged illegal immigration, and allowed carve outs for high income political donors.

For example, the Burton Ranch project in the city of Lompoc has been in the planning stages since 2007; that’s 17 years if you’re counting. Why? Because of conditions imposed by LAFCO during the annexation process.

It doesn’t matter whether you are of Democratic, Republican, or just-don’t-care political beliefs, these polices have prevented many of you from ever being able to own your own home.

And government policies that provide incentives to developers to provide low-income housing at reduced and taxpayer-subsidized rates have also driven the market rate sales/rental costs sky high.

Every time the government tries to help, they create bigger problems. For example, throughout my life I have noticed every time the minimum wage is increased the cost of basic goods and services goes up to match or exceed the amount of the raise, and/or many workers either have their hours cut or lose their job.

Now the government has once again stepped in to “help” people find houses. Instead, they’ll just create a bigger problem while exempting their big bucks political donors from their policies.