The process cost adds to that. If it takes three, four, five, seven years to get something approved instead of like three to six months, which some of the laws that we've been able to pass that streamline permits say that if you have to, the city has to give the permit within 3 to 6 months depending on the size of the project. So for example, bridge housing, which is the largest nonprofit affordable housing building in California, told us that after a particular law that I authored was signed into law, SB 35, once that happened, there were average time to get a permit to build dropped from an average of seven years to an average of four months.
The lack of affordable housing in the U.S. has contributed to a homelessness crisis and has forced people to move farther away from urban centers. Inevitably, that increases car travel and emissions. One solution is to increase density in areas where jobs and infrastructure exist to accommodate more people. But some aren’t comfortable with the idea of their neighborhoods growing, and building multi-story apartments in urban cores usually costs more per square foot than one or two-story houses where land is cheaper. So how do we address both the need for affordable housing and the climate crisis?
Guests:
Scott Wiener, California State Senator
Jennifer Hernandez, Partner, Holland & Knight
Ben Bartlett, Berkeley Vice Mayor
For show notes and related links, visit ClimateOne.org.
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