In a 3/29/2024 Atlantic magazine article by Jerusalem Demsas entitled “Why did the US Navy kill Arizona’s housing bill”, the author explained why Katie Hobbs, the governor of Arizona, vetoed a bipartisan bill intended to address the Arizona housing shortage. This interesting article details the misinformation that led to the veto, but the author prefaced her story by saying the story was symptomatic of a much bigger problem. Her description of that much bigger problem was an insight that sheds light on recent updates appearing on the keytoasolutiontoaffordablehousing.com website. Allow me to quote her summary of the problem:
“Accommodating a growing population requires new housing. But if you want to build something in America, countless interest groups weigh in, and those who seek to block change have an asymmetrical advantage. Getting substantial amounts of homes built requires the proper alignment of political and economic interests. By contrast, stopping necessary change takes just one or two well-positioned groups. In many cases, those groups are outsiders – nonprofits, neighborhood organizations. But when opposition to housing reforms comes from inside the government, elected officialsare even more inclined to sit up and listen”
Examples like the Steamboat Springs Brown Ranch project and Park City’s Mine Bench proposal show how such large developments requiring significant community changes attract opposition from individual citizens, affected businesses, and non-profits as well as individual members of local government. The bigger the project, the more neighbors it has, and such projects cause impacts that affect community taxpayers. Citizens, businesses, and non-profits with long histories in the community are often skeptical that new projects won’t affect them adversely and are any better than what they have. Conversely, the smaller a project is, the easier it is to fit into the existing community. The 42 unit apartment project envisioned for the employee’s of the Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs is much more likely to gain acceptance by citizens who understand why the medical staff they know and rely on need an affordable place to live. Local governments know how to deal with ensuring compliance with established rules or even minor changes to those rules. Every business or non-profit suffering from a lack of quality employees understands the different housing needs of their employees in terms of size, location and cost. Clustered projects targeted for one income segment of the community make sense to developers because they are more efficient to build as one initial project Dispersed housing in locations that work best for occupants proceed at a slower pace, but need only the normal construction permitting process and compliance with established community rules. School teachers prefer to live in their school district and firefighters, police and city workers can do their jobs better if they can live in the community they serve vs. the town 20 miles down the road
The only large development that seems to have a path to success is The Point in Draper, Utah. This 600 acre project seems to be making a good start in gaining community acceptance. That acceptance is due to a lengthy and comprehensive outreach to its neighbors and regard for their concerns as reflected in final plans. Another factor is that The Point replaces the old Utah prison, now demolished and not missed. The fact that this land is owned by the state and the project infrastructure is funded by the state is another reason for neighboring community support..