August 2017
California legislators have promised to address the state's housing crisis, and Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy Nicholas Marantz has some ideas on how to do so.
The key, Marantz writes in an op-ed in the LA Times, is that "the state must also ensure that local governments responsibly use their power to regulate land use." The state can do so by shifting regulatory authority away from cities and communities that are not meeting affordable housing development goals.
Massachusetts did that by passing a law allowing for expedited approval of projects that met affordable housing requirements. Marantz's research in the Boston suburbs found that the law helped spur housing creation in areas where it proved helpful.