Some ideas for alleviating the current housing crisis in San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties

By Laurence "Larry" Houlgate

We can alleviate the housing crisis in San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties by planning for and accomodating needed housing types, efficiently planning public services, providing convenient, economic transportation systems, and planning and zoning land to meet estimated future growth.

1. Require cities and counties to accomodate multiple housing types. First, I propose that each city in California should be required to plan for and accomodate needed housing types, such as multifamily and manufactured housing. Each city should be required to inventory its buildable residential lands, project future needs for such lands, and plan and zone enough buildable land to meet those needs. Local plans, should be prohibited from discriminating against needed housing types. If we do not take these steps then I fear that we will become a community of wealthy people and their servants And the servants will be forced to live in crowded dwellings located far away from city centers. Moreover, we will have lost affordable housing for our middle class.

2. Efficient planning of public services Second, the state should require efficient planning of public services such as sewers, water, law enforcement, and fire protection. Public services should be planned in accordance with a community's needs and capacities rather than be forced to respond to development as it occurs.

3. Provide safe, convenient and economic transportation systems. I propose a series of steps for transportation, energy and urbanization. California should provide a safe, convenient and economic transportation system. Land and uses developed on the land should be managed and controlled so as to maximize the conservation of all forms of energy. Finally, all cities in California should be required to estimate future growth and needs for land and then plan and zone enough land to meet those needs. As it is now done in Oregon, each city in California should establish an "urban growth boundary" in order to identify and separate urbanizable land from rural land.

If we fail to take these few steps now then we may not be able to avoid contentious and prolonged disputes about urban growth in the future.