[quote=Happs]The infill development in the city of Santa Clara is a good start to addressing the housing shortage, but it’s a drop in the bucket. Restrictive development regulations need to be eased, open space preserves need to be built on, growth boundaries eliminated etc to address the housing shortage. Silicon Valley will always be a desirable place to live due to jobs, weather and proximity to premier universities. There’s a plethora of open space in the Silicon Valley that could be built upon if politicians and voters didn’t have such a pro-environmental bent.[/quote]I agree with some of this. I agree that restrictive development regulations need to be eased, but I think open space preserves needs to stay. You can always build up. Silicon Valley have plenty of room left to build up. If they eliminate height restriction and start to zone for very dense condo high rises in certain area, that would greatly alleviate some of the problem. If cities with Silicon valley drastically renovate its downtown and build up. Maybe people would find less of an urge to live in SF and commute to Silicon Valley. If they have a vibrant downtown of their own that’s near their work.
Although Bay area might be more built out than SD, it’s far from the density that other major international cities experience, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. If you don’t help alleviate cost of living, traffic will only gets worse and living standard will decline and smog will increase, since people will commute longer and further. Then, you would also get family who live in a condo a size of a bedroom because they can’t afford more. Whether one like it or not, the city will continue to grow if your economy grow.
