I challenge the assertion that the City of SD has good intentions. Imagine you want to drive up the cost of housing. How would you go about it? You would:
1) Downzone large areas of town such as Hillcrest, North Park, and Beach Areas.
2) Require many years and $ Millions in legal fees and environmental impact statements to build a project of any size before moving dirt to build housing.
3) Increase parking requirements, set back requirements, and decrease floor area ratios.
4) Divide the city into a multitude of planned districts each with endless arbitrary requirements that give planners unlimited opportunities to delay or reject projects.
5) Increase fees for permits to $35,000 per unit. Thats before you move any dirt or buy any concrete. The rent required for an apartment project to support the cost of fees is roughly $250 per month.
6) Give most of the revenue from property taxes to Sacramento and the cost of fire police and schools to the city. Give sales tax revenues to the city. See how long it takes a big box store to get permits and then see how long it takes to get a residential project permitted. Guess which takes longer?
City officials claim to be concerned about housing. If they were really concerned they would search for ways to reduce the costs to those who provide housing.
When the time from land acquisition to commencement of construction goes up cost and risk go up. Developers are forced to spend huge amounts of time and money before they even know if they can build. Even if they succeed in building the project, they may begin during a strong market and finish the project in a weak market.
