Tell your state leaders to upzone for transit-oriented housing!

The state of California is considering a new upzoning bill, dubbed SB 79, that would make it legal to build multi-family housing near public transport!

The bill would essentially draw circles around bus stops and rail stations, then make it legal to build more mid-rise housing within those circles, overriding the many towns with anti-housing “NIMBY” limitations imposed by restrictive zoning at the municipal level. It also includes “fire flexibility” safeguards that ensure local governments can still enact fire safety measures and avoid high wildfire-risk zones.

Artificial limits on housing, often at the town “zoning” level, are a major contributor to a host of societal ills including homelessness and inflation, while making more housing available has a wide range of positive societal effects (as discussed in the landmark Works in Progress article “The housing theory of everything,”) including family formation and emissions reduction!

As the U.S. experiences severe housing scarcity and rising inflation, this is a win-win to help Americans fight cost-of-living increases, making more housing available in exactly the places where people can be less dependent on expensive cars.

At this critical juncture in American political history, state legislators should have “maximum housing” as a fundamental priority, passing whatever they can to override self-interested NIMBYs and build as much new multi-family housing as possible. The SB 79 bill is what housing abundance looks like in practice — removing completely unnecessarily restrictions to build more livable and affordable neighborhoods! California should pass it, and every state in the country needs to pass similar or even stronger bills to remove destructive housing limitations imposed by towns.

Tell your state leaders to upzone for transit-oriented housing!