The Town Council is not leading this process. They have turned it over to outside staff to make the recommendations, Instead, they need to stand up and:
1) Provide overall guidance as to where multi-family housing is appropriate:
- Streets with transportation access
- Where infrastructure is sufficient, or easy to enlarge

2) Give overall guidance as to the end results, but NOT the specific details & minutiae as how it must be done
- The residents are smart, well meaning adults that can meet the requirements in ways that the staff & Council will nor envision

In short, please:
- Lead the process & take charge
- Clearly communicate to all the residents as to which parcels will be "on the list" & WHY!

Our anger over housing mandates is misplaced. We hurl our frustration at our local government because we can see them in person and because they are making final decisions about our community, property values, and futures.

The people at HCD who are forcing high density housing into single family neighborhoods in Sacramento are nameless, anonymous, and entirely free from being held accountable.

Our state representatives, (Berman, Becker, Newsom), are the accountable persons who have the ability to stop or modify the process being forced onto every community.

Start yelling at them.
Stop re-electing them.

Spot on, Betsy.

It is our elected officials in Sacramento that have brought this upon us. Unfortunately, I suspect these policies are popular throughout our state.

If you're waiting for Berman, Becker and Newsom to have a change of heart our this flawed housing policy, you're going to be very disappointed. This is dogma for them.

Pogo & Betsy Roble:

You are both correct. The Democratic supermajority is the problem. Our only hope is to:
1) Vote our local representatives out to show the true position of the residents
- Lydia Kou (CA Representative) & Rishi Kumar (US Representative) ate two Democrats that are much more aligned with the people
- Sending them to Sacramento& Wash DC would send a message that the Gov't has gone TOO far

2) Support, donate & vote for the "Our Neighborhood Voices":
-Web Link

We must take charge of our own neighborhoods & not allow bureaucrats in Sacramento to choose how we live!

November 2024 will determine our future.

I love the arrogance/self-centeredness of the "more aligned with the people" and "true position of the residents" viewpoint. (Picking on @cybervoter this time but comments like this are very common).

Marc Berman represents approx. 465,000 people, not just Atherton, PV and Woodside. Many of his constituents would benefit from more housing being built, which economics says will bring down prices, reduce commute times, reduce homelessness, etc.

At least @pogo admits "these policies are popular". And at least @BetsyRoble is honest enough to say the unsaid... which is how much of the objection to denser housing comes down to people who already have houses wanting to protect their property values.

David B:

I respect you opinion & appreciate the desire to make homes affordable for all willing to work for the result. However, the current & proposed "solutions" are NOT solving either:

1) The "un-housed" population
or the
2) Priced out of the market population

But, the current Democrats in power are only serving their donors and making the Real Estate Developers rich. They are NOT creating affordable housing.

Let's elect the Democratic challengers with a real plan & vision. The current incumbents & their "hand-picked" replacements will only continue CA's steady decline!

Vote for change in Nov '24

To David B's noting my comment about these policies being popular. There is little doubt they are... except in more affluent and more "built out" communities - which describes most of the Bay Area.

There is a group that is trying to organize a statewide referendum to undo these policies and return zoning exclusively to local officials. I met with one of the leaders of this initiative and told her that I thought they were miscalculating the popularity of these policies and that a referendum would fail miserably.

Some people believe that simply increasing the housing stock will result in more affordable housing. I guess it depends on what you think is "affordable." You could cut the prices of our homes IN HALF and they still won't be affordable for the targeted population. And no one is suggesting that housing costs will be cut in half - more like 10% to 15% which simply takes us back to 2021 when housing costs were just as crazy.

Compounding the problem is that we are in one of the WORST housing slumps in history and California will miss the RHNA targets by miles. In fact, we'll be lucky to build 50% of the targets and some experts think we'll be lucky to achieve 30% of the targets. Thinking that we're going to build our way of this isn't just foolish, it's fraudulent.

David B:

The economics DO NOT support the idea that more housing equals "affordable" housing. The REAL economics mean more housing may mean slightly less expensive housing, but will not lower prices to the point they are "affordable". The land costs too much and the cost of construction is too high. The only way "affordable" housing for the audience that is being targeted can be built is through government subsidies.