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by turtlebits 778 days ago
You can absolutely build a new hone. The conundrum is that the land value is so high that you have to build as big as possible with finishes to match the neighborhood, even if you don't need the square footage.

I'm waiting for my area to allow multifamily and or detached ADU before I build.
4 comments
jonathankoren 778 days ago
Cupertino is being sued for violating state law for not rezoning for housing. In fact, Cupertino spent funds allocated for affordable housing on lawyers to fight against affordable housing.

Thank Scott Weiner for the builder’s remedy.

https://sanjosespotlight.com/cupertino-spent-affordable-hous...

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yonran 778 days ago
> Thank Scott Weiner for the builder’s remedy.

Scott Wiener did not create the builder’s remedy; it was created in 1990 and rediscovered by Chris Elmendorf https://twitter.com/CSElmendorf/status/1474286606982934528 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/38x5760j. But Wiener did make the builder’s remedy apply to more jurisdictions by increasing the RHNA quota (SB 828).

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yonran 778 days ago
It sounds like you disagreed with the parent comment but then you demonstrated his point. You can build a new home, but the zoning code should have allowed you to build many homes instead of just one.
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maxerickson 778 days ago
The party deciding how big to build probably isn't going to build to stay there (if so, they are just optimizing for the highest profit, not facing a conundrum).
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beaeglebeachh 778 days ago
I live in a place with no building codes (and barely any zoning regs) and raw plots i looked at asshole boomers encumbered their title with irrevocable CC&Rs preventing small starter homes before they croked. Most the properties I looked at were poisoned this way making it totally impossible for young starting families to stake down, it was quite infuriating.

You'd be surprised even in rural undeveloped areas how hard it can be to build, it's all gotten much worse in the past 50 years. In the city they damn you with onerous permit and utility connection requirements, in the country they slit the throat with ever more onerous septic and well environmental restrictions which of course were voted in by people who grandfathered their own property in.

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