In SLO County, we pay a steep price for failed housing policies

Actions have consequences. And, as we’re learning, so does inaction.

SLO County cities have shown mostly inaction and lack of urgency in proposing and enacting solutions to the growing housing crisis over the last decade.

Sure, it’s easier to build an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) .

And with SB-9, cities have begrudgingly accepted duplexes (within many restrictions) into more neighborhoods.

But new home production in SLO County cities remains inadequate, which means old homes have become expensive homes.

New homes that do get built usually don’t serve low- or moderate-income buyers. And there aren’t enough of them to reduce demand and prices for old homes, which is one reason subsidized housing is also important.

But the wishful thinking of a revised and expanded inclusionary housing ordinance in SLO (increasing the affordability requirement from 3% to 10%) is more likely to reduce building.

Consider this, if you will, the “thoughts and prayers” response of our local leaders to a housing crisis — doubling down on already failed policies that haven’t produced enough homes (market rate or subsidized) for decades.

With this inaction, we inevitably get to the consequences.

Dana Reserve, a sprawling greenfield project in Nipomo that would require removal of 4,000 oak trees, would bring 1,289 new homes to the county.

These are homes that, ignoring other factors, are certainly needed. But where?

SLO County cities and residents have consistently asked for homes to be built anywhere but near them. So this must be the place, I guess?

In 2020, San Luis Obispo adopted a Climate Action Plan, which “establishes a community-wide goal of carbon neutrality by 2035” and “also focuses on using resources more effectively.”

The city’s website clarifies that “The City is committed to the ‘action’ part of ‘climate action.’” Nowhere in this “action” plan does it account for the destruction of trees (a carbon sink), increased tailpipe emissions from more commutes to and from Nipomo, and the inefficient use of water and other resources in building more sprawl into our coast’s open spaces rather than in cities like SLO.

Housing policy is climate policy. Real climate action necessitates more homes closer to where people need to be.

Arroyo Grande — Nipomo’s nearest SLO County neighbor and South County’s largest job center — has failed to meet its housing production goals for the last decade.

Again, a predictable outcome when affordable designs like duplexes, triplexes and smaller apartment buildings are illegal or onerous to build in the majority of the city.

AG’s mayor recently claimed she’d like to build more homes so her own kids don’t need to move out of state, but asserted that she needs to balance that interest with the concerns of “people who have made investments here.”

For a city that — like many in our county — has crumbling roads, insufficient budgets and declining school enrollment, forcing new homes, workers, students and taxpayers elsewhere doesn’t seem to have worked out to be a good investment strategy.

Kevin Buchanan is a lead organizer with SLO County YIMBY (Yes in my Backyard.)