(The Center Square) – Housing experts say a California bill to remove urban San Francisco from California Coastal Commission oversight could significantly increase the speed of housing permitting and the availability of housing.
Under State Sen. Scott Wiener’s, D-San Francisco, SB 951, San Francisco would be excluded from the state’s Coastal Commission, which includes all land within 1,000 yards of the ocean. The California Coastal Commission has complete zoning authority over the Coastal Zone. Given that the state’s most populous cities are on the coastal zone, stringent permitting requirements, including Coastal Commission approval, add significant time to the housing development process.
With interest on loans often one of the highest costs borne by developers, longer permitting and approval times cut deeply into profit margins for dollars competing against other asset classes, such as the stock market, and even housing in other high-demand states or regions where housing can be built more affordably and rapidly.