I was reading in last weeks issue of The Economist an opinion piece about growth that I thought sounded very much like the experience we are having here. Titled Britain’s New Suburbs are Peculiar Places, it looks at how growth in British communities has been shaped by land use restrictions and NIMBYs, among other things. It very much reminds me of our communities. Noting that cities used to grow by accretion, where new developments took place within or directly adjacent to existing neighborhoods, now it’s getting pushed out farther away because … “established residents tend to prefer that large new developments remain a respectful distance..”. As a result, the story notes, those new development are “sprawling and disconnected – a clump rather than a city.” “Though the (new) estates are well-planned individually, they do not add up to a coherent town.”
The piece also notes that because of restrictions and objections, not enough housing in being built, causing an affordability crisis, and gives a rather good visual to explain how this happens:
“Britain is often said to be building too few houses, but that is not the whole story. Imagine a balloon that is being gripped by a pair of hands. The balloon is steadily inflating as the population grows and the national government nags local authorities to build new homes. Meanwhile the hands, representing planning restrictions and local nimbys, try to constrain any expansion. In many places the hands prevail, and little or nothing gets built. But in parts the balloon bulges spectacularly, resulting in many more homes than local people need.”
This seems to reflect pretty well what is happening all over the United States as well as in Utah, where the reference to a national government are instead the states here. The bulges described usually take place in farther out areas because first, there are not so many people out there to object, and second there hasn’t been time for a constituency to develop to oppose development and get their cities to put in place more restrictive rules.
Want proof? Take a look where the fastest growing communities in our fair state are. It’s mainly on the fringes of the urban areas, not in the middle near the older more established neighborhoods.
- Vineyard 139 12,543 8923%
- Herriman 21,785 55,144 153%
- Bluffdale 7,598 17,014 123%
- Saratoga Sp. 17,781 37,696 112%
- Eagle Mtn. 21,415 43,623 103%
And affordability has now made this a state level issue. As noted frequently, a number of states (and in some cases, large cities) are attempting to deal with this through what is collectively now being called “zoning reform.” I’ve written about many of these previously, and here’s just another recent example:
And as some of you may note, I kicked this whole post off with a piece from a British publication, which reflects that international nature of this issue. To wit, here’s what is happening right now in New Zealand, which, like a number of other rich world countries, is also experiencing housing affordability issues:
Sweeping townhouse bill passes into law…, will force councils to allow more homes
As much as we are trying here locally to approach this issue in a reasoned, measurable manner, the tidal wave is coming. It’s hitting everywhere else.