As a follow up to my previous post on millennials and the housing crisis, here’s a piece from The California Planning & Development Report  https://www.cp-dr.com/articles/nimbyism-the-way-out about the waning influence of NIMBYs in the development review process.  While the writer Josh Stevens attributes the decline to a number of factors, the growing number of younger people looking for housing is certainly part of it.

Economically, only 54% of housing units in California are owner-occupied, a full ten percentage points lower than the national average. By definition, everyone else rents or borrows (or is unhoused or dependent). Those renters may or may not actively support development. But they are highly unlikely to support the NIMBY agenda. Anyone who aspires to purchase a home is likely to actively oppose it (and these are mostly millennials).

Many planning departments shed veteran staff members following the Great Recession. A new generation of young entry-level planners and progressive mid-career planners are taking over. The same can be said for many city councils too.

From a political perspective, I think they’re (local officials) going to hear increasingly fewer strident voices of opposition at public meetings in the coming years. Those voices might not be any less loud, but they’ll be less numerous (as those older homeowners fade). In a democracy, numbers are supposed to matter more than volume.

Utah has more young people getting ready to set up their own households than just about anywhere else in the country.  I’ve also heard a few of those older homeowners make comments about their concern about their now-grown kids not being able to find an affordable place to live.  The shift away from NIMBYism may be coming to a community near you sometime soon!