Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
At one point you said that a best use tax was weaponizing a tax. Your suggestion seems to be weaponizing a tax it’s just against a target you aren’t sympathetic for.
Personally I have no issues with a lack of density IF people pay for it. We need to mess with people’s assets to get density. Empty parking lots (which people object to putting into towers anyway) arent significant enough.
Look at Glenmore landing as an example of empty parking lots being fought against. You can’t win density on a project by project basis.
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Huh? I didn't mention using taxes to do anything. My suggestion was to expropriate corporate owned land to convert it into housing density and to create a public sector option for building houses / condos / towers which in turn could become a profit center for the city to continue building affordable housing. My punchline is constantly to try and support PEOPLE over CORPORATIONS/BILLIONAIRES.
I think we want to get to the same endgame (build more houses) but is that actually the goal? No, the goal is to
drive down housing costs through increasing the housing supply
so that current and future generations can realistically buy a home.
The Blanket rezoning is a nickel and dime solution that will give you onesie and twosie density. Also, as long as the private developers are in control of the situation they are going to work hard to drive UP housing costs so they can make more profit. If houses are not getting cheaper then the strategy is a failure to meet the goal.
To all of you jokers who are saying "people like to buy $1M homes" - If you have two identical houses and one costs $600,000 and one costs $1,000,000, which one would you buy? If you answer honestly, the answer is the cheaper house because only an idiot would pay more for the exact same product.
I think we could have an amazing social experiment in Glenmore landing. We should go to those protestors and give them a choice:
1) Move ahead with Blanket rezoning to get density
2) Roll back blanket rezoning and move ahead with developing corporate owned dead spaces into density
I would guess that if those protesters had the choice, they would vote against blanket rezoning and allow the parking lot development. The reason, in my opinion, is because blanket rezoning negatively impacts people in a real way and the Glenmore landing project is just something they don't like.