Cities Under Pressure: Local Growth Control and Residential Development Policy

California’s recent population and job growth have outstripped its new housing production. As a result, median home prices and rents have escalated while affordability rates have fallen. Although these trends present various challenges to the state government, city governments actually make most of the land-use decisions that affect housing. Many observers maintain that California’s cities have not done enough to accommodate new housing in recent years, and some critics have argued that local growth controls are a major cause of the state’s housing shortfalls.

In Cities Under Pressure: Local Growth Controls and Residential Development Policy, Paul Lewis and Max Neiman evaluate these claims by examining the residential development policies of California’s cities. Focusing on local efforts to control the amount, type, and location of new housing, the authors use a variety of data sources—including a detailed survey of almost 300 city planning officials in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Central Valley—to investigate which communities adopt growth controls and why. Their findings indicate that most growthmanagement policies are understandable responses to the cross-pressures experienced by city officials.

Although the authors note that some local growth controls may indeed hinder homebuilding, they argue that broader market forces and state policies probably do more to explain California’s high housing costs and slow production. They suggest that a more predictable and transparent development process would help minimize conflict over growth. They also urge local officials to manage such conflicts before they erupt and to take the lead in resolving them once they do.