Editor,
Your opinion section has some excellent timing: On March 31, the day you published Jon New’s letter “Legalize fourplexes: An open letter to San Mateo City Council,” encouraging San Mateo to legalize neighborhood-scale duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes, the Biden administration announced that very idea would be a key plank in the upcoming federal infrastructure package.
In addition to investments in transportation, the electrical grid and high-speed broadband, President Biden called on Congress to “eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies.”
And he diagnosed exactly the problems we’re facing locally: “For decades, exclusionary zoning laws — like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing — have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities.”
San Mateo County is a wonderful place: proximity to stunning natural beauty; easy access to one of the best job markets on the planet; and a plethora of close, high-quality public and private educational institutions. But many parts of our cities look exactly the same way they did 30 or 50 years ago, even though our economy and our world have changed drastically. Homes that were at one point affordable to public school teachers are now only available to high-income families making $400,000 a year or more.
There are many things we need to do to fix this problem, but President Biden is right: Ending exclusionary zoning laws is crucial to the future of this region. Let’s hope that local city councils and Kevin Mullin and Josh Becker, our representatives in Sacramento, follow President Biden’s lead.
Mike Dunham
Burlingame
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
| Rate: | |
| Begins: | |
| Transaction ID: |
A receipt was sent to your email.
(2) comments
I will agree with Biden once he subdivides his mega estate and demolishes his 20 room mansion so that low income housing can be constructed in its place.
Or, Mr. Dunham, maybe we could decrease the number of people sticking their hands into our wallets in the form of parcel taxes and fees. Maybe we could restrict the state from adding more and more restrictions and then dictating building guidelines that increase the cost of building a home.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.