Finding common ground on parking, housing

Ms. Brady notes that homebuilders build to maximize profit. Now that state law lets them choose, Gateway’s builder provided just 73 car stalls for 128 apartments. A profit-seeking builder who thought buyers wanted 2.3 cars apiece would have built more parking and charged for it; parking is revenue, not charity. They built less because they read the market next to a Caltrain station.

She calls $50,000 per stall small against a 30-year mortgage. But that’s the floor — underground parking runs higher — and it lands on buyers and renters alike, financed into the price or folded into the rent. Even at the floor, one stall adds roughly $300 a month — often the line between a young family affording to live here and not.

Ms. Brady writes from Foster City and I from San Mateo, but the affordability squeeze doesn’t stop at city limits — and we want the same thing: a county that keeps its appeal for our children and our employers. Where we differ is how. People are being priced out today, or never starting families or businesses here at all — not because of a new building near the train, but because a home costs too much. Requiring a parking space in every new apartment or condo only drives that cost higher.

Max Mautner

San Mateo