Letter: Housing fees and regulations

Among other things, she advocates support for the housing impact fees. The housing impact fee approach is based upon a misconception and misunderstanding of the economics involved in homebuilding. Impact fees, which are fees charged to the developers of new housing, are counterproductive. They serve as disincentives to homebuilders and result in increasing the prices of market-rate housing. A better approach would be to reduce the fees as well as the other costs of processing new housing through the approval process and incentivizing homebuilders by removing or reducing governmental obstacles in the construction of new housing.

If you believe the government can do a better job than the private sector of building new housing, then the money to fund public housing projects should come from the public (for example, a sales tax). If you believe the private sector can do a better job then the government in building new housing, then you remove the obstacles and disincentives to building new housing and encourage the private sector by reducing fees, removing regulatory barriers such as zoning, height limits and density limits and streamline the process by which new residential projects are approved locally.

John Paul Hanna

Palo Alto