Updating the zoning is another solution to this issue, which would help to accommodate multifamily in areas that are not currently zoned for multifamily. “Updating zoning would go a long way,” he adds. “A lot of the state density bills are really focused on where land is already zoned multifamily, but I think that updating the general plan and updating zoning is really important. We don't talk about it much because it is a harder political fight, but I think we should be talking about it more.”

LOS ANGELES—California is experiencing a housing affordability crisis. While the issue has fueled fervent finger-pointing debates in communities across the state, Paavo Monkkonen, an associate professor of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, argues that the affordability crisis is a fundamental supply-demand imbalance. In a recent economic letter published by UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, Monkkonen explains that democratized public participation in the planning process is the solution to the state's affordability woes.

“The politics of density are so dominated by homeowners. One of the things that we should be talking about more is increasing density,” Monkkonen tells GlobeSt.com. “Condos are cheaper than single-family housing per-square-foot, in general. There is a problem in all of California, but Los Angeles is acute because much of the land is zoned for single-family homes. That made sense in the 50s, when the metropolitan area is half the size that it is today, but as the metropolitan area grows, we need to increase the density in the central areas.”

While the affordability issue has been created by the dearth of supply, community pushback may be aggravating the issue by limiting developers' ability to build more new housing. Monkkonen categorizes the community acrimony as “quality of life concerns, the desire to control who lives near you, aspirations to preserve neighborhood character, and confusion about the price impacts of new housing supply at the neighborhood and regional level.” To properly deal with this pushback from the community, he recommends that state and local governments must democratize the planning process so that it is not in favor of wealthy individuals and so that the community's needs are met.

Some neighborhoods are changing dramatically, and that is causing much of the discord between the community and developers, and many people see developers as being the beneficiaries of high rents. “The politics of resentment in urban development is interesting,” explains Monkkonen. “It is like the Airbnb fight. Airbnb makes a good scapegoat because they are making a lot of money, but I don't know that that is the best way to think about policy. Developers make an easy scapegoat because they are the visible sign of neighborhood change, and people think that they make tons of money.”

Updating the zoning is another solution to this issue, which would help to accommodate multifamily in areas that are not currently zoned for multifamily. “Updating zoning would go a long way,” he adds. “A lot of the state density bills are really focused on where land is already zoned multifamily, but I think that updating the general plan and updating zoning is really important. We don't talk about it much because it is a harder political fight, but I think we should be talking about it more.”