What does Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration — more specifically, the state’s misnamed Department of Economic Opportunity (mDEO) — think it’s doing?
The town of Gainesville, Florida, has liberalized its zoning laws to legalize the construction of certain small apartment buildings.
Who knew that building any housing on property owned by developers or by persons letting developers build on their property was illegal to begin with? But better late than never, Gainesville.
Not so fast! says the reputedly pro-free-market but apparently also pro-central-planning DeSantis administration.
According to an mDEO lawsuit, it’s illogical “for the City to argue that by entirely removing the concept of lower density detached residential dwellings…it is doing anything more than helping provide housing to college students and higher income residents.”
Huh? Providing housing only for people who will use that housing! Via various voluntary market transactions!! Is there no end to human deviltry?
Of course, as Reason writer Christian Britschgi points out, increasing the supply of housing units of any type will tend to reduce the demand for all already-existing housing, lowering the rents of units, including low-end units, that developers may not be building at the moment.
I guess the folks at the mDEO aren’t especially ardent fans of Henry Hazlitt’s Economics In One Lesson.
And anyway, what about the inalienable right of anybody of any income level to make market arrangements to shelter themselves from the elements?
In the last few years, DeSantis has gained a good reputation, daring to resist the Big Government mob. Now he needs to resist that mob in his own administration.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Illustration created with DALL-E2
—
See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
4 replies on ““m” Is for “Misnamed””
Repeatedly in years to come, Pam will have to be reminded of a string of entries including this one.
I object!
Gainesville is not a “town.” It’s a city of about 150,000, the largest city in north central Florida.
It does, however, incorporate the remains of Hogtown, population 14 back when it was a Seminole village.
Zoning laws are everywhere. A community in Bergen County, NJ allows single family homes primarily on one acre lots. Is building on empty lots illegal? Maybe not, but you still need the appropriate building permits.
You missed the target on this one. Some 80 percent of Americans say they prefer to live in single-family homes. Tearing down single-family homes to build apartments doesn’t make housing more affordable because it reduces the supply of homes that people want.
Florida’s problem is that counties have restricted the supply of land for housing using “concurrency requirements,” meaning builders can’t build on vacant land until the county has fully financed all of the infrastructure — and the counties never do. This has made housing expensive, whereas before those concurrency rules went into effect in the late 1990s Florida housing was very affordable.
The focus on single-family zoning as the culprit is an attempt by the central planners to divert attention from the real problem. DeSantis is right; the opponents of single-family zoning are wrong.
Randal O’Toole
Thoreau Institute
Camp Sherman, Oregon