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2022 Utah L. Rev. 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/utahlr2022 and id is 1 raw text is: SMALL SUBURBS, LARGE LOTS: HOW THE SCALE OF LAND-USE REGULATION AFFECTS HOUSING AFFORDABILITY, EQUITY, AND THE CLIMATE Eric Biber,* Giulia Gualco-Nelson,** Nicholas Marantz,*** and Moira O'Neill**** Abstract Housing costs in major coastal metropolitan areas nationwide have skyrocketed, impacting people, the economy, and the environment. Land- use regulation, controlled primarily at the local level, plays a major role in determining housing production. In response to this mounting housing crisis, scholars, policymakers, and commentators are debating whether greater state involvement in local land-use decision-making is the best path forward. We argue here that there are good reasons to believe that continuing on the current path with local control of land-use regulation as it is will lead to persistent underproduction of housing. The benefits of housing production are primarily regional, including improved job markets, increased socioeconomic mobility, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. But the costs associated with producing more housing are often local, felt at the neighborhood level. Local governments whose voters are impacted by the local negative impacts of housing and will usually have less incentive to consider those regional, and national, benefits and approve housing. Recent political science, planning, economics, and legal research shows that smaller local jurisdictions tend to produce less housing, and when political institutions decentralize control over housing to the sublocal (e.g., neighborhood) scale, less housing is approved. A central theory in academic research in land-use regulation and local government law has been the idea that competition among highly fragmented local governments can produce more efficient outcomes in public services and land-use regulation, even if there may be significant inequities across local jurisdictions in outcomes. Our analysis shows that this theory no longer accurately describes how fragmented local governance affects economic efficiency. Indeed, our analysis makes clear * © 2022 Eric Biber. Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. We appreciate the excellent research assistance provided by Vince Young and Alex Mesher. Thanks to Lee Ann Fennell, Chris Elmendorf, John Infranca, Christopher Serkin, Bob Ellickson, David Schleicher, and Sara Bronin for thoughtful comments. ** © 2022 Giulia Gualco-Nelson. Deputy County Counsel, County of Santa Clara. *** © 2022 Nicholas Marantz. Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine. **** © 2022 Moira O'Neill. Associate Research Scientist, Institute for Urban and Regional Development and Senior Research Fellow, Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. 1

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