Larry, but you see what you're doing here. There's no nuance in your description of who actually builds housing. True, many market rate multi-family housing projects are happening across the country, and it is also true than a good number of those are because of incentives offered by local jurisdictions. The problem I see with your analysis and solution is that you only see "wealthy developers," and use that logic to be anti-growth. When, in reality, there are tons of local builders who aren't just sitting on piles of money or making an absolute killing off of taxpayers. They often have to float a loan to start a project and are faced with an unreasonable amount of upfront costs. Those people are being priced out of the industry because the strictest regulation always seems to be aimed at the little guy first. While the ones who fit the description you give will just pay whatever it costs and charge the buyer in the end. Development costs in nearly every jurisdiction in Thurston County land somewhere between $60k to $130k per unit, depending on the scope of the project, the price of land, the regulatory obstacles, and the delays in the permitting processes, etc. If you want truly "affordable housing, you have to make more projects pencil. MFTE programs in many cities across the country are doing this. And, yes, we need all types of housing. You don't have to like it, but the statistics (even from the Department of Commerce) say it is the truth. In the end, forcing democratic control over someone else's property just doesn't sit right with me. If you want to control what gets built on a property, buy that preparty and build it. Yet, then you might be one of those developers you are so adamant about portraying as evil and greedy. Let's remember builders build houses, government doesn't. Someone has to get paid for the hard work they put in.
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