Opinion by Kendall Cotton: How NIMBYISM chokes off affordable housing even in Big Sky Country
We often hear about the fading dream of homeownership for millions of Americans — especially young people hoping to raise a family — in New York, Los Angeles and other major cities. But the problem extends from coast to coast, with Missoula as a telling example of why there simply
houses to meet demand. The shortage drives the cost of existing homes to levels that are prohibitive for countless low- and middle-income Americans.The shorthand explanation for the housing crunch is not-in-my-backyard NIMBYism, but the political instrument that makes such hostility effective has a more prosaic description: strict local zoning regulations.reflects a growing political consensus that an intervention is needed.
The Biden administration’s housing plan calls the lack of available and affordable land through exclusionary zoning regulations, such as minimum lot area requirements, parking mandates and prohibitions on multifamily housing, as “one of the most significant issues constraining housing supply.”that called strict local and state zoning regulations “the leading factor in the growth of housing prices.