The state legislative bodies just went back to work for the season. One item they are working on involves land use regulation. The libertarian in you mught thing, ugh more rules. Maybe that’s too quick a judgement. Maybe there’s more liberty than restraint in this case.
If an issue has risen to the attention of state politicians, than it’s possible it impacts all Minnesotans. Let’s call it the greater group or G-group. From Peter Callaghan’s tweet it sounds like the rules envolve restaints at the city level. Let’s call these groups C-groups. And then let’s keep households in the story and they’ll be H-groups.
So the line of reasoning goes, that due to land use restrictions at the local level, insufficient housing is being built. Since real estate is sold in an ever adjusting market, low supply rises prices for all participants. One might even argue that low supply is gumming up the market as single, older folks are sitting in large 3-4 bedroom homes as they have no where to go. So the opportunities for new buyers and move-up buyers to navigate to a new port-of-call is slowed. While those that would prefer to give up their large home, as they are no longer using but a quarter of it, are not finding appropriate options. Hence many participants in the H-group are not feeling very free.
The C-group is responsible for, over long periods of time, formalized language on the books to prevent hither dither building. This was all done to preserve the liberty of the H-group, at those points in time. The H-group had a certain idea of what their neighborhood was meant to be. It wasn’t meant to abutt a bowling alley, or a five story apartment building. The H-group wanted to drive down tree-lined streets past other single family homes just like theirs. They wanted consistency. They wanted tranquility. And with all the other options just a bit further out, their desires did not interfere with others in the G-groups
A few generations go by, and the metro area triples in population. The spacial relations evolve to something different. Those who were newlyweds hoping for a family now are elderly with low maintenance needs. The formal regulations set out be the C-group, which made perfect sense at the time, is putting a dam in a dynamic system. Instead of transforming itself under new demands, new needs are blocked at every turn.
And so the greater group is making a rule to take out the rule that is holding back the market. Call it a liberty rule instead of a regulation. For it is through transformation of the land to new uses that allows the C-group to arrive back at a balance of the greatest freedom for the best price.
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