BIA/OC Op-Ed: No Mo' NIMBYism

While doing the News Roundup this morning, I missed this on-target op-ed in today's OC Register by Kristine Thalman, who is CEO of the Building Industry Association of Orange County.

One can hope it will cause a scale or two to fall from the eyes of at least some affluent, coddle NIMBYs here in Orange County who think that if enough people wish very, very hard, not another person will move to California or be born here:

California will gain 7 million to 11 million new residents by 2025, increasing the state's population from 37 million today to as many as 48 million. This surge is due to natural increases (the excess of births over deaths) and immigration, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

It is naive and irresponsible to not plan for our incoming population. The threat of anti-growth policies often fueled by NIMBYs (not in my back yard) or environmental zealots may prove to be the greatest hazard to homeownership in Southern California. Ironically, most of the NIMBYs and no-growth activists often own homes in recently developed communities that might be nearly identical to those they seek to prevent elsewhere.

Developers and residential homebuilders are consistently working with local and state government to provide the most efficient, environmentally sensitive, safe and aesthetically pleasing homes possible, and it isn't easy.

In order to get projects approved at the local level, developers provide additional services to accommodate their buyers. Interestingly, the numerous benefits associated with new home developments stand to enhance the quality of life for the community at large. These important but often overlooked enhancements include permanent open space, building schools, parks and recreational facilities, building fire stations or purchasing fire safety equipment, financing traffic improvements and enriching the city's infrastructure. These upgrades benefit the entire community and surrounding vicinities.

You can read the rest by clicking here -- unless you're a NIMBY or enviro-lefty, in which case this might be more your level of reality.

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