This year, the YIMBY (“Yes In My Backyard”) movement lobbied the California legislature for several bills including SB 50, SB 330, and SB 1120, that would eliminate single-family zoning throughout the state.
YIMBY’s argue that single-family zoning has limited the ability to build new affordable housing and serves to reinforce racial barriers within and among communities.
Opponents of the YIMBY movement argue that the elimination of single-family zoning would destroy neighborhoods, allowing corporate speculators to “buy up” houses in single-family neighborhoods, primarily in lower-income neighborhoods, convert them to 4-8 unit apartment complexes, and stick taxpayers with cost of building the infrastructure to support higher density.
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