Comment by vel0city
5 days ago
> Are angry homeowners overthrowing governments and blocking homebuilding?
Yes. Go to city council meetings when new housing developments are being proposed. See the throngs of people that'll show up demanding that new development doesn't get built. See the angry people shouting about how allowing ADUs will just destroy their way of life.
The amount of vitrol I saw about the Plano Tomorrow plan against past mayor LaRosiliere was astounding, people fighting tooth and nail to prevent denser housing from being approved. So many people saying things like the "wrong kind of people" would be moving in and allowing more density would make the city unsafe.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/plano-repeals-compre...
That's the local council. Local council meetings are notorious for attracting people willing to oppose any development. Not the same thing as an electoral force.
Recent zoning changes in Texas came from the state legislature and remove cities ability to block a fair number of housing types.
Did Plano itself actually enact any new pro zoning law that has drawn new protests? The article you shared it about developing undeveloped land but zoning is largely about what is blocked on existing inhabited land.
You asked:
> Are angry homeowners...blocking homebuilding?
And then now:
> Local council meetings are notorious for attracting people willing to oppose any development.
So yes, even you agree there are angry homeowners doing what they can blocking homebuilding.
Yes, it's been happening at the local level, because that's where those decisions are almost always made.
> Recent zoning changes in Texas came from the state legislature
As in, this last legislative session. It took to that point because of angry homeowners blocking development. And how did they do it? By pushing out any local government that tried to enact development plans that tried to densify over and over again throughout tons of towns. The legislation didn't come from a vacuum, it came in response to these NIMBYs that have otherwise yielded significant political power at the local level.
> zoning is largely about what is blocked on existing inhabited land.
Practically all that land is currently zoned. It's not developed, but it is zoned. Almost always zoned agriculturally, as it was once pretty much all farm lands. Lots of those areas are still farms, but largely for tax reasons.