Published October 2005

Voting for the direction
of land use

This year’s election season is a bit of a yawner for real estate enthusiasts, with no major referenda or initiatives on the ballot tied directly to real estate.

But the Snohomish County Council seats up for election this November loom large for the health and welfare of the north Puget Sound economy in general. What voters do with these seats will be in many ways a statement about their position on land use. After all, land use is one of the two biggest areas of policy for County Council members.

Candidates for these seats will be pitted as pro-development at one extreme and environmentalists at the other. Apparently, you can’t be both.

Unfortunately, that sort of either/or placement fails to present the real issues of affordable housing, traffic and roads, open spaces, and infrastructure. This isn’t really about the “fat cat” developers or the “tree huggers.” It’s about quality of life. That requires affordable housing, good roads, jobs and things to do when we aren’t in our house, on the road or at work.

In recent years, low mortgage interest rates have allowed homebuyers to reach to the higher home prices driven by supply and demand forces in the market. We’ve been able to avoid the subject of affordable housing largely because of Alan Greenspan’s handy work.

But home values — which are hitting record highs — continue to rise. A move upward in interest rates, and affordable housing will become a crisis.

However, the fix isn’t about government at all. It’s about less government, less regulation and more inventory.

The problem is on the supply side. There just isn’t enough affordable land to develop where the growth management policies the county is forced to live under allows for it. There’s friction between where there is market demand and where there is inventory, and that’s driving up prices.

Being labeled pro-development is really less about being a developer’s friend and more about making sure there is less cost (read “regulation”) to deliver supply where there is demand. The harder we make it to develop, the higher the cost of the finished product. Policies or politicians who work against development are working against an affordable finished product.

Indeed, to be pro-development is to be pro-affordable housing and pro-job creation. That ought to be something to be proud of.

The alternative is continued artificial restrictions on supply that drive up values in the name of environmental protection. There’s a balance. At what point is too much restriction driving costs too high?

Voters need to sort that out before they cast their ballot and set a course for the County Council one way or the other.

Tom Hoban is co-founder and CEO of Coast Real Estate Services, a property management, leasing, brokerage and investment services firm with offices in Everett and Tacoma. He can be reached at tomhoban@coastmgt.com or 425-339-3638.

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