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TomV1971

And then you spend $1M+ on a nice house in a nice quiet neighborhood, and suddenly you start to care.

It happened to me, and just like it happens to virtually everybody in the same situation.

This is what zoning should be for. When you buy a house for a million dollars you need to spend half day or so to look at the zoning of the area and then you have an idea of what is allowed to be built. If you have and empty lot next to you and it is zoned for up to a 6 story apartment building, then when someone wants to build a 6 story apartment building on that lot, they should be able to. If someone is getting a zoning change, that is very different.

In the Bay Area somehow we have moved to where people somehow have power to stop building even when the building meets the current zoning laws. This really needs to change. There is some movement at the state level to help with this problem and I hope they pass legislation that, if your building plan is withing zoning laws, you get to build it.

Yeah, but your needs aren't the only needs. Would you want to restrict voting in your jurisdiction to only homeowners?

If you look at who actively votes in local elections, this is already the case.

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