> You fill out some paperwork requesting a zoning variance and get your answer in a few weeks.

That may be true in some (many?) locales, but it's not for places like California, where the housing shortages are hurting most.

Here, even if you don't need a variance, and your plans are exactly up to code as-is, you should expect to spend 1-2 years fighting NIMBY landowners who don't want anything to change, and use various laws and community comment periods as blunt instruments to delay your building plans to the point that you run out of money while fighting and give up.