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While I want this to happen, what realistic incentive(s) are there to relinquish local control, and even if the power is indeed given to the state-level government, won't NIMBY's just move their fight there?

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As we just saw with the fight for SB 50, they will indeed.

However, the idea is that as more people join the YIMBY cause, they will elect enough YIMBY representatives that the state will be able to pass solid state level laws about zoning and development that preempt local NIMBY groups.

The main argument is that NIMBYs are outnumbered at the state level. They "win" at the local level because older, richer homeowners are overrepresented at community meetings.

NIMBYs also win in local votes. Most voters turn out for presidential elections. Far fewer turn out for state elections. And the voter turnout for local elections is frankly pathetic. The votes where San Francisco set a cap on new office space per year and made apartment buildings near the coast inordinately slow and expensive to build? Off-year elections where the NIMBYs have an electoral advantage.

http://beyondchron.org/the-failure-of-district-elections/

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