“Most broad­ly, the two wins are the biggest yet for the YIMBY move­ment. It has matured from a cheeky idea a few years ago into a true advo­ca­cy move­ment and a lob­by­ing force. Its constituents–both vocal activists and a silent major­i­ty of renters, young adults, and oth­er peo­ple who feel the direct pres­sure of the hous­ing market–have only grown in num­ber. The big­ger the crowd, the loud­er the cheers.”

“The real emo­tion­al punch, if some­thing as staid as hous­ing leg­is­la­tion could be said to have such a thing, comes in the form of SB 9. For all the hous­ing bills that have addressed zon­ing, afford­able hous­ing finance, the Region­al Hous­ing Needs Allo­ca­tion Process, den­si­ty bonus­es and all the oth­er soporif­ic arcana of plan­ning, SB 9 oper­ates at an entic­ing­ly human scale. It address­es that fun­da­men­tal unit of human habi­ta­tion: the house.”

“If any­thing, SB 9 is going to be a bonan­za of local con­trol, as every sin­gle city in the state gets to decide how to imple­ment it. They can con­sid­er design guide­lines, park­ing reg­u­la­tions, financ­ing mech­a­nisms, fire safe­ty, mass­ing, set­backs, flat or sparkling, cream or sug­ar, and, yes, afford­abil­i­ty incen­tives.”