In his column “Housing report offers warnings we can’t ignore“, Jeff Hawkes points out:
“What the report by the county planning commission does highlight is how township regulations drive up housing costs, making it more and more likely that developers build only for the well-to-do…
“Municipalities, for instance, may require developers to put in excessively wide streets, provide for unnecessary parking or jump through hoops to build attached residences.
“The state requires municipalities to provide for all housing types, but Jim Shultz of Charter Homes said he experienced ‘pitched battles’ when, as head of low-income housing builder HDC, he sought to ‘open up the suburbs’ to affordable housing…
“An imbalance of housing types will warp the county’s future.”
WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail!
