Ari Ioannides’ latest column, “The very height of the Bonanza debacle,” hits the nail on the head. Land-use regulations in and around Summit County are irrevocably broken. Summit County lags behind the rest of the state in housing production and the amount of red tape one has to push through to build anything here has cost our community untold millions of dollars.
Where Ari is wrong, however, is found in the tagline of his column where he presents himself as providing “a conservative perspective on local politics.” I would argue that zoning reform is not a conservative issue, but a liberal one.
Restrictive and exclusive zoning, like we see here in Park City, only reinforces conservative hierarchies and structures by gatekeeping who is allowed to live here. Left-NIMBY types, the ones with the “In This House We Believe …” signs in their front yards, who show up in droves to local community meetings to protest modest increases in housing density (or even new ski lift infrastructure), do more to reinforce the status-quo than dyed-in-the-wool conservatives who recognize that we need legalize housing and liberalize land use.
I understand that in some liberal circles “deregulation” is a four-letter word, but in this instance relaxing zoning laws is the right — dare I say progressive — position to take.
Ari also engages in a sleight of hand when he invokes the name of the great state of California as a model for housing development. He thinks that if progressive Parkites see the word “California” they will think “liberal,” when the reality is that California is anything but liberal on the housing production front.
You’d think a state blessed with nearly year-round perfect weather would be a bastion for housing production, yet the opposite is true, which is why states like Texas that build housing hand over fist remain more affordable and attract new residents while conservative states (on the housing front) like California do not.
It is the lack of housing production in blue states like California and New York that is allowing red states like Texas to tip the balance of power in the Electoral College in their favor.
If the dream of BlueTah is to ever come true, towns like Park City will have to do their part by legalizing housing to lower the cost of living and showing that our core values are more than words on a yard sign.
Micah Kagan
Kamas