The Steep Price Of Slow Growth And Conservation Policies By Betsy Newmark

07 Mar, 2006 by John Hawkins

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The L.A. Times discovers economics. Apparently, the town of Santa Barbara is discovering some of the consequences of their slow growth policies that put limits on development.

But now this bastion of “slow growth” is learning that it comes with some steep economic, social and even environmental costs:

• Soaring housing prices. With the supply so limited, prices last year rose faster than in any other region in the state. The median price of a single-family house is now $1.1 million, out of reach for all but the well-to-do.

• Traffic congestion, energy consumption and air pollution. An estimated 30,000 commuters, forced by housing prices to live far from where they work, clog U.S. Highway 101 and choke side streets during peak drive times.

• An exodus of big employers. Half a dozen Fortune 500 companies have left for less costly locales. Almost every business and government agency that remains struggles with recruiting and retaining workers who cannot afford to live nearby.

• Altered communities. Poor families have been forced to double- and triple-up in rental housing. Unable to buy homes, many middle-class families with children have moved away. UC Santa Barbara economist Bill Watkins warns that parts of the south coast are at risk of becoming a “geriatric ghetto.”

• Spillover growth. Seventy-five miles away, in northern Santa Barbara County, houses are engulfing farmland. Sprawling Santa Maria is soon expected to pass Santa Barbara as the county’s most populous city. But prices are on the rise there, too, largely because of demand from Santa Barbara-area workers.

Many of these ripple effects could not have been foreseen 30 years ago. [emphasis added]

Well, maybe the geniuses in the Santa Barbara and at the L.A. Times couldn’t have predicted it, but anyone with the slightest acquaintance with economics could have told them what would happen.

This content was used with the permission of Betsy’s Page.