Flooding Suburbs with High-Density Housing Projects

LFC Comments: A warning to Concord Township, Ohio residents. Please be very mindful of what the JEDD Board is planning for the proposed Town Center.

The initial plans were scuttled when residents objected to multi-family housing. However, vigilance is needed by the residents to ensure that the JEDD Board members, a couple of the members do not even live in Concord Township, do not try to sneak in the multi-family housing under the federal government rules of Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.

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Dangerous Infrastructure Bill: Flooding America’s Suburbs with High-Density Housing Projects

by Gatestone Institute Staff  •  July 15, 2021 at 5:00 am

  • This proposal… amounts to “abolishing the suburbs” by making them more like cities.
  • Apartment buildings…. could be built in the middle of any suburban neighborhood, and there is nothing you could do to stop it. A housing project could be built next door to your home. One-acre lots could be subdivided to cram in as many houses as possible.
  • They claim that cities are undesirable places to live because they are crowded, hot, and lack nature, so it is unfair that people have to live there. Ironically, their solution seems to be to make more of them….
  • Worse, local governments presumably know what is best for their communities. That is why communities have local governments rather than a federal government deciding everything for everyone. If residents desired different zoning, their officials would have already made those changes on their own…..That is probably why it is being hidden within a massive bill and not talked about.
  • The federal government has no power to force this change, but the president has floated withholding federal money that towns rely on for things like roads unless the towns comply…. What town can afford to lose all federal transportation dollars — funded with taxes that they pay?..,, Basically, it is not far from extortion.
  • Most cities, and most low-income people, vote for Democrats. For politicians, this means that if you can make the countryside into cities, in 10 years, everyone will be voting for only one party.
  • Many counties will find it hard to resist the temptation to take the cash. But in the long-term they are saddling themselves with a huge influx of poverty whose financial effects will outweigh any grants. Of course, they will also completely change the aesthetics and culture of the neighborhood — and irrevocably alter its political makeup.
President Joe Biden’s “infrastructure” proposal says that money granted to towns and counties will come with a condition: eliminating “prohibitions on multifamily housing” and zoning restrictions such as “minimum lot sizes.” This proposal, it has been said, amounts to “abolishing the suburbs” by making them more like cities. (Image source: iStock)

The following is an interview with Luke Rosiak, an investigative reporter with The Daily Wire. He warns of a little-noticed provision in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal that could have major consequences for how people will be forced to live — and for a political power-grab in the country.

Gatestone Institute: President Joe Biden’s “infrastructure” proposal says that money granted to towns and counties will come with a condition: eliminating “prohibitions on multifamily housing” and zoning restrictions such as “minimum lot sizes.” This proposal, it has been said, amounts to “abolishing the suburbs” by making them more like cities.

Rosiak: Yes. Apartment buildings as well as duplexes — essentially carving up suburban homes into multiple apartment units — could be built in the middle of any suburban neighborhood, and there is nothing you could do to stop it. A housing project could be built next door to your home. One-acre lots could be subdivided to cram in as many houses as possible. If you bought into a neighborhood of one-acre lots and enjoy a bit of privacy, your neighbor could soon be able to sell his acre to a real estate developer who could put eight buildings on it.

GI: What is the purpose of this?

Rosiak: As USA Today put it: “A house with a white picket fence and a big backyard for a Fourth of July barbecue may be a staple of the American dream, but experts and local politicians say multifamily zoning is key to combating climate change, racial injustice, and the nation’s growing affordable housing crisis.” As part of the administration’s desired $2.3 billion infrastructure plan, “cities would allow… apartment buildings with fewer than six units to be built next to a traditional house….”

Part of the “purpose” is the claim that we need to spread out poverty to make things more “equitable.” They claim that cities are undesirable places to live because they are crowded, hot, and lack nature, so it is unfair that people have to live there. Ironically, their solution seems to be to make more of them by cutting down trees in the suburbs and putting up tall buildings. They also claim it will help the environment because if Americans live more densely, they are more likely to take mass transit and use fewer cars.

GI: Is this what Americans want? More poverty and increased population density in their suburbs?

Rosiak: Plenty of Americans love the big-city lifestyle; but they are already living in cities. Many other Americans have chosen big backyards for their kids to play in and to have some privacy. If you moved into a neighborhood based on certain expectations – whether it was one house on each quarter-acre, half-acre, or acre – you likely do not want that thrown out the window. With rising crime rates and remote work, people’s preferences have actually been shifting to moving even further out in the country, to have even more space than before.

Worse, local governments presumably know what is best for their communities. That is why communities have local governments rather than a federal government deciding everything for everyone. If residents desired different zoning, their officials would have already made those changes on their own. This tells you that the move will most likely be horrifically unpopular among voters of both parties. That is probably why it is being hidden within a massive bill and not talked about.

The federal government has no power to force this change, but the president has floated withholding federal money that towns rely on for things like roads unless the towns comply.

President Biden’s campaign platform called to “Eliminate local and state housing regulations that perpetuate discrimination” through a bill called the HOME Act. It would make “surface transportation funding and community development block grants contingent on” eliminating policies such as “ordinances that ban apartment buildings from certain residential areas or set a minimum lot size for a single-family home.'” What town can afford to lose all federal transportation dollars — funded with taxes that they pay?

The infrastructure provisions are not the only way the current administration is methodically seeking to increase the population density and poverty rate of suburbs. In June, the president signed an executive order affecting Department of Housing and Urban Development money, “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,” with similar goals.

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