And Just Like That It Was Over

Last week we were looking forward to the battle between the town of Woodside and proponents of denser housing.

What made this debate interesting was that it pitted two groups of Progressives against each other: those who hold the Endangered Species Act sacrosanct and those who push the urban-development-mass-transit model.

A scant five days later the urbanists won after California Attorney General Rob Bonta "sternly rebuked" Woodside:

Woodside announced that it has changed its stance and will immediately begin accepting housing applications as allowed under SB9.

Woodside's quick cave is unfortunate. We would have been entertained by the prospect of Progressives calling each other names, but that's not the main reason for disappointment.

It would have been interesting to find out whether Progressives would acknowledge any limiting principle to the Endangered Species Act. Meanwhile, we'll just have to be satisfied with AG Bonta's statement:

Land that is already developed — with, for example a single-family home — is not, by definition, habitat.

Openspace.org: "More than half of California, including most of undeveloped San Mateo
and Santa Clara counties, is prime mountain lion habitat."

Developers are now salivating over the prospect of subdividing a large parcel of land that has one or a few single-family homes. Not only will they have the backing of State law, they won't have to worry that the land is a "habitat" for an endangered species.

Your humble blogger on balance is glad that Woodside lost. There is a tremendous housing shortage in the suburbs and hinterlands as the population embraces working from more spacious homes.

Knocking down impediments to development will benefit everyone in the long run except cities who want to keep their tax base high.