1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I’m writing to ask you to not suspend the use of SB 9 in fire-affected zones. As a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, I know that building more housing is desperately required to reduce the homelessness and cost-of-living crisis in California. Creating one exemption opens the door for more, and is a shining path back to having a bunch of restrictive regulations, which in practice don’t matter for the well-connected developers and landowners who are able to obtain a variance. I agree that the wildfires have been a tragedy, but let’s not compound the tragedy by rolling back the progress California has been making on bringing down the cost of living through building more housing. I urge you to not make a special SB 9 exemption for properties affected by the wildfires.