What for are planning regulations?

Here is an interesting tit bit from today’s Wall Street Journal editorial page:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday waived the state’s environmental laws in areas affected by the fi res to expedite rebuilding. Wonderful, but that raises a question: Why not ease regulations for all projects if the rules are such a barrier to development?

More than 12,000 structures in the Los Angeles region have been destroyed by the past week’s fires. At California’s glacial pace of permitting, it could take years for new homes and businesses to rise from the ashes. Rebuilding will cost multiples more than original construction owing to more stringent building codes, high permitting fees and inflation.

So basically, planning laws that slow home building and make it more expensive are perfectly fine when there has not been mass destruction but are completely unnecessary when speed and cost is an issue.

Oh and this:

He directed his administration to identify other burdensome permitting and building code requirements that can be eased. This is an admission that state regulations increase costs and delay projects, if they don’t stop them entirely.

Green groups and unions exploit the state’s environmental laws to tie up projects for years in court. Developers often settle lawsuits by making concessions—for example, setting aside land for conservation or using union labor—that increase project costs.

Local governments impose excessive permitting fees and other requirements to mitigate a project’s impact. The Supreme Court’s landmark County of El Dorado ruling last year requires such fees to be commensurate to a project’s impact, though local governments can still tie developers up in red tape to force them to make costly concessions.

A 2021 University of Southern California survey of California developers found that it typically took 18 to 45 months—yes, months—for a project to be approved. Half said they had abandoned projects owing to government fees, and 45% said they were required to substantially reduce a project’s density. More than half reported that lawsuits had scuttled projects, and 37% said legal settlements equaled at least half a project’s worth.

Gee. I wonder if useless planning regulations impact the speed and cost of development in other places.