New land-use law's message: build near transit: "Many California planning and environmental groups are heralding the passage of legislation designed to address global warming by curbing suburban sprawl as a watershed moment, perhaps the state's most important land-use law in more than 30 years."
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SB 375 is supposed to be some sort of sea change in development policy, where California stops "sprawl." Build near transportation hubs, discourage driving, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save the planet. But here is one little wrinkle: "...there is a firm industry conviction that not all of the projected growth in California can be accommodated in multifamily urban properties, nor do all consumers want to live in such homes."

You got that right. Matter of fact, I suspect that not all that many consumers want to live in "multifamily urban properties," which are better known as condominium and apartment buildings. I'll go a step further and say that among families with kids, the percentage who want to get crammed into an LA condo is pretty small.

This is the left at war with the housing market. Most Americans don't want to live like people do in Hong Kong. There's nothing wrong with high density urban life, but if people don't have the taste for it they will be unhappy living that way, and there is no point premising development policy on unpopular options.