It's a good essay though it's not the whole picture for Langley Township. From 2007-2018 developer fees were heavily suppressed, some of the cheapest in the region, so during that time it wasn't about extracting wealth from developers at all, more about just growing the tax base, with the side effect of producing a bunch of new housing. Now it's different and they have pivoted to a more extractive model, but only because the previous approach led to an infrastructure and facilities deficit.
Nothing really in the media, it took a lot of digging to figure out exactly what was going on! I tried to document it all in a video released under my local Strong Towns group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zbqnQF6knI
It's a good essay though it's not the whole picture for Langley Township. From 2007-2018 developer fees were heavily suppressed, some of the cheapest in the region, so during that time it wasn't about extracting wealth from developers at all, more about just growing the tax base, with the side effect of producing a bunch of new housing. Now it's different and they have pivoted to a more extractive model, but only because the previous approach led to an infrastructure and facilities deficit.
Thanks, James. Were there any articles or reports talking about this pivot?
Nothing really in the media, it took a lot of digging to figure out exactly what was going on! I tried to document it all in a video released under my local Strong Towns group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zbqnQF6knI
You've accurately described the single most important roadblock to providing more housing that average people can afford.
I always summarize the situation like this: we regulate new housing like it's a nuclear power plant, and we tax it like it's a gold mine.