Is It A Housing Crime To Build One-Story Commercial Buildings In Downtowns?

Is this a relic from a bygone era?

Driving around coastal towns in Southern California, I’ve been increasingly noticing one thing in particular: One-story commercial buildings.

Even in downtown areas of these coastal towns, whether that’s Oceanside or Encinitas, there are a proliferation of one-story commercial buildings.

It makes sense that many of these buildings are leftovers from a different era, when the name of the game was low-density housing and development. 

Today, though, building such a thing seems more like a disservice to a population that is suffering under the weight of increasing housing prices and a chronic lack of new units. 

Constructing a new commercial building without any housing above it, I’m proposing, is akin to stealing valuable transit-adjacent and walkable land from people who need it most.

These aren’t suburban-type commercial buildings I’m talking about. Though I have my own gripes with suburbia, the strip malls and standalone restaurants in oceans of parking lots are not the subject here.

We’re talking about street-facing development that is appropriate for apartment living; lots near city centers and neighborhood hangouts that would be desirable to live near to.

These are places with nearby markets, grocers, coffee shops, and yoga studios, all within walking distance.

These are, generally, also places near transit. 

Now, for an example.

I recently stopped at a coffee shop in Oceanside, California on Highway 101. This particular coffee shop is located in a strip of street facing buildings with other shops and studios located within it. There is an organic grocery a block away and several bars and restaurants close by.

It’s even a few miles from regional and local rail.

This building has likely been there for a while. But just down the street, there is a new development that includes a few restaurants within it. What would be an ideal spot to put new housing, there is none. 

In California, this should probably be a crime. 

But shouldn’t we be able to fix this easily?

In the United States, the answer is always a little more complicated than it should be.

Beneath the surface of the housing crisis, there's a battle being fought. This battle is between local and state governments, and it’s not hard to guess who is on which side.

CalMatters called this housing battle a guerrilla war.

As CalMatters also reports, many California cities have actively resisted State mandates to build more housing. Most famously, there have been battles with Huntington Beach and Coronado, as well as many suburban enclaves in the Bay Area, over housing requirements.

The reason these one-story commercial buildings are built is most likely zoning. Zoning limits the height of buildings as well the uses these buildings can provide.

So if a developer buys one of these parcels, knowing that the use is limited to one-story commercial buildings, they'll likely just bite the bullet and build exactly that. Gaining a rezoning would potentially require years of red tape and negotiation with the city, making the project most likely financially unfeasible in the process.

To stop these housing crimes from happening, we have to change zoning.

“The model of the human habitat dictated by zoning is a formless, soul-less, centerless, demoralizing mess. It bankrupts families and townships. It disables whole classes of decent, normal citizens. It ruins the air we breathe. It corrupts and deadens our spirit.”

James Howard Kuntsler