Residential density is part of our transition to a sustainable future. As such, the proposed Lincoln Center Project is an excellent example of incremental upzoning. Adding density along major traffic routes is a measured approach to addressing our housing crisis.
Opponents of the project need to present a positive vision of how existing density is consistent with sustainable living. Existing research indicates that single-family zoning is wasteful of land, energy, and water; increases sprawl, travel times, and pollution; makes housing unaffordable due to the low number of housing units, increases homelessness, and hinders wealth formation for young families; reduces government services due to its low occupant/land ratio.
100 years ago, Sunset Park was mostly bean and alfalfa fields. The farmers were probably critical of greedy developers laying down streets and building ticky-tack homes — the same homes where citizens now live (and complain). Would it have been better if the farmers in 1924 had prevailed, and kept their farming community intact?
Ed Salisbury, resident of Santa Monica
