Orange County is facing a housing crisis and the solution is not one answer but one of the biggest answers is supply and demand. When the housing market is pricing generational families out of the communities they helped to build, it is a problem. When a large portion of Orange County’s workforce cannot afford to live in the area they work because it is too expensive, it is a problem. Here in West Orange County, for basic 2 bed 2 bath you can often expect to pay up to $2,500 a month in rent. That is the price of a mortgage! This is a shocking example of a housing crisis.
One of the basic causes of a housing crisis is supply and demand, more units on the market to drive down costs. However, does that mean everywhere, every time? No! Take Horizon West for example, which has been pounded with new apartment buildings in the past several years and many more coming online.

Not Everywhere
Apartment complexes and other multifamily housing must fit the character of the area they are being built. If a re-zoning is required we must ask ourselves why? It should be met with high scrutiny because it changes the character of the neighborhood in which homeowners bought into, often bringing down the home values. Ironically this is frequently done in the name of affordable housing on behalf of what is actually expensive luxury apartments.

Not Every time
The next consideration is infrastructure… this is why we always talk about Infrastructure-First. Because above all things, we must ensure the infrastructure is there before we can even consider new development. We can slow the growth to ensure we have the proper amount of schools coming online, sidewalks, safety lighting, sewage, water mitigation, and roads that are not failing!
That is why I say “Not Everywhere, Not Every time” … we cannot stop the growth in our area. Politicians who tell you that are lying for your votes. What we can do is hold growth to these tests and slow it down while ensuring it is being done in the right places. These are two areas where we see repeated failure in discussion of new development. We must handle the housing crisis and bring online new housing units including affordable, attainable, and workforce housing but that does not mean everywhere and every time. We can't keep losing in West Orange, we have to work in partnership with all stakeholders to ensure we address this issue in a proper manner.