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Q&A
Kirk Goodrich on how the current land use process disadvantages M/WBE developers
0:58:32
·
100 sec
Chair Richard R. Buery Jr. inquires about the specific impact of the costly and time-consuming land use process on minority- and women-owned business enterprise (M/WBE) developers, who often lack deep capital reserves.
Kirk Goodrich confirms that the high costs and long timelines create significant barriers, effectively excluding smaller, emerging, and M/WBE developers who cannot easily absorb the financial risks or opportunity costs.
He notes this often forces them into partnerships where their participation may be less meaningful, concluding the system fails to support the very developers and communities it claims to care about.
- The high cost and long duration of the land use process disproportionately hinder M/WBE and emerging developers.
- Lack of capital makes it difficult for these firms to undertake risky entitlement processes independently.
- This creates a bottleneck favoring larger, established developers and limits meaningful participation by M/WBEs.
- The system ultimately fails both M/WBEs and the communities waiting for affordable housing.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
0:58:32
I'm sorry.
0:58:33
Have one other question.
Kirk Goodrich
0:58:33
I'm sorry.
Richard R. Buery Jr.
0:58:36
You talk about the impact that these rules have on minority and women owned contractors with opportunity lost by those who don't have the kind of capital to take on some of the time and opportunity cost burden you're describing.
Kirk Goodrich
0:58:49
So Chair Bury, excellent question.
0:58:53
And the reality is that if you because it costs so much and takes so long, you can't really expect anyone who is fledgling developer or somebody who's not a generational, multigenerational developer to be involved in this at all.
0:59:17
And essentially, what you do by having a process like this is that you create a bottleneck and a process where the people who you want most to be involved in development and construction in these communities can't really participate in a meaningful way without a partner.
0:59:41
And often, if they're a partner because they can't invest what other people invest, they don't really have as meaningful a seat at the table.
0:59:50
And it's another example of saying we care deeply, but we care not much at all.
0:59:56
And I think that's true for MBE and WBE businesses participating in this process.
1:00:01
And it's true for the households waiting for housing at the end, that this process doesn't serve the people stakeholders and community boards say they care most about.