LOWER THE COST OF CONSTRUCTION

Top-down mandates from Sacramento will not build houses. We need a holistic, all-hands approach to reduce the cost of construction and create the right incentives for developers. The city can play its part by speeding up the plan review process (AI will help but we must invest in preparing our processes and data in order to take advantage of digitalization), and reducing the uncertainty of the planning and the court system. We should explore "pre-approvals" of designs that have survived legal challenges and look into providing insurance guarantees for fire risk while projects are under construction as a means to encourage development.

I propose a voluntary and temporary fee to be offered to the construction community. This fee would allow for a temporary contractor to expedite plan review and prepare our process for digitalization and the pending breakthroughs that (I believe) AI will allow. Our city struggles to attract staff and we face retirements over the medium term so there is no time to waste in harnessing digitalization.

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Help us get our message out and win this race

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My experience and ideas are good enough to win this race if we can get them in front of the citizens of Lafayette. Please help us spread the word!

Grab a paddle and dig in!