I just read your article and it is unfortunate that the development community and the judge did not see the “nexus” between the impact to development and the law requiring developers to subsidizing affordable housing or pay into the affordable housing trust fund. Clearly the Building Industry Association (BIA) and the developers it represents do not see the nexus between the people benefiting from affordable housing and the people who provide services to the residential and commercial buildings they construct.
For example, the nexus between someone who cleans an office building being able to live close to the building without having to spend over a third of their income on transportation costs to and from their job from a suburb (where they can afford to live) and the implications of such a “choice,” where working and commuting equates to less time at home with their children, which leads to less adult supervision of our youth, which leads to poor performance in school and directly correlates to the number illiterate Americans in our society and the lack of job opportunities for yet another generation. No nexus…gimme a break.
Developers have to work harder to make affordable housing happen. Just as city permit offices have to work harder at making the administrative permit process less burdensome for developers. But to say that there is no nexus is a lame excuse.