my kinda town - it's sooooo fcking great to be rich
“We love animals,” Woodside Mayor Dick Brown told The Almanac local newspaper, which first reported the town’s decision. “Every house that’s built is one more acre taken away from [mountain lions’]
The well-heeled Silicon Valley suburb of Woodside has come up with a novel way to block plans that would potentially bring in more affordable housing: Declare itself Cougar Town.
The new state law, Senate Bill 9, generally allows property owners of single-family parcels to build duplexes and, in some cases, fourplexes on their land. But lawmakers gave local governments discretion to add parking requirements or size limitations, among other restrictions.
Woodside’s decision drew quick scorn as a brazen attempt to evade even minimally denser development in one of California’s most exclusive locales. The bucolic, woodsy town near Stanford University and the heart of Silicon Valley has a median home value of $4.5 million. Among its residents have been the founders of technology giants Intuit, Intel and Symantec as well as Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who reportedly spent $200 million to build a Japanese-style 16th century imperial palace across 23 acres.
Around 40 cities have passed new rules limiting projects since the law went into effect on Jan. 1, according to a tally from Trauss’ group. Some she believed were innocuous, but others had potentially the same effect of stymying development as Woodside. Los Altos Hills, another small, wealthy Silicon Valley community, for instance, passed an ordinance requiring all developments under the law to plant a hedge of evergreen shrubs along the property line.