Even in the somewhat libertarian Granite state
Apartment building in Manchester, N.H., built in 1864 to house workers in the city’s once-huge textile industry.
Adapted from an item in Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com.
We might do well to watch New Hampshire, where conservative Republicans are joining with Democrats to change communities’ zoning ordinances that, by mandating such things as big minimum-lot sizes (aka “snob zoning”), blocking housing in commercially zoned areas, and very long permitting times have made it very difficult for many places to add to the housing supply.
The Granite State (where I used to live) has long worshipped the glories of local government control, but spiraling housing costs have become enough of a crisis that many state officials increasingly realize that the state must step in to overrule localities’ long-entrenched rules.