2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land - 145

purchase and sale contract,
developers may protect themselves
by hiring a utilities
consultant as part of the due
diligence process to ensure
capacity in all utilities. At the
very least, they may do so
during the study period that
precedes closing.
This measure is especially
needed because, under
California law, when a new
development in an area necessitates
utility infrastructure
upgrades, it is the final property
buyer in the area who
tips the balance into need for
a new capital expenditure who
pays the entire cost of the
capital expenditure, meaning
that the expenditure is not
prorated among all the buyers
who cumulatively necessitate
the new capital expenditure.
As panelist Sherry Okun-Rudnak
of BAE Urban Economics
points out, this harsh rule
might be mitigated by impact
fees that the municipality
imposes on property owners,
fees which in effect provide a
kind of proration for each of
the projects leading up to the
final property buyer who, otherwise,
would tip the balance.
Closing gaps
The RUSH ULI ASP concluded
that SCAG should close gaps
and prioritize housing sites by
coordinating SCAG maps of
targeted housing sites with
maps of the dry electric utilities
and the wet ones-water,
wastewater, and stormwater-particularly
in the areas of
their planned expansion; instituting
a scoring template that
further refines the prioritization
depicted on the maps; and
improving overall systems.
The purpose of the RUSH
panel was to set prioritization
of housing sites well enough
to enable decisions on a relatively
small number of applications
for RUSH demonstration
grants, probably from a relatively
small number of maps.
However, to close the gaps
completely, the mapping,
scoring, and systems need to
increase in scope. That way
they include all relevant utility
facilities and housing targets
in the SCAG service area, and
they become more automatic,
sophisticated, and continuous.
By converting utility cartography
from GIS or even paper
maps to advanced electronic
target maps with identical, or
at least comparable, systems,
as well as by coordinating
scoring systems, we can
coordinate the maps in real
time and minimize or even
eliminate the new-unit electricity-hookup
delays.
The mapping and software
systems for an MPO should
also have the flexibility to
overlay maps, in various combinations,
of different utilities-
as in the SCAG region, so that
the specific utility combination
of each county and city may
be customized. The software
systems need to have enough
flexibility to allow for the addition
of renewable energy utilities
as they come onstream.
The role of MPOs
The Southern California Association
of Governments can-
and should-be a leader in
finding solutions to the statewide
and nationwide challenge
of coordinating regional utilities
in supporting housing.
SCAG's regional data
platform is already a kind of
general civic data clearinghouse
for the region, and is
the perfect repository for data
needed so that regional utilities
can support housing.
As a carrot to all stakeholders,
the state should allocate
funds to convert GIS or paper
utility, housing, and other
needed maps into advanced
electronic maps. Such conversion
is a long-term capital
equipment investment that
would enable better coordination
not only this year, and
through the end of 2029, but
also for several decades to
come. The state is committed
to improving housing provision
and affordability and should
make this investment, which
will more than pay for itself.
As the geographically largest
and arguably most complex
MPO in the United States,
SCAG has much to teach
smaller and simpler MPOs on
the subject of regional utilities
supporting housing. Imagine if
every MPO in the U.S. coordinated
its utilities and housing
in a manner analogous to
what is recommended here for
Southern California. The effective
availability of as much
as an additional year of new
housing for the price of some
mapping, scoring, and systems
in each of these MPOs would
make a noticeable dent in
America's persistent national
housing challenge. UL
CHARLES SCHILKE is a Washington,
D.C.-based real estate strategist, developer, financier,
lawyer, and real estate lecturer at Johns Hopkins
University. He served as Implementation member of
the RUSH SCAG ASP.
FALL 2023
URBAN LAND
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2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land

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