Today, Silicon Valley jumped into California’s housing debate with multiple app designers racing to be the first on the street to design a new affordable housing app. According to a new article in the trade publication Tomorrow’s App, “Is Legacy Housing Finally On The Way Out?,” staff writer Jack Framer noted that these new cutting edge engineers “are disrupting the traditional housing paradigm by bringing housing reform to the people who need it the most and who have the creativity and know how to craft a solution that will make the world a better place. No longer will new software engineers drawn to Silicon Valley and the Peninsula struggle to put a roof over their head. Partnering with Amazon Prime, the customer interface will permit the app user to design their own home on their phone or tablet, and Amazon will manage the 3D printers and delivery, and your house will arrive next day. Not only that, but as a Prime member, 2-day shipping is free.”

Framer went on to note that “the designers are looking at platforms based upon the Sears Catalog Homes from the 1920s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home) except that the homes will come with one important improvement: a whole-home Wi-Fi Mesh network. We are now taking a deep dive into solving the last pain point – ramping up available dirt.” Lyft and Uber are rumored to be partnering with a national development company investigating self-driving recreational vehicles as a mobile housing option given the shortage of land.  Said one unnamed staffer, “in the Bay Area, we have more pavement for roads than we do for housing. It only makes sense to leverage natural nighttime sleep cycles with excess nighttime road capacity.  It won’t take a rocket scientist to write that algorithm. We are going to crush it.”

William W. Abbott is a shareholder and Daniel S. Cucchi is an associate at Abbott & Kindermann, Inc.  For questions relating to this article or any other California land use, real estate, environmental and/or planning issues contact Abbott & Kindermann, Inc., at (916) 456-9595.

The information presented in this article should not be construed to be formal legal advice by Abbott & Kindermann, Inc., or the formation of a lawyer/client relationship. Because of the changing nature of this area of the law and the importance of individual facts, readers are encouraged to seek independent counsel for advice regarding their individual legal issues.