The state has also enacted new laws aimed at
boosting funding for affordable housing and
easing development restrictions.
The Bay Area has been swamped with highly
paid tech workers, leading to bidding wars
for the limited supply of homes in cities like
Cupertino, where Apple Inc. is headquartered.
Voters in nearby Mountain View, home to
Google, passed a per-employee business tax last
year to get companies to help ease the strain
on traffic and housing. Cupertino had debated
a similar proposal but put it off amid opposition
from Apple.
“There’s been talk of business taxes for the
whole region,” said Cupertino Mayor Steven
Scharf. “I think they’re trying to get ahead of that
and realizing they’re having a big impact on the
housing situation.”
Padovani, of UC Davis, said Apple’s investment
targeting low-income and affordable housing
is well placed, since most developers have
sought to build homes at market rates. He said,
however, that there are still other challenges,
such as local land-use restrictions and the
geography of the Bay Area, which limits where
homes can be built.
Faced with higher traffic gridlock and other
headaches associated with hosting huge tech
campuses, some communities on the peninsula
between San Francisco and San Jose have been
resistant to make room for new development.
Shulman, of UCLA, said “you need a major
relaxation of zoning on the Peninsula and
that’s going to be difficult to do given the local
opposition to density.”