The U.S. government is by far the biggest landowner in the Golden State, and much of that land is not national parks, pristine forests or military bases
that would allow local governments to buy federal land in return for binding commitments to build housing projects that meet density minimums.
The idea that freeing up federal land in response to domestic needs is far-fetched and improbable is undercut by what happened after Congress passed the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act in 1998. At the program’s peak in its first four years, nearly 10,000 acres in Bureau of Land Management holdings were conveyed or sold to local and state government agencies and to private entities for a variety of uses in the booming Las Vegas metro area.
Many state leaders have long said the housing crisis is so severe it must be addressed on several fronts. Now that local control of approvals is declining as a major obstacle, it’s time to address what should be recognized as a similar impediment: federal control of buildable land. Freeing up even 100,000 acres of little-used federal land for housing could be the sort of policy game-changer Californians desperately need.