Sounds to me like a case of Greed vs. Greed. Ranchers want to soak the rich newcomers for 100X what they'd previously believed their own land to be worth. Rich newcomers want to buy at the old "owner had previously believed" prices.
A developer bought the local golf course. The area is zoned "permanent green space", so its value was well below normal market price for "mixed used" land.
Of course, the developer immediately attempted to get the county to change the zoning. And having failed at the county level, they're now trying to get the state government to overrule the county zoning and allow a change.
Even without building a single thing, the change in zoning would ~double the value of their investment.
I don't think so. From what I've heard, the ranchers want to keep the area agricultural, because the planned development would destroy their tight-knit community [1]. Not everyone is some greedy homo economicus that's only looking to maximize wealth like some SV capitalist.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/podcasts/the-daily/califo...
"No one is suggesting that we don’t sell, the question is when and at what price."
Actually, as a landowner you do have the right to add deed restrictions to your land. There are many land conservation organizations that do this type of work too.
Personally, I think they do.
> Their actions here are incredibly greedy as theyre lowering the bay areas housings stock which hurts everyone else who lives in the bay.
Maybe the Bay Area should fix its own problems instead of imposing itself where it's not wanted as a "solution"?
This is the bay area fixing its problems. There are other methods I agree it should take but this is a group of bay area residents literally solving their own problems.
By imposing itself where it's not wanted. It's like a country solving resource shortages by invading its neighbor instead of budgeting better or making its resource usage more efficient.
IMHO, they should bulldoze Atherton and build 20-story Chinese-style apartment blocks there, first.
> Im also in favor of apartment blocks in atherton for what its worth. We should do both.
Again: first bulldoze Atherton and build 20-story Chinese-style apartment blocks there, then move on to the rest of the Bay Area. When it all looks like this (https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/building-apartment-...), then maybe I'll reconsider.