Tiburon, CA - Debbie Starling was aghast when she learned about the barriers to building affordable, multi-family housing in Vacaville. "Where are people supposed to live?" she said, from her five-bedroom Colonial Revival, just off the Highway 101 artery.
Starling’s pro-housing journey began when she got stuck in a traffic jam related to a local home renovation. “It was a total epiphany. Right there in the car, it came to me—Vacaville.” But her fight was just beginning: Solano County is subject to many of the same zoning restrictions and other hurdles that prevent desperately needed homes from being built everywhere. Starling, however, isn't buying it. "This is all about the fat cats in Vacaville refusing to take responsibility for California's housing crisis."
Gazing out at a 385-acre nature preserve that is effectively her backyard, Starling said she won’t stop until Vacaville cuts the red tape and lets developers slap together a vast gulag of depressing apartment blocks. “That’s what they did in Paris — my favorite city — with the wonderful banlieues.” she added.