Yes.
“whim of the planning commission plummets.”
It’s worse than that in California. The state effectively did away with R1 residential zoning. You can split your quarter-acre lot in two and build two huge homes. Then you can put a granny unit in the rear of each home. Now you have four homes where one used to be and no increase of parking. Neighborhoods ruined, highly congested, streets filled with cars.
It’s the worst state government in the nation. Zero protection for those who own property in nice towns. The state is effectively stealing the value of your home from you.
The problem appears to be self-correcting, though. California is losing a lot of population, and I’m sure policies like this are contributing to the decline.
I think this is being done in a lot of places, i.e. Liberal cities around the country. Obama started this with his goal if eliminating single family housing (except for him).
Cities and counties now have really no case to argue against the state determining how they run things. In the past the state would use carrots (If you build Section 8 housing we'll give you grants, etc.) Now they're using sticks.
Obama/Biden(really still Obama) even tried (or succeeded?) in nationalizing housing policy so at some point even the states won't be able to decide their fate.
And you can believe the RINOs are all for national housing policy as this would benefit the big builders, REITs, and investment firms like Blackrock.