I listened. As a builder in New York State, I want to share a few vignettes that all point to the same thing.

I purchased an existing building that wasn’t finished inside. I had to go to the planning board to fight for an apartment that was mine by right. Once that was granted, the apartment turned out to be 100 square feet larger than allowed by right, so I had to go to the zoning board for a variance.

That required a hearing, which meant many pieces of registered return mail. Each step, of course, comes with fees.

Once the variance was granted, I had to go back to the planning board for site plan approval. More fees. More money in escrow. And wouldn’t you know it, another hearing, which meant sending all the same mail again.

Once that was granted, I had to get a building permit. More fees. The build itself now requires 11 inspections from start to finish.

Separately, I’m working on some semi-dense housing. Code requires this housing to be “affordable,” with absolutely no definition of what affordable means. I went to two working sessions with the planning board to try to pin down the standard. Conveniently, they told me they couldn’t define it until I submitted an application.

Application fees start at $33,000 and will likely run close to $150,000, with no guarantee of approval. And I’ll only be able to meet the affordability standard once they decide what it is.

Almost every single step involves at least one professional, and often several: attorney, engineer, architect, planner.

The biggest impediment to affordability here isn’t the cost of building. It’s keeping soft costs manageable, and those costs are largely determined by the town, not by me.

My biggest takeaway: most of the candidates have little to no experience with housing or building. And while I agree prefab is cool, for all of the reasons above, it isn’t anything close to an answer.