A Vertiport in every town

Pass an amendment to existing legislation that mandates all California cities make space available for new housing also include space for a “Vertiport” to be constructed.

Introduction

A vertiport in every town in the greater Bay Area would complete the “Air Metro” transit station system so that all citizens living in northern California can commute to work in the Silicon Valley, should they have the opportunity and choose to do so.

To make the “Air Metro” station network complete and accesable by all, each town will in northern California will need to participate by building at least 1 vertiport. Unfortunately, obtaining local planning permission will be a very long an arduous process as there are over 100 cities and towns in the greater Bay Area.

Going through a separate planning application, for every city and employer in Northern California, will ensure that a Vertiport in every Bay Area city will take more than our life-time’s to become a reality.

As Californian residents, we need to recognize that keeping Silicon Valley’s ecosystem thriving and growing is essential for our state’s economic well-being as it accounts for over 1/3rd of our state’s GDP.

Mandates

Statewide zoning laws will need to be amended to make the planning permission process happen in a short time-frame.

An amendment to existing legislation could be made to facilitate an “Air Metro” and this change is to existing legislation. Legislation is in place that mandates all California cities make space available for new housing. An amendment to this legislation should be made that any developer given permission to build new housing with car parking space should include space for a “Vertiport” to be constructed.

Incentives

To make the mandates more attractive and ensure the Vertiports are actually built, incentives will need to be offered.

These incentives may take the form of zoning law changes that allow for an equal percent of the land allocated to a Vertiport also be allocated towards new housing.

A further inducement to get commuters out of cars, might be an additional incentive of extra land can be converted to housing if a threshold of residents commute on a regular basis via the “Air Metro”.

For example, if a developer is mandated to allocate their car park spaces towards the space of a Vertiport, then that developer may also take an additional 2 acres and use that space for additional housing. The land owner is incentivized to install a Vertiport as the reward is that those additional 2 acres can now be built upon, essentially turning low value land into land than at current California prices, could be worth up to $1 million per acre.