Accessory Commercial Units spur entrepreneurship and build a city’s prosperity. The problem? Many zoning laws make them functionally illegal.
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Many zoning reform efforts shift power up, from municipalities to the state level. What if, instead, we shifted them downward, to the neighbors of proposed developments?
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Minneapolis made waves when it ended single-family zoning. Yet the devil’s in the details—and some of the details that will make or break this policy are being decided right now.
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This is Part 1 in a three-part series about why our cities deserve better than cookie-cutter, state-level land use reforms.
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Last November, Minneapolis made duplexes and triplexes legal on any residential lot—an achievement that became a model for other towns and cities. Let’s check in.
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Zoning reform is an opportunity for common ground for those on the political Right and Left. What will it take to get there?
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A bill making its way through the Vermont legislature could be a model for making communities more affordable, more walkable, and more prosperous.
Read MoreAccessory Commercial Units spur entrepreneurship and build a city’s prosperity. The problem? Many zoning laws make them functionally illegal.
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We’ve been critical of single-family zoning — but does that mean that single-family homes have no place in a city’s financial ecosystem?
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Okay, here’s the game: Name the three things you would change in your city that would have the biggest impact.
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The entire suburban experiment is dependent on federal subsidies. What’s a truly conservative approach to growing our cities? Freeing them up to develop in ways that are adaptable, responsive to local needs, and economically resilient.
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Cities are complex…which means that our regulations shouldn’t be.
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In 1926, activists were using the claim that their cities had enough “zoned capacity” elsewhere to argue against allowing apartment buildings in their own neighborhoods. Today, they still do. And they’re still wrong.
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Your city's zoning code is like the DNA of your community. For most North American cities, that DNA is broken. Here are six reasons form-based code can help put our towns and cities back together again.
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If you’re nostalgic for the past, give it up. We’re not going back. We must start with what has been given us and figure out what to do with it.
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Do the new guidelines go too far, not far enough, or are they just right (for now)?
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Making big developers “give back” to the community by running a gauntlet of concessions and fees seems like it should weaken their clout. Here’s why it actually does the opposite.
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Copying and pasting lighting codes from other cities seems like a good idea. Why reinvent the wheel? But doing so thoughtlessly can obscure what is unique and valuable about your own community.
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Those two things are all you should need to be able to make sense of your city's zoning code. At least that's the philosophy guiding South Bend, IN planners as they overhaul the city's regulations to be more legible and useful.
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Our systems of planning and permitting too often give large developers an unfair advantage over local builders. And one little-discussed planning concept does a lot to explain why.
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