zoning

If You Don't Want An Apartment, Don't Have One

One of my favorite political slogans (more because of its catchiness than because of its wisdom)* is "If You Don't Want An Abortion, Don't Have One."  It occurs to me that this slogan would be quite appropriately adapted to an urbanist context.  In response to NIMBY attacks on compact deve... read more »

DeBlasio's Unimpressive Housing Plan: No Substitute For The Free Market

New York's new mayor, Bill DeBlasio, has just proposed to spend $8 billion in taxpayers' money to create 80,000 new housing units.  80,000 is certainly better than nothing. On the other hand, New York has 3 million occupied housing units today, so even if the DeBlasio plan works, the city's hou... read more »

Review of Emily Talen's book online

My review of Emily Talen's book City Rules is now online.   To briefly summarize the book: in addition to explaining how land use and street design regulations promote sprawl, Talen shows how those regulations have become stricter over time.  In addition to addressing oft-discussed issues ... read more »

How Single Use Can Be Mixed Use

Howard Blackson's latest post on the Placemakers blog clarifies the concept of "mixed use." A narrow definition of mixed use limits the term to mixed-use buildings: for example, buildings partially devoted to housing and partially devoted to other uses.   But Blackson points out that a walkable... read more »

What I (Sort of) Wish I'd Said

Last Friday, I gave a speech on conservatives and smart growth at the New Partners for Smart Growth conference.  At the panel discussion after the speech I was asked "what if you want to build something nice and your neighbor wants to build a car wash?"  I gave an honest but nuanced answer... read more »

zoning budgets- one way to keep NIMBYism under control

Roderick Hills and David Schleicher, two law professors, have proposed one way to limit NIMBY-inspired downzonings: a "zoning budget."  Specifically, they propose that cities require every downzoning to be matched by an upzoning somewhere else, so that the city's "budget" was always balanced.&n... read more »

The North Carolina Senate's Big Act

Although Governor Bev Perdue - a Democrat - now heads North Carolina, one would hardly equate the Tar Heel State as a capital of big government. In the land of states' rights, logic would seemingly dictate that the North Carolina state legislature would allow for local municipalities to operate free... read more »

Taking it to the Street

Our studio was recently included in APA's Planning Magazine for our Field Trips and what we have learned from them. ... read more »

New Urbanism Primer in Lifestyle Magazine

Lifestyle Magazine has a nice feature on the basics of new urbanism. ... read more »