In the history of urban planning and zoning, pretext has often been used to achieve unstated goals, with (at best) questionable public purposes.
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Many critiques of “boxy buildings” focus on aesthetics. But the big problem isn’t so much the shape as the scale.
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If “That Guy” is at every public hearing, there's something wrong with how your city is doing development.
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Something remarkable is happening this year in City Halls across America.
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How one West Virginia town is giving the City, developers, and residents the flexibility to build a stronger place.
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If broad upzoning often fails due to political resistance, the solution may be to allow for more localized decision making.
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There are only a couple reforms Strong Towns recommends unequivocally for every town and city. Sacramento just passed both of them…unanimously…in one evening.
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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.
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Accessory 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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