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Largely overlooked feature of overzoning, parking requirements and setback regulations are the economical opportunity cost - odd for the USA and its history of deregulation and neoliberalisation.
I agree, it seems like it should be easy to convince libertarians and conservatives with deregulations, but exactly how to frame that argument is tricky.
Deregulation would be a horrible idea, given the disasters that created over time. If we want town centers over suburbs, that’s a great goal, and zoning needs to support that. Zoning should be a tool for creating places we want to live.
I’m sure it helps that my town was built out before cars, but we have zoning encouraging denser housing near transit and near town centers, we have a great walkable “Main Street” with shops and restaurants, and parking in back. And we don’t have “stroads”
Fixing Bad zoning doesn’t mean throwing out zoning, it means revisit your end goals and ensure zoning supports them.
And yes we have sufficient parking for everyone. However we can get away with less parking by making walking and transit convenient; it doesn’t start by making things tough to get to
I dont mean throw out zoning entirely, but reducing the way they promote single family housing only. I live in a county with a million people and 84% of the land is single family zoning only, I want to throw that bit out.
Also if done right you dont need to zoning for all those things. Transit development will drive denser, walkable areas all on its own if its legal to build those kinds of areas. All the city has to do it manage transit as these areas develop.
Zoning lets us banish hazardous or noisy industry from where people live, it lets us specify features like sidewalks and trees, it lets us size development appropriate to the area and to the infrastructure. It lets us protect society and future citizens by specifying minimum standards for health, safety, livability.
While it’s up to the market to decide, local government can’t abdicate its responsibility for shaping the market to best serve the citizens
I don't disagree, but where I live zoning is a large part of the problem
The zoning in my area perpetuates unwalkable, uncyclable, parking lot infested sprawl, because single family houses take up 84% of the available land.
I don't want industry to move into neighborhoodseither , but I wouldn't mind commercial or retail, currently prohibited.
I totally understand, but thinking that more deregulation would be fixing any of that is a mistake. What you want (and need) is simply better regulations. You need experts with a plan for the city. Companies are not experts on city planning.
The US already has a highly deregulated zoning system, while European countries often have national laws and regulations (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_General_de_Ordenación_Urbana ) that have to be implemented by the communities, and even above the national level you have things like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Spatial_Development_Perspective
That would ne ideal, but sadly city planning in the United states is too political.
We'll never get anything done relying on city planning, so the only thing that seems possible is to improve the city organically, through markets.
"Let businesses decide how much parking they need, instead of big government"
Doesn't seem very tricky to me. Businesses can invest less into infrastructure that isn't used that just absorbs solar radiation all day, and build larger businesses, or purchase less land, so that it can be more efficiently used.