What if your rules are the problem?
The oceans of asphalt continue rise, drowning local economies.
I’ve been in meetings where a homeowner is trying to come up with justification for legalizing accessary dwelling units. Professional planners have much to say about ADUs. It usually starts out with, “Let’s see what the ordinance says…”
Sigh. We know, there’s a rule that forbids new uses without things like traffic studies. Yes, traffic studies.
Planning department staff will tell you “there’s no way we’re legalizing ADUs, it’d be a traffic nightmare!”
At the same time, down the hall, staff is talking at the watercooler about the need for a plan for all the empty parking lots.
Staff will tell you something like adding a new resident to your backyard cottage will increase traffic because everybody needs to drive everywhere. I guess those planners aren’t wrong, because look at any land use rules for retail development. They require developers to spread everything out and build a ton of parking spaces.
What if communities were designed to be more compact? And what if the way to achieve that was abolishing some land use rules?