Passing For Knowledge

Take a look through this gallery.

Do you see urban decay? Can you even tell it’s in an urban setting? The Bergen Arches constitute a right-of-way slated for capital construction.

The New Jersey Department of Transportation’s 2002 report (a “final draft”) on the Arches ennumerated these potential usages: (more…)

In March of 2008 Boston implemented a new zoning ordinance limiting the number of “full-time undergraduate” students allowed to live in an off-campus housing unit. Leases prior the the passing of the zoning amendment weren’t grandfathered in — they had about six months to comply, and even had to file a declaration that they were in violation and were going to rectify the situation (see page 2).

What exactly did the amendment entail? (more…)

Charles Wang, owner of the New York Islanders, has been taking some major losses trying to keep the franchise afloat. The team’s viability in Long Island hinges on Wang’s ability to build a new stadium/shopping/condo/hotel megaplex.

Wang ran into some problems, though. Kate Murray, the Hempstead Town Supervisor who oversees the re-zoning necessary for the project to go through, had no support for the project up until recently. Wang was threatening to bail on Long Island all together if he didn’t get the project. It’s hard to blame him, and even harder to understand Murray’s opposition. Who wouldn’t want to keep a team that won 4 Stanley Cups in the 1980’s, in a county with an otherwise stagnant economy?

But tucked in the supporter’s push for this project is a vision for a new suburban model. (more…)

Moving on to make zoning work

As it stands now, contemporary zoning laws divvy up land into lots, and then those lots into different uses (commercial, industrial, commercial), ideally, to shield the public from unsafe living conditions. But zoning overrides and loosely-defined categories which aim to maintain the “character of the neighborhood” allow for too many loopholes. As long as the developers gain approval from the city planning commission (state overrides help as well; see: Atlantic Yards Development), considerations of a project’s benefit to a community are pushed to the back-burner.

A somewhat radical solution seems appropriate: a new zoning overlay over the existing map, providing for protection from mass-development across continuously situated lots. It is this distinction, and not the easily overridden or otherwise transgressed “type of use” restrictions, that would truly protect the interests of the community. If a planning proposal requires 400 continuous (or nearly continuous) lots to build (say, a sports arena or set of high-end housing complexes), it can find ways to buy or push out the owners, who in turn push out the tenants, often with city help. But if no lone project was allowed to build across such a large footprint, the issue would never arise. (more…)