Passing For Knowledge

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…)

Sunset Park, one of the last great working-class neighborhoods in New York City, has been thrown into a quiet firestorm. Not too many people know what’s going on, and some of those who are cognizant of it are perhaps a little too “forward” in their approach.

What’s all the ruckus about? Well, there’s a rezoning set to occur. (more…)

My old employers (internship) over at the BEH look like they’re on to something with this study:

Advocates for New Urbanism or “active living” often identify zoning as a policy strategy to make cities more walkable. Because zoning regulates both building size and land use, changes in zoning can affect both population density and the availability of shops and restaurants within a walkable distance. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sustainability plan, PlaNYC, advocates rezoning city neighborhoods to allow higher-density development near subway stops, allowing more New Yorkers to use public transit instead of private automobiles.

However, zoning change can be a politically complicated process. Some communities resist “upzoning” because of concern about gentrification and displacement of low-income families, or about the loss of a distinctive neighborhood character. In fact, population growth in New York City has been accompanied by a wave of “downzoning,” in which neighborhoods seek to limit new, higher-density development.

With summer high school interns Alexa Nichols and Carolyn Ruvkun, BEH is studying zoning change in New York City between 2003 and 2007, with a focus on the more extensive rezonings required to go through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) application process. Using ULURP applications as well as parcel-level data on zoning characteristics, this project will show whether recent zoning change has made the city more or less walkable.

But I’m not so sure they are. (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…)