6 ms·

Unfortunately, expansion of the working home concept will be slowed substantially by the slow change of zoning laws, which are decided at a very low level and r

Unfortunately, expansion of the working home concept will be slowed substantially by the slow change of zoning laws, which are decided at a very low level and rather hard to overturn. This economic space needs an Uber or Airbnb to push those changes through. I don't know what their economic incentive would be, though.

ghaff 11y ago
>slow change of zoning laws, which are decided at a very low level and rather hard to overturn. Which is to say that they're decided by the residents of an area who may not want delivery trucks to be clogging up the streets. This article had a number of innovative architectural designs but you can't just stick a workspace with employees in a residential area, especially if there's manufacturing involved. Home/condo design for information workers working from home is a different matter. Although I'm not sure how much more complicated that is than having a good office space. There are pretty good solutions in most cities if the issue is having an occasional meeting.
lifeisstillgood 11y ago
There are no zoning or architectural problems - there is only the vast vast vast profit difference between an area of small light manufacturing buildings and the same area covered in McMansions
codingdave 11y ago
I'm not sure which jurisdictions you are thinking of. Most places I have lived allowed small business from the home. It was more of an insurance and licensing issue than zoning, which are also solvable problems. Even if you do need a zoning change, it doesn't need to be a change to your entire city... just to your property. So talk to your city planner/council, submit a plan, and move forward. Now, if you are talking about building entire factories next to your home, and changing a residential neighborhood to allow industrial, yes, that would be hard. And unwise on multiple levels. In those cases, again, talk to your city - you may be able to reverse the plan to get a residence allowed in an industrial area. Really, most cities want to encourage business within them... you just need to be willing to make some calls, listen to feedback on your plans to be sure it doesn't negatively impact the neighbors, and do some paperwork.
- cmsmith 11y ago
  GP may have been referring to TFA, which was getting into medium scale hybrid residential-commercial developments.
pc2g4d 11y ago
Zoning changes all the time in my city, even on a per-lot basis.
Spooky23 11y ago
Most of the issues at the zoning level are about people not following the rules and ending up in an enforcement situation. I've been through this a few times. You familiarize yourself with the rules and file for a variance before you start working, assuming your town has zoning rules about this. In my case, they were most interested in vehicular traffic and business visitors. My one neighbor made a big deal about an issue, and the zoning board ultimately decided in my favor. I don't think an Uber or AirBnb flouting the rules in the interest of disruption is called for at all.
- ghaff 11y ago
  When I bought my property from a guy who still owned the property next door, among the things I went through on the terms of the sale--so not zoning per se--was to be allowed to run a mail order business from my property given that their proposed terms were no business on the property at all. (I was writing some software at the time as a part-time business.) This was a very minor thing and their only concern was traffic, which wasn't an issue, but it really makes sense when you can to resolve anything like this before it becomes a problem. Sure, sometimes ask for forgiveness is the right approach but that doesn't mean that it's always the right approach. And things that shouldn't be a problem often aren't--until they are. I also got a couple of other things put in the purchase and sale agreement (as did he) that wouldn't be a problem with reasonable neighbors but could be with unreasonable ones.
zach 11y ago
When I got my business license in a suburban city, I was chagrined to see that home-based businesses are allowed only in the single-family residential zone — sorry, apartment-dwellers. I'm sure many cities are the same, because why not? Who's going to complain if you say no, the existing residents or "that guy" who wants to do something unconventional? So just keep everyone happy by saying no. And really, that "no by default" is what zoning laws are all about. City administration is only faulted for not preventing some land use that people will get up in arms about, so zoning laws are their set of hidebound insurance policies. I think "It's a Wonderful Life" deserves a good deal of blame for this, because of how Capra illustrated the moral derangement of Bedford Falls becoming Potterville. Its main street was full of dime-a-dance saloons, floozy-filled nightclubs, billiard halls and pawn brokers. The implication was that any city with wise and moral leaders would have prevented it, which has struck fear into the heart of American cities ever since.
- jacobolus 11y ago
  > I think "It's a Wonderful Life" deserves a good deal of blame for this, This is a surprising hypothesis. Do you have other evidence/analysis, or is this purely speculative? For my part, I would have said that racism/classism deserves much of the blame. Especially after forced public school integration, middle-class whites wanted to live in neighborhoods where poor people would be priced out by inability to afford cars or detached houses (and kept out by racial criteria for home ownership), and thereby could also keep their local tax money from paying for services or infrastructure for “those people”. That and multiple types of massive subsidies for cars and driving – zoning, free parking, government support for cheap oil, publicly developed roads, etc.

ghaff 11y ago

>slow change of zoning laws, which are decided at a very low level and rather hard to overturn. Which is to say that they're decided by the residents of an area who may not want delivery trucks to be clogging up the streets. This article had a number of innovative architectural designs but you can't just stick a workspace with employees in a residential area, especially if there's manufacturing involved. Home/condo design for information workers working from home is a different matter. Although I'm not sure how much more complicated that is than having a good office space. There are pretty good solutions in most cities if the issue is having an occasional meeting.

lifeisstillgood 11y ago

There are no zoning or architectural problems - there is only the vast vast vast profit difference between an area of small light manufacturing buildings and the same area covered in McMansions

codingdave 11y ago

I'm not sure which jurisdictions you are thinking of. Most places I have lived allowed small business from the home. It was more of an insurance and licensing issue than zoning, which are also solvable problems. Even if you do need a zoning change, it doesn't need to be a change to your entire city... just to your property. So talk to your city planner/council, submit a plan, and move forward. Now, if you are talking about building entire factories next to your home, and changing a residential neighborhood to allow industrial, yes, that would be hard. And unwise on multiple levels. In those cases, again, talk to your city - you may be able to reverse the plan to get a residence allowed in an industrial area. Really, most cities want to encourage business within them... you just need to be willing to make some calls, listen to feedback on your plans to be sure it doesn't negatively impact the neighbors, and do some paperwork.

cmsmith 11y ago
GP may have been referring to TFA, which was getting into medium scale hybrid residential-commercial developments.

pc2g4d 11y ago

Zoning changes all the time in my city, even on a per-lot basis.

Spooky23 11y ago

Most of the issues at the zoning level are about people not following the rules and ending up in an enforcement situation. I've been through this a few times. You familiarize yourself with the rules and file for a variance before you start working, assuming your town has zoning rules about this. In my case, they were most interested in vehicular traffic and business visitors. My one neighbor made a big deal about an issue, and the zoning board ultimately decided in my favor. I don't think an Uber or AirBnb flouting the rules in the interest of disruption is called for at all.

ghaff 11y ago
When I bought my property from a guy who still owned the property next door, among the things I went through on the terms of the sale--so not zoning per se--was to be allowed to run a mail order business from my property given that their proposed terms were no business on the property at all. (I was writing some software at the time as a part-time business.) This was a very minor thing and their only concern was traffic, which wasn't an issue, but it really makes sense when you can to resolve anything like this before it becomes a problem. Sure, sometimes ask for forgiveness is the right approach but that doesn't mean that it's always the right approach. And things that shouldn't be a problem often aren't--until they are. I also got a couple of other things put in the purchase and sale agreement (as did he) that wouldn't be a problem with reasonable neighbors but could be with unreasonable ones.

zach 11y ago

When I got my business license in a suburban city, I was chagrined to see that home-based businesses are allowed only in the single-family residential zone — sorry, apartment-dwellers. I'm sure many cities are the same, because why not? Who's going to complain if you say no, the existing residents or "that guy" who wants to do something unconventional? So just keep everyone happy by saying no. And really, that "no by default" is what zoning laws are all about. City administration is only faulted for not preventing some land use that people will get up in arms about, so zoning laws are their set of hidebound insurance policies. I think "It's a Wonderful Life" deserves a good deal of blame for this, because of how Capra illustrated the moral derangement of Bedford Falls becoming Potterville. Its main street was full of dime-a-dance saloons, floozy-filled nightclubs, billiard halls and pawn brokers. The implication was that any city with wise and moral leaders would have prevented it, which has struck fear into the heart of American cities ever since.

jacobolus 11y ago
> I think "It's a Wonderful Life" deserves a good deal of blame for this, This is a surprising hypothesis. Do you have other evidence/analysis, or is this purely speculative? For my part, I would have said that racism/classism deserves much of the blame. Especially after forced public school integration, middle-class whites wanted to live in neighborhoods where poor people would be priced out by inability to afford cars or detached houses (and kept out by racial criteria for home ownership), and thereby could also keep their local tax money from paying for services or infrastructure for “those people”. That and multiple types of massive subsidies for cars and driving – zoning, free parking, government support for cheap oil, publicly developed roads, etc.