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Isn't there something like a "Bestandsschutz" for buildings? I couldn't find a fitting translation, it basically means, if you got a legal permit for building s

by tehabe 10y ago

Isn't there something like a "Bestandsschutz" for buildings? I couldn't find a fitting translation, it basically means, if you got a legal permit for building something and the rules are changing, your building is still legal. Which means that a town can only change the building code for the future, not for the past. On a side note, somewhere I heard or read that many US cities and town don't allow mixed use zoning, so that a building can used commercial and residential. Something which is very common in German town, especially in downtown areas, you have a lot of stores in the ground level and above that are flats.

shados 10y ago
Grandfathering? Yeah, it's how it works here too. And I don't know about the rest of the US, but the city from the article, has a fair bit of mixed used zoning.
GunboatDiplomat 10y ago
Generally, yes. The phrase is "grandfathered in." If you have a building, and they change the zoning so that building your building would now be illegal, your building is grandfathered in, such that it is legal for it to continue to exist.
ocschwar 10y ago
That is Somerville's biggest problem right now: very tight and inappropriate zoning and building regulations, but they only take effect in if you demolish your house and build something new. So Somerville is frozen in amber. A few years ago, I saw developers in Somerville get around that problem when they wanted to replace one 3-apartment house with one exactly the same shape, minus a whole lot of rotten wood, and plus a whole lot of good insulation and the like. So instead of tearing the building down and building it anew, they tore down half of it, all the way down to the foundation, then removed all the parts connecting to the foundation, leaving half of the building on stilts, and then started building the new building, with the shell still in place. They did good work. They replaced a well-designed but badly neglected building with one that is also well designed and more liveable. They should not have had to do this charade that they were just "renovating" it, but that was the only way to do it legally.

by tehabe 10y ago

shados 10y ago

Grandfathering? Yeah, it's how it works here too. And I don't know about the rest of the US, but the city from the article, has a fair bit of mixed used zoning.

GunboatDiplomat 10y ago

Generally, yes. The phrase is "grandfathered in." If you have a building, and they change the zoning so that building your building would now be illegal, your building is grandfathered in, such that it is legal for it to continue to exist.

ocschwar 10y ago

That is Somerville's biggest problem right now: very tight and inappropriate zoning and building regulations, but they only take effect in if you demolish your house and build something new. So Somerville is frozen in amber. A few years ago, I saw developers in Somerville get around that problem when they wanted to replace one 3-apartment house with one exactly the same shape, minus a whole lot of rotten wood, and plus a whole lot of good insulation and the like. So instead of tearing the building down and building it anew, they tore down half of it, all the way down to the foundation, then removed all the parts connecting to the foundation, leaving half of the building on stilts, and then started building the new building, with the shell still in place. They did good work. They replaced a well-designed but badly neglected building with one that is also well designed and more liveable. They should not have had to do this charade that they were just "renovating" it, but that was the only way to do it legally.