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Where do you draw the line? Do you think all zoning laws are pointless nanny-stating? Should someone be allowed to turn their home into a restaurant? A gas sta
by Tenhundfeld 10y ago
Where do you draw the line?
Do you think all zoning laws are pointless nanny-stating?
Should someone be allowed to turn their home into a restaurant? A gas station? A concert venue? Should someone be allowed to turn a vacant residential lot into a landfill?
When you buy a home, some of the due diligence you do is to review local zoning. For example, the value of the home might be partially due to it being on a quiet street with ample parking. If your neighbor turns their home into a 24-hour pharmacy, that decision has a huge impact on you.
Zoning laws seem a reasonable way to balance long-term stability and predictability with the free market. If someone prefers the energy and convenience of a mixed commercial/residential zone, cool. If someone else prefers the peace and community of a residential-only neighborhood, that should be an option too.
Operating a B&B out of your private home is not the same as opening a gas station, but it is a commercial enterprise with some of the negative effects.
- sol_remmy 10y ago"Should someone be allowed to turn their home into a restaurant? A gas station? A concert venue? Should someone be allowed to turn a vacant residential lot into a landfill?" If you are looking to restrict the rights of property owners, the free market way to it is with a HOA - an agreement owners living within the neighborhood voluntarily enter into. Also, don't knock mixed-use zoning. I wish I had a few coffee shops in my suburb.
- sbov 10y agoThis can work in suburbs, but in a dense city one neighborhood's decisions will have a large effect other neighborhoods.
- mikeryan 10y agoIf you are looking to restrict the rights of property owners, the free market way to it is with a HOA - an agreement owners living within the neighborhood voluntarily enter into. What? An HOA is created by developers at the time of development not retroactively applied on a neighborhood. Regardless of that if an HOA was voluntary then it has no teeth when parcels are bought and sold. If the HOA passes along with the deed then you've just created a small neighborhood zoning board which is indistinguishable from a small town government and it's not a free market.
- jcsvyu789jh 10y agoI would prefer to live under the yoke of a local government than a HOA. At least here in the states, HOA board members seem to be exclusively pulled from those deemed to vicious to be a guard at Guantanamo who recently moved there from the NSA.
- Tenhundfeld 10y agoWRT mixed-use zoning, I'm not trying to knock it. I think it can be great for the residents and can be great for urban planning. I also wish I had more walkable amenities in my suburb. However, I do think it is something that should be planned, and home buyers should have visibility and some predictability into when they are selecting a property.