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There's no obviously correct geographical unit for zoning. Placing a major industrial plant is county-level (or even above), a mall probably affects people in a

There's no obviously correct geographical unit for zoning. Placing a major industrial plant is county-level (or even above), a mall probably affects people in about a 2-3 mile radius, an 6 story apartment building maybe a few hundred yards, while fence regulations should be decideable on a block level. Perhaps the solution is to flip the problem around, define (tightly) the geographical boundary of residents that will be non-trivially affected by a change, and require a vote (perhaps even of a super-majority) in that area for the planning permission to be approved. Developers who want to build an apartment block will have to convince or compensate a few dozen residents in a certain radius (or buy their properties outright) to get their assent, but residents across town don't get a say. If you want to build an airport near a city, you'll be smooching a lot more people.

closeparen 9y ago
While a single project might only materially affect its immediate neighbors, the pattern of land-use decisions in aggregate harms the region as a whole (housing shortage, astronomical rents, displacement) much more than an apartment building could harm its single-family neighbors. This is why something like regional housing needs allocation is a good idea: let local communities control the how and where, but don’t let them screw over the rest of society on the “whether or not.” The entire planet is nontrivially affected by creating and preserving car-dependent settlements; this sort of thing needs to be handled at the level of international climate treaties. The entire country is nontrivially affected by the inaccessibility of moving to where there are jobs. Shadows on your garden don’t come close to being stuck in a place with no opportunity. Imagine if other law was made at such a hyper-local level. Should residents of the 1200 block get to write themselves a murder statue that says residents of the 1100 block are fair game? Good government is an antidote to the patchwork of small-scale actors making decisions in their own interests but dumping the downside of those decisions on society.

closeparen 9y ago

While a single project might only materially affect its immediate neighbors, the pattern of land-use decisions in aggregate harms the region as a whole (housing shortage, astronomical rents, displacement) much more than an apartment building could harm its single-family neighbors. This is why something like regional housing needs allocation is a good idea: let local communities control the how and where, but don’t let them screw over the rest of society on the “whether or not.” The entire planet is nontrivially affected by creating and preserving car-dependent settlements; this sort of thing needs to be handled at the level of international climate treaties. The entire country is nontrivially affected by the inaccessibility of moving to where there are jobs. Shadows on your garden don’t come close to being stuck in a place with no opportunity. Imagine if other law was made at such a hyper-local level. Should residents of the 1200 block get to write themselves a murder statue that says residents of the 1100 block are fair game? Good government is an antidote to the patchwork of small-scale actors making decisions in their own interests but dumping the downside of those decisions on society.