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I really like the idea of Japan's zoning laws. They have 12 zones nationwide, and they restrict by maximum allowable nuisance. Industry is considered the high

I really like the idea of Japan's zoning laws. They have 12 zones nationwide, and they restrict by maximum allowable nuisance. Industry is considered the highest nussicance and low rise residential the lowest. You cannot build a business in a residential area, but you can build apartments in a commercial zone. I feel this opens up many more options for growth while maintaining the spirit of American zoning laws. Here is a good explanation: http://urbankchoze.blogspot.ca/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html http://urbankchoze.blogspot.ca/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html

trisimix 9y ago
True spirit of opportunity right here
jacobolus 9y ago
Also importantly, even the lowest-density Japanese residential zones seem to allow some low apartment buildings and some home businesses, while other residential zones are mixed-use and allow corner stores etc. In e.g. San Francisco, more than half of the city is zoned to only allow detached height-limited single-family houses or sometimes duplexes, with businesses restricted to designated commercial streets. When you add wide streets with several wide lanes, generous street parking, parking requirements for buildings, long skinny land parcels with (often unused) space for a small yard in the back, etc., land use overall is incredibly inefficient even if you want to preserve the “local character” of low buildings. Look at the sea of light yellow zones in the zoning map, http://default.sfplanning.org/zoning/zoning_map.pdf http://default.sfplanning.org/zoning/zoning_map.pdf And among cities in the region SF has higher density and more flexible zoning than most. If we upzoned the Richmond, Sunset, and Marina neighborhoods from pale yellow to orange and purple, and added better transit, we could easily double the population of the city without anything taller than low-rise apartments.
- throwaway2048 9y ago
  paris is one of the highest density cities on earth with virutally no highrises whatsoever.
  - ruytlm 9y ago
    Yes, because unlike a lot of 'new world' cities, there are huge areas of Paris that are a consistent 2-4 stories high. See e.g. the Google Maps images in this article [0] discussing Australian vs. European cities. [0]: https://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2015/11/30/how-dense-are-our-cities-compared-to-paris/ https://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2015/11/30/how-dense...
    - justinator 9y ago
      And there are places in Paris where you cannot drive a modern American style car down the medieval streets. Those boulevards are relatively new.
      - egypturnash 9y ago
        I'm no sure that's a bad thing at all. I would imagine it encourages people to walk, bicycle, and use public transit to get around?
        beguiledfoil 9y ago
        Americans hate small streets. It's a dumb opinion, but it's widely held.
        justinator 9y ago
        Oh! Didn't want to reflect the size of the street as a good, or bad, thing. Just as another explanation why Paris can be SO dense, with buildings that aren't incredibly high - Buildings are packed in close to each other. The height of the buildings are a signature architectural element of Paris, broken only by the Tour Eiffel. Businesses many times occupy the ground floor, with apartments up top - relatively normal in European cities, but against many zoning laws in the States. The layout of the city certainly doesn't make owning a personal car all that, say, automatic of a choice. Paris is not a large city. When living there, I may have used the metroonce a month, but mostly just rode my bike to where I wanted to go (cheaper! and usually faster...). You could easily walk half the city in a relatively short amount of time (as I was oft to do after a party!). High speed trains could whisk you to many bordering countries in just a few hours. Ah! Paris: un joli désordre!
0x4f3759df 9y ago
This is also covered in this video: How an Average Family in Tokyo Can Buy a New Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGbC5j4pG9w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGbC5j4pG9w
extralego 9y ago
Japan also has an entirely different relationship with residential buildings and real estate than we do. It’s so foreign to me that I have a hard time even believing it and I can only vaguely describe it. But, effectively, houses don’t appreciate in Japan and they don’t like moving into houses other people have lived in before. It seems wasteful at first, but they also build very different types of homes. And, their homes are more optimized for the particular people living in them. And, the economy seems to greatly benefit from the adaptability this provides. But, please do your own research. I have visited and seen it for myself but still have a hard time comprehending all the differences.
- shostack 9y ago
  This sounds really fascinating--do you have any links or search terms to use to learn more about the differences in homes there? I'm particularly curious about the optimization for the people who live in the homes. What would drive that difference in attitude and behavior? I've also heard that Japanese homes aren't built to last and that they get rebuilt rather frequently by Western standards, although I'm not sure how true that is.
  - aikinai 9y ago
    This is about the macro-effects of Japanese housing customs, not the optimization aspect you asked about, but it's an interesting and relevant article. https://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137.pdf https://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137... [PDF]
  - molteanu 9y ago
    What do you mean by "not sure how true is that"? From the article: "Traditionally, Japanese homes were demolished and rebuilt every 20 to 30 years, to implement improved earthquake-safety technology, to provide jobs for government-favored construction companies or simply because Japanese people demanded nice new houses. As a result, there are relatively few Japanese homeowners trying to prop up the value of their houses by lobbying the government to restrict supply." Did you read the article?
  - 9y ago

trisimix 9y ago

True spirit of opportunity right here

jacobolus 9y ago

Also importantly, even the lowest-density Japanese residential zones seem to allow some low apartment buildings and some home businesses, while other residential zones are mixed-use and allow corner stores etc. In e.g. San Francisco, more than half of the city is zoned to only allow detached height-limited single-family houses or sometimes duplexes, with businesses restricted to designated commercial streets. When you add wide streets with several wide lanes, generous street parking, parking requirements for buildings, long skinny land parcels with (often unused) space for a small yard in the back, etc., land use overall is incredibly inefficient even if you want to preserve the “local character” of low buildings. Look at the sea of light yellow zones in the zoning map, http://default.sfplanning.org/zoning/zoning_map.pdf http://default.sfplanning.org/zoning/zoning_map.pdf And among cities in the region SF has higher density and more flexible zoning than most. If we upzoned the Richmond, Sunset, and Marina neighborhoods from pale yellow to orange and purple, and added better transit, we could easily double the population of the city without anything taller than low-rise apartments.

throwaway2048 9y ago
paris is one of the highest density cities on earth with virutally no highrises whatsoever.
- ruytlm 9y ago
  Yes, because unlike a lot of 'new world' cities, there are huge areas of Paris that are a consistent 2-4 stories high. See e.g. the Google Maps images in this article [0] discussing Australian vs. European cities. [0]: https://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2015/11/30/how-dense-are-our-cities-compared-to-paris/ https://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2015/11/30/how-dense...
  - justinator 9y ago
    And there are places in Paris where you cannot drive a modern American style car down the medieval streets. Those boulevards are relatively new.
    - egypturnash 9y ago
      I'm no sure that's a bad thing at all. I would imagine it encourages people to walk, bicycle, and use public transit to get around?
      - beguiledfoil 9y ago
        Americans hate small streets. It's a dumb opinion, but it's widely held.
      - justinator 9y ago
        Oh! Didn't want to reflect the size of the street as a good, or bad, thing. Just as another explanation why Paris can be SO dense, with buildings that aren't incredibly high - Buildings are packed in close to each other. The height of the buildings are a signature architectural element of Paris, broken only by the Tour Eiffel. Businesses many times occupy the ground floor, with apartments up top - relatively normal in European cities, but against many zoning laws in the States. The layout of the city certainly doesn't make owning a personal car all that, say, automatic of a choice. Paris is not a large city. When living there, I may have used the metroonce a month, but mostly just rode my bike to where I wanted to go (cheaper! and usually faster...). You could easily walk half the city in a relatively short amount of time (as I was oft to do after a party!). High speed trains could whisk you to many bordering countries in just a few hours. Ah! Paris: un joli désordre!

0x4f3759df 9y ago

This is also covered in this video: How an Average Family in Tokyo Can Buy a New Home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGbC5j4pG9w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGbC5j4pG9w

extralego 9y ago

Japan also has an entirely different relationship with residential buildings and real estate than we do. It’s so foreign to me that I have a hard time even believing it and I can only vaguely describe it. But, effectively, houses don’t appreciate in Japan and they don’t like moving into houses other people have lived in before. It seems wasteful at first, but they also build very different types of homes. And, their homes are more optimized for the particular people living in them. And, the economy seems to greatly benefit from the adaptability this provides. But, please do your own research. I have visited and seen it for myself but still have a hard time comprehending all the differences.

shostack 9y ago
This sounds really fascinating--do you have any links or search terms to use to learn more about the differences in homes there? I'm particularly curious about the optimization for the people who live in the homes. What would drive that difference in attitude and behavior? I've also heard that Japanese homes aren't built to last and that they get rebuilt rather frequently by Western standards, although I'm not sure how true that is.
- aikinai 9y ago
  This is about the macro-effects of Japanese housing customs, not the optimization aspect you asked about, but it's an interesting and relevant article. https://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137.pdf https://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137... [PDF]
- molteanu 9y ago
  What do you mean by "not sure how true is that"? From the article: "Traditionally, Japanese homes were demolished and rebuilt every 20 to 30 years, to implement improved earthquake-safety technology, to provide jobs for government-favored construction companies or simply because Japanese people demanded nice new houses. As a result, there are relatively few Japanese homeowners trying to prop up the value of their houses by lobbying the government to restrict supply." Did you read the article?
- 9y ago