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I am living through the effects of allowing excessively fast growth right now. For most of this year and possibly into the next, my driveway is almost unusable

I am living through the effects of allowing excessively fast growth right now. For most of this year and possibly into the next, my driveway is almost unusable while the road is ripped up and utilities completely overhauled because there was just no choice anymore. The whole neighborhood had shit water pressure and constant sewer issues because the city council 20 years ago approved a few too many apartment buildings. It's not about income levels, it's about planning.

AnthonyMouse 7y ago
Planning shouldn't require approvals. If people are building a bunch of apartment buildings, the city can be aware of that without being able to prohibit it. And if the city planning office then chooses to wait until there is low water pressure before upgrading the infrastructure instead of doing it at the same time as the new buildings they're aware of are going up, whose fault is that?
- throwawaycert 7y ago
  They didn't know they went too far at the time, and it didn't become obvious for years. But they knew they were getting close at least, and stopped. We'd be worse off if they hadn't denied subsequent projects.
  - AnthonyMouse 7y ago
    > They didn't know they went too far at the time, and it didn't become obvious for years. That's just bad engineering. You should know how many pipes and pumps you have of what kind and where, and from that know how many residents it can support. Then you can predict when the infrastructure will become insufficient and start the upgrade in time to finish it before that happens. With enough margin of safety that you're still in the clear even if your estimates are off within the typical range that estimates have been off for similar past projects. It's no surprise that some places get that wrong from time to time, but the solution is to do better next time. If you're at the point that you have to halt housing construction because your infrastructure can't keep up with it, the point where you screwed up was several years in the past.
    - throwawaycert 7y ago
      The practical effect of what you suggest is that I have to suffer from overtaxed infrastructure because individuals around me made poor judgements. Which is exactly why these rules exist. The planning process is how society manages its infrastructure.

AnthonyMouse 7y ago

Planning shouldn't require approvals. If people are building a bunch of apartment buildings, the city can be aware of that without being able to prohibit it. And if the city planning office then chooses to wait until there is low water pressure before upgrading the infrastructure instead of doing it at the same time as the new buildings they're aware of are going up, whose fault is that?

throwawaycert 7y ago
They didn't know they went too far at the time, and it didn't become obvious for years. But they knew they were getting close at least, and stopped. We'd be worse off if they hadn't denied subsequent projects.
- AnthonyMouse 7y ago
  > They didn't know they went too far at the time, and it didn't become obvious for years. That's just bad engineering. You should know how many pipes and pumps you have of what kind and where, and from that know how many residents it can support. Then you can predict when the infrastructure will become insufficient and start the upgrade in time to finish it before that happens. With enough margin of safety that you're still in the clear even if your estimates are off within the typical range that estimates have been off for similar past projects. It's no surprise that some places get that wrong from time to time, but the solution is to do better next time. If you're at the point that you have to halt housing construction because your infrastructure can't keep up with it, the point where you screwed up was several years in the past.
  - throwawaycert 7y ago
    The practical effect of what you suggest is that I have to suffer from overtaxed infrastructure because individuals around me made poor judgements. Which is exactly why these rules exist. The planning process is how society manages its infrastructure.