3 ms·

> neighbourhood character, height limits Absolutely not. These are horrendous reasons and take much of the blame for the housing crisis. We must build upwards

> neighbourhood character, height limits Absolutely not. These are horrendous reasons and take much of the blame for the housing crisis. We must build upwards to house people.

bradstewart 7y ago
Neighborhood character and height limits can mean a lot of things and be implemented for different reasons. If done in the NIMBY sense of "you can't have anything I don't like", yes it's horrendous. But there's a reason Paris "feels" different than Dallas, or Brooklyn different than Manhattan. A big reason I enjoy traveling is to experience these difference "neighborhood cultures". Without some restrictions, you risk destroying what makes a city special. I'm not making any sort of value judgment here--it's not up to me alone to decide "character is more important than housing" (or vise versa), and I won't pretend to know where to draw the line on those restrictions. Height restrictions are often put in place because the underlying infrastructure (water and sewage, electrical grids, traffic/roads) and occasionally even the ground itself simply cannot support a high rise every block.
- davidw 7y ago
  Part of the reason Paris feels different is that they've mostly allowed the city to grow up, everywhere, instead of just a few places. The latter is more likely to lead to not very friendly feeling skyscrapers without a lot at the street, human level. And it also helps a lot that it was not mostly built for automobiles like so many Post-WWII cities in the US have been.
mikepurvis 7y ago
Ha, I knew putting that in there would be contentious, but I suppose that's my fault for doing so in a comment specifically calling out the vaguery of "regulations". In any case, I think it's obvious that someone currently in a single family home doesn't want a 40-story highrise going up right next door to them. So in the absence of explicit zoning, perhaps there could be some formula like limiting new construction height to no more than 50% taller than the median height of buildings within a 1km radius or something. This would still permit triplexes and low rises in established neighbourhoods, without having existing homeowners be completely taken advantage of. Lest my sincerity be doubted, my downtown neighbourhood in Kitchener is a total jumble— it's mostly century homes, but a bunch of them have been duplexed or triplexed, plus there are the occasional chunky multi-unit buildings and townhouse strips, and even a few larger rental towers. I think it's great! Take a look: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4550536,-80.4917221,331a,35y,90.97h,63.94t/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4550536,-80.4917221,331a,35y...

> neighbourhood character, height limits Absolutely not. These are horrendous reasons and take much of the blame for the housing crisis. We must build upwards to house people.

bradstewart 7y ago

Neighborhood character and height limits can mean a lot of things and be implemented for different reasons. If done in the NIMBY sense of "you can't have anything I don't like", yes it's horrendous. But there's a reason Paris "feels" different than Dallas, or Brooklyn different than Manhattan. A big reason I enjoy traveling is to experience these difference "neighborhood cultures". Without some restrictions, you risk destroying what makes a city special. I'm not making any sort of value judgment here--it's not up to me alone to decide "character is more important than housing" (or vise versa), and I won't pretend to know where to draw the line on those restrictions. Height restrictions are often put in place because the underlying infrastructure (water and sewage, electrical grids, traffic/roads) and occasionally even the ground itself simply cannot support a high rise every block.

davidw 7y ago
Part of the reason Paris feels different is that they've mostly allowed the city to grow up, everywhere, instead of just a few places. The latter is more likely to lead to not very friendly feeling skyscrapers without a lot at the street, human level. And it also helps a lot that it was not mostly built for automobiles like so many Post-WWII cities in the US have been.

mikepurvis 7y ago

Ha, I knew putting that in there would be contentious, but I suppose that's my fault for doing so in a comment specifically calling out the vaguery of "regulations". In any case, I think it's obvious that someone currently in a single family home doesn't want a 40-story highrise going up right next door to them. So in the absence of explicit zoning, perhaps there could be some formula like limiting new construction height to no more than 50% taller than the median height of buildings within a 1km radius or something. This would still permit triplexes and low rises in established neighbourhoods, without having existing homeowners be completely taken advantage of. Lest my sincerity be doubted, my downtown neighbourhood in Kitchener is a total jumble— it's mostly century homes, but a bunch of them have been duplexed or triplexed, plus there are the occasional chunky multi-unit buildings and townhouse strips, and even a few larger rental towers. I think it's great! Take a look: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4550536,-80.4917221,331a,35y,90.97h,63.94t/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4550536,-80.4917221,331a,35y...