3 ms·

You do own the views in numerous cities due to historical precedent, and cities cant change these laws as it would be considered unconstitutional taking.

alistairSH 6y ago
I know some mountain and coastal areas actually do have view ordinances, but they're typically very limited (sometimes only to trees, not construction, etc). But, I don't believe that's the norm in most places.
- zjaffee 6y ago
  NYC has a very complicated system of buying and selling air rights which is what I was thinking of when I wrote this.
- Tiktaalik 6y ago
  City of Vancouver has a policy of protected public views. The goal is to make it so that views of Vancouver's mountains are reasonably accessible by anyone, not just those that purchased a north facing suite in a tall condo tower. It's pretty much the same underlying concept as why we create public parks. The view cones are scattered around and are usually tied to areas of heavy public pedestrian activity, such as parks. The policy is very popular. https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/protecting-vancouvers-views.aspx https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/protecting-va...
  - CountSessine 6y ago
    This goes a long way toward explaining the housing affordability disaster in Vancouver.
    - Tiktaalik 6y ago
      Not at all. You can look at the map of view cones and see that there's a handful centered around the downtown. Meanwhile south of there there's about 50+ blocks of untouched single family homes. The view cones has been no real barrier to development and unlike SF Vancouver is building constantly.
  - alistairSH 6y ago
    That's super neat, thanks for sharing. As a counter, Seattle doesn't have much comparable. You an buy "air rights" to protect your view, but there isn't a general protection for home-owners. It's fairly common for a small home to be replaced with a newer, much taller, structure, taking neighbor's views with it.

alistairSH 6y ago

I know some mountain and coastal areas actually do have view ordinances, but they're typically very limited (sometimes only to trees, not construction, etc). But, I don't believe that's the norm in most places.

zjaffee 6y ago
NYC has a very complicated system of buying and selling air rights which is what I was thinking of when I wrote this.
Tiktaalik 6y ago
City of Vancouver has a policy of protected public views. The goal is to make it so that views of Vancouver's mountains are reasonably accessible by anyone, not just those that purchased a north facing suite in a tall condo tower. It's pretty much the same underlying concept as why we create public parks. The view cones are scattered around and are usually tied to areas of heavy public pedestrian activity, such as parks. The policy is very popular. https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/protecting-vancouvers-views.aspx https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/protecting-va...
- CountSessine 6y ago
  This goes a long way toward explaining the housing affordability disaster in Vancouver.
  - Tiktaalik 6y ago
    Not at all. You can look at the map of view cones and see that there's a handful centered around the downtown. Meanwhile south of there there's about 50+ blocks of untouched single family homes. The view cones has been no real barrier to development and unlike SF Vancouver is building constantly.
- alistairSH 6y ago
  That's super neat, thanks for sharing. As a counter, Seattle doesn't have much comparable. You an buy "air rights" to protect your view, but there isn't a general protection for home-owners. It's fairly common for a small home to be replaced with a newer, much taller, structure, taking neighbor's views with it.