3 ms·

The counties and wards of Tokyo don't have the power to impose discretionary zoning on landowners. In fact, they don't have the power to impose any of the kinds

The counties and wards of Tokyo don't have the power to impose discretionary zoning on landowners. In fact, they don't have the power to impose any of the kinds of abusive and harmful zoning and parking requirements that are universal in the Bay Area. [0] Japanese zoning and urban development policy are set by the central national government. That policy is considered the gold standard for simplicity and promoting quality development by planners everywhere in the developed world. If the quality and honesty of government urban planning that Japan has could be transplanted, life in the Bay Area would improve immensely. No amount of land scarcity or Google shuttles or rising demand or offshore Chinese corrupt officials parking money or anything else would be able to make things unaffordable if local governments were good, honest, and effective. But quality government is simply not possible with the current politics of California. [0] http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html

jpatokal 12y ago
> That policy is considered the gold standard for simplicity and promoting quality development by planners everywhere in the developed world. Nnnno, they're not. In fact, Japanese zoning -- which, incidentally, is set at the federal, prefectural and local level -- is widely regarded as batshit insane. For example, there's a giant garbage incinerator right in on the northern side of central Tokyo (Ikebukuro); taxation makes "used" houses nearly worthless and thus encourages building new cheap crap; draconian building restrictions make Japanese apartments tiny; the well-intentioned "sunshine laws" have all sorts of perverse side effects like making it well-nigh impossible to build tall, high-quality residential buildings in the city center but encourage tall but cheap, crappy ones in the middle of nowhere, etc etc. This Nomura Research report is an excellent read: http://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137.pdf http://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137....

jpatokal 12y ago

> That policy is considered the gold standard for simplicity and promoting quality development by planners everywhere in the developed world. Nnnno, they're not. In fact, Japanese zoning -- which, incidentally, is set at the federal, prefectural and local level -- is widely regarded as batshit insane. For example, there's a giant garbage incinerator right in on the northern side of central Tokyo (Ikebukuro); taxation makes "used" houses nearly worthless and thus encourages building new cheap crap; draconian building restrictions make Japanese apartments tiny; the well-intentioned "sunshine laws" have all sorts of perverse side effects like making it well-nigh impossible to build tall, high-quality residential buildings in the city center but encourage tall but cheap, crappy ones in the middle of nowhere, etc etc. This Nomura Research report is an excellent read: http://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137.pdf http://www.nri.com/global/opinion/papers/2008/pdf/np2008137....