After more than four years of public meetings, new drafts, extensive revisions, debate, and controversy, Miami 21 is finally scheduled for its first City Commission reading on August 6th. For all who have, or continue to work patiently and dilligently on the groundbreaking zoning code, this is exciting and relieving news.
Housing
Building for the Multicultural
Builder Fernando Pagés Ruiz discovered by accident that the multicultural groups in his community had special needs that weren't being met.
Vancouver approves Laneway Housing and "Suites within Suites"
Wed, 07/29/2009 - 09:17
A quick post to note that on Tuesday of last week, Vancouver City Council unanimously approved bylaws to put into place Vancouver's new "suites within suites" housing option, across the City. Also referred to as "lock-off suites", these secondary suites within apartments are meant to represent an opportunity for housing flexibility, with such suites usable as a rental mortgage helper (a “mortgage helper in the sky”, as one article puts it), a separated but related unit for an elderly parent or aging teenager, a unit for a care-giver, or any other relationship an apartment owner might need.
Incentives for Energy Efficiency Expanding
The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Administration are looking to increase energy efficiency incentives for homeowners, including opportunities for larger home loans.
Los Angeles Times
Housing Supply Down in Vegas, For Now
The supply of housing in Las Vegas is at a three-year low, a fact many attribute to prospectors buying up low-priced foreclosures in recent months.
The Las Vegas Sun
The Resilient and the Rest
This piece from Forbes looks at which cities will recover fastest from the recession -- and which ones won't.
Forbes
Listed Properties Mapped by Google
Google Maps now feature visual displays of homes and properties that are listed for sale.
San Francisco Chronicle
Poticha Appointed to HUD Position
Shelley Poticha, President and CEO of Reconnecting America and past executive director of the Congress for New Urbanism, has been appointed Senior Advisor for Sustainable Housing and Communities at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Reconnecting America
A Look at Housing Prices in the Recession
These two posts from Richard Florida look at how housing is faring during the economic recession. He looks at home prices in 300 metro areas, and how things have changed between the peak in 2006 to today.
Creative Class Exchange
Eco-Suburbs, Not Just Eco-Towns
As the U.K. experiments with building environmentally-friendly "eco-towns", Peter Hetherington of The Guardian argues that they should also be greening up Britain's vast suburbs.
The Guardian U.K.
Don't Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor?
New studies rank cities based on the extent to which they "criminalize homelessness."
NPR
Dealing With Vacant Mansions in London
In a posh borough of London, empty homes are causing problems for officials, who are tasked with finding the owners of these vacant or abandoned mansions.
The Wall Street Journal
New Eco-Town Plans Meet NIMBY Resistance
The UK government recently announced the sites of four new planned "eco-towns". But local opposition to the projects remains high.
The Christian Science Monitor
LA the "Meanest City"?
A new report on how cities criminalize the practices used by homeless people to get by on a daily basis names Los Angeles as the country's "meanest city" for its "Safer City Initiative."
CommonDreams
The Bust of Williamsburg
Sales in Brooklyn are down, and that's made a ghost town out of the recently booming but now busted Williamsburg neighborhood.
New York Magazine
Raising the Green Bar again: from EcoDensity to "Greenest City"?
Tue, 07/14/2009 - 11:25
Over various blog posts through the last few years, I've shared some of the key steps and stages leading to the eventual unanimous Council approval of Vancouver's EcoDensity Initiative. Since then the EcoDensity Charter and new policies have been changing the way we think about density, green building and site design, and our ecological footprint in and outside of city hall. We've also been moving forward on various EcoDensity actions approved in principle by Council back in 2008.
Vancouver Requires Electric Car Inclusionary Zoning
The city of Vancouver is going to begin requiring that a certain amount of electric car charging stations be included in all new residential developments.
CBC
New York Begins Converting Stalled Projects to Affordable Housing
The City of New York has unveiled its Housing Asset Renewal Program, a plan to revive stalled projects as affordable housing.
The Architect's Newspaper
Cities Creating Land Banks to Deal with Vacant Properties
Abandoned and foreclosed properties are plaguing many cities. Now some are trying to turn the blight into prosperity by creating land banks to hold, remodel or demolish the properties -- and pull in some revenue while they're at it.
USA Today
The Mud House Boom and Bust
The housing boom has busted in a tiny village in the West African country of Guinea, where homebuilders had constructed rows of new mud houses in hopes of cashing in on the rising demand for housing and its rising costs. Now, they sit empty.
The Wall Street Journal
