An editorial favors one local city's approach to mansionization over another's. When will they ever learn?
It's almost like the Great Recession never happened in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California: homeowners, developers, and international investors are tearing down single-family detached homes and replacing them with much larger single-family detached homes.
The editorial board of the Pasadena Star-News chimed in on the reignited controversy over mansionization in the cities of San Gabriel and Arcadia. "The city of San Gabriel last month became the latest in the region to begin to investigate solutions to the problems of mansionization in the region, and good for it," begins the editorial. Meanwhile, according to the editorial, nearby Arcadia is sticking its head in the "construction dirt."
So the editorial performs a compare and contrast on the two cities' approach to mansionization pressures. The right way, according to the editorial, as embodied by San Gabriel:
"Quite properly, the main focus in the short run in San Gabriel is on updating its outmoded housing preservation ordinance to protect the excellent stock of appropriately scaled pre-World War II residential neighborhoods in the city. But city leaders are also not shying away from considering a temporary moratorium on the razing of single-family houses in order to build McMansions while it gets its planning act together."
Meanwhile in Arcadia, "an out-of-touch three-member City Council majority has blocked a zoning study that had appropriately been under way…"
Courtney Tompkins, staff reporter for the Pasadena Star-News, reported on the initial findings of the city of San Gabriel's study back in September. For another take on the mansionization controversy, a letter to the editor by George Carney, resident of San Gabriel, says "the furor about 'mansionization' [is] just the latest sad commentary on the reactionary and bigoted thinking of all too many San Gabriel residents."
FULL STORY: San Gabriel plans for an appropriately scaled future: Editorial
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.