Height Limit

The two owners of a traditional 8-acre strip, big box retail center in San Francisco have asked for an amendment to the neighborhood plan (undergoing revision) to allow them to add housing on top of their stores, thus doubling the height limit.

Architect Richard Murphy's masterplan for Edinburgh's Haymarket is facing complaints about the height of the hotel. Murphy says, 'Our hotel will breach the skyline, and a jolly good thing too.'

A new condo proposal in a Honolulu neighborhood is 70 feet over the current height limits. Developers say new heights are necessary to make projects pencil out with rising construction costs.

Dimitri Roussopoulos of Urban Ecology and Capital Councillor Clive Doucet make the case that city planning in Ottawa ignores the smart growth plan in place, is driven by economics, and is not in the best interest of communities.

San Francisco planners unveiled a rezoning proposal that would permit new skyscrapers around the new Transbay terminal, shifting downtown southward around a planned 1,000 foot tower -- which would be the tallest on the West Coast.

In anti-growth Santa Barbara, preservationists and smart growth advocates have forged a compromise that will permit taller buildings for developments that include affordable housing.