With litigation costs escalating due to increasingly stringent zoning regulations, many family-owned development firms are forced out of the market by bigger firms that can afford to pay attorney's fees.
With increasing incomes, demand in the "luxury" homes sector is always high. According to this article, "Month in, month out...attorneys are engaged in dozens of legal battles with local zoning boards, pushing for permission to build in desirable markets." Homebuilders are fast increasing their market share in the new homes market. Thanks to the high cost of litigating with local zoning boards in "desirable" markets, the bigger, more diversified firms, with deeper pockets, are taking over the small, family-owned firms.
"Land -- and specifically land-use regulation -- has grown too costly for little guys to compete."
"Community barriers to building -- whether expressed as 'sustainable' planning rules or as unvarnished snob zoning -- have a lot to do with pushing up the cost of real estate..."
Read the full story: Housing bubble, zoning boards
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Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Colorado’s Largest Data Center Could Rise Next to Homes — Without a Public Hearing
The proposed campus would consume 11 times the power of Denver International Airport; as it has across the country, opposition mounts.
'This is going to be painful:’ Virginia stares down $1.7 billion funding gap for highway maintenance
The state may address the deficit by shifting $290 million from its construction budget to maintenance projects.
Judges permit Denver to divert 77,000 acre feet from the Colorado River for reservoir expansion
Overuse and climate change have caused the Colorado River’s water levels to plummet.
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
KFH Group Inc.
Greater Baltimore Committee
Eagle County Government
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello