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
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Move over, LA: St. Louis gears up for Olympics, invests millions in downtown redevelopment
The Missouri city will host the 2028 Olympic soccer group stage and knockout matches.
Mass. votes against statewide minimum lot size for single-family homes
Over 2 million residents voted on Question 7; it was decided by just over 30,000 votes.
Maryland’s $15 billion bridge project gains key approval
The Maryland Transit Authority said the project will create over 60,000 jobs and add $23 billion to the local economy.
‘No clear next steps’ for Chicago's permanent festival grounds
Eleventh Ward Ald. Nicole Lee has suggested Soldier Field as a possible location for the permanent event space.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority