While urban growth is heavily regulated in industrialized countries, most of the world develops without a legal planning framework.
"While regulated, structured growth is the coin of the realm in the US and in many metropolitan areas overseas, informal land development - that is, urban neighborhoods built outside of a conventional property ownership and land market system -- is actually the predominant model of urban development and urban growth in cities in the developing world, says Lincoln Institute visiting fellow Claudio Acioly."
"Acioly, an architect and urban planner with the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies-IHS, The Netherlands, has studied the phenomenon of informality or informal settlement in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe."
"In a recent Lincoln House lecture, Acioly showed how informal settlement persists despite housing programs, settlement upgrading and land regularization policies. Informal land development - in the form of illegally and informally developed housing and human settlements - typically accounts to 20 to 70 percent of urban growth in cities in the developing world."
"Informality may soon be knocking on the door of industrialized countries as well," remarks Acioly.
FULL STORY: Exploring informal settlement

Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

HUD Announces Plan to Build Housing on Public Lands
The agency will identify federally owned parcels appropriate for housing development and streamline the regulatory process to lease or transfer land to housing authorities and nonprofit developers.

EPA Terminates $116 Million in Grants for Reducing Emissions from Construction Materials
C-MORE grants were earmarked for industry trade groups and universities.

BART Closes $35 Million Deficit
Cost control and revenue generation measures prevented service cuts.

The New Parisian Hearse is a Bicycle
Sleek, silent, and sustainable, a green trip to the graveyard has hit the streets of the French capital.
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