Buffalo Zoning Supports Sprawl
David Steel explains how Buffalo's zoning code not only makes it impossible to build the type of neighborhoods people love, but also guarantees that low density development pays less taxes.
"The result of this legal and economic attack on urbanism is to create a city full of parking lots and empty space," says Steel.
To prove his point, Steel compares a much-loved 1890s building on Elmwood to a bank building with parking lot on the same street:
"In raw dollar terms the dense apartment building is paying $6773 more in taxes than the bank. But if you consider that the bank property, if built out to the level of the apartment building, could be paying as much as $37,000 or approximately $26,000 more than it currently pays. So you can see that the people of Buffalo are forking over a substantial sum so that M&T bank can maintain a big convenient free parking lot."
Published on Thursday, June 28, 2012 in
Topics
- Throwing Some Cold Water on the 'Tiny Homes' Movement
- Arkansas Town Without a Downtown Decides to Make One
- Apple's New Headquarters: Sprawling and Sprawl-Inducing
- Friday Funny: A 'Manspreader' for Every Month
- Portland's Long-Term Transportation Plans Include a Downtown Subway
- The Affordable Rental Housing Crisis Is Only Getting Worse
- What Happened When Arlington Cut Out the 'Missing Middle'
- Is This Really Penn Station?
- Why the Controversy Over a Planned Disc Golf Course in New Jersey Is a Big Deal
- A Rap Song About Bike Safety? Yes Please.
- Plans for Empty Lot Raise Gentrification Fears in Chicago's Pilsen
- Overcoming Density Opponents by Listening to Them
- Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports Put Zero Emissions Goal in Writing
- Urine Trouble: MARTA Station Elevators to Get Pee Alarms
- Funding Pledge Brings Certainty to Planned Cap Park in Philadelphia
- Atlanta Needs a New Tree Ordinance
- America's 1970s Bike Boom
- No Cars Allowed on Portland's New Street
- Detroit Approves $34.5 million to Bring Pistons Downtown
- Mapping the Tools of Discrimination
