local control
After the Twin Cities lowered speed limits in the urban core of the region in 2020, a trio of suburban cities are planning to follow. Two of the cities are planning to set some speed limits as low as 20 mph.
Star Tribune
Local leaders are challenging state-mandated affordable housing requirements for the 2021-2029 cycle.
Santa Monica Daily Press
Overlay districts provide a tool for guiding the future of development and environmental controls at the neighborhood level.
WHYY
A combination of factors including a lengthy appeals process and the cost of construction have led to huge disparities in the number of units allocated to each community.
Cal Matters
The Trump administration might have dealt numerous setbacks in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but climate action in 2020 went local, with cities all over the country finding new ways to reduce emissions.
Amy Turner via Twitter
Effective planning processes offer immense financial savings, and there's never been a more pressing need for both. The state of Washington is setting out to prove the planning dividend.
The Urbanist
Coronavirus and a heavy rail project doomed a transit sales tax in Gwinnett County, Georgia, according to this election post-mortem.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
California voters, with a reputation for liberal politics, have repeatedly refused to approve statewide rent control laws at the ballot box.
Los Angeles Times
The first 20 mile per hour speed limit signs have been installed this week in the Twin Cities.
Pioneer Press
Gwinnett County voters living have rejected proposals to pay taxes for the MARTA transit system before, so the latest proposal for a transit sales tax is going to great lengths to prove its local control bonafides.
SaportaReport
A spate of recent articles has taken a critical look at the regulatory obstacles to a progrssive planning vision in the state of California.
San Francisco Chronicle
Feature
President Trump has opinions about the sanctity of local control that don't agree with his other opinions about local control. This is a cautionary tale.
A lawsuit argues that Houston's Historic Preservation Ordinance is a form of de facto land use control, equivalent to zoning, which isn't allowed by state and local laws.
Houston Chronicle
Another year, another defeat for sweeping changes to the status quo of single-family zoning in the state of California. SB 1120 would have allowed duplexes in areas previously zoned for detached single family zoning.
Los Angeles Times
L.A. City Councilmembers Herb Wesson and Paul Koretz register opposition to SB 1120, calling the bill an attack on the residential integrity throughout the state of California.
The Planning Report
The Vermont State Senate voted unanimously to approve legislation that would reduce barriers to more compact residential development. The Vermont House of Representatives is up next.
CNU Public Square
Older, white homeowners take up far more than an equal share of the seats at the planning table in San Diego.
Voice of San Diego
The novel coronavirus has so far preyed on the most vulnerable in cities, as a result of the planning failures of the previous century. Planners today can take steps to reverse that reality, if they reclaim their historic role.
Democracy
In a move probably made to appeal to suburban voters in an election year, President Trump sent a late night tweet claiming that the Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule is having a 'devastating impact' on suburbs.
Business Insider
A long development saga has finally concluded in the South Bay Area city of Palo Alto, following a common narrative in the development resistant city.
The Mercury News
