Zoning Codes
As a response to rising rental prices and low vacancy rates, Vancouver planners have created a package of zoning and process changes to provide incentives for new multi-family developments.
The Vancouver Sun
The vacancy rate in Toronto has been estimated as low 1.1 percent, but the province has approved regulations intended to restore units that have been taken off the long-term rental market by short-term rental platforms like Airbnb.
The Globe and Mail
Recent political interest in local land use regulations requires a thorough and nuanced understanding of the strengths and limitations of the methodologies available for measuring the effects of zoning.
Brookings
Move over Minneapolis. An Indiana college town joins the avant-garde of planning innovation by nearing the finish line with a new Unified Development Ordinance that would allow duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in single-family neighborhoods.
Hoosier Times
Covington, Kentucky is seeking feedback from the public on a new zoning code after 18 months of work.
WCPO
The first deliverable in the process of updating the city of Detroit's zoning ordinance is publically available.
Curbed Detroit
The new form-based zoning code under consideration in the affluent Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion "has something to teach Philadelphia and other big cities about how to organize density smartly," according to Inga Saffron.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Redwood City, located on the San Francisco Peninsula, will make it harder to build homes that take up more than 45 percent of a residential lot.
The Mercury News
Current zoning restrictions hearken back to an America that long longer exists. It’s time to update codes and stop perpetuating housing segregation and inequality.
The New York Times
Looking for a way to describe zoning codes, and their role in city planning, to a newcomer to the field? Maybe start here.
CityLab
The city of Des Moines is working on a new zoning code intended to ease the process of developing homes. The proposed regulations have triggered warnings from affordable housing advocates as well as local and nation home builders.
Des Moines Register
Until now, mixed-use projects have required a lengthy discretionary approval process in San Diego. That could change with a zoning change given preliminary approval by the City Council this week.
Times of San Diego
A local labor organization wanted larger hotels to help workers create unions, so they sought a zoning change to make it harder to develop smaller hotels in light manufacturing zones.
The Real Deal
The Los Angeles Department of City Planning has released a draft of the DTLA 2040 plan. In addition to the changes it proposes for the downtown area, it's the first community plan update to roll out the city's new zoning code.
Urbanize LA
Many gardeners in Florida celebrated this week, as Senate Bill 82 went into effect, by planting fruits and vegetables in their yards, legally, whether their city liked it or not.
NPR
The city of Des Moines is hoping to update its zoning code for the first time since 1965.
Des Moines Register
The city of Minneapolis doesn't want any more drive-throughs in the city, in an effort to cut down on emissions, car trips, and conflict points in the public realm.
Star Tribune
People who can't vote can still have a say in the processes by which their neighborhoods are planned and developed. An example from New York City illustrates the point.
Next City
The New York City Department of City Planning has released a large set of recommendations for zoning changes designed to help the city's many coastal areas weather the inevitable extreme weather events of climate change and sea level rise.
NYC Planning
Important distinctions about the difference between a comprehensive plan and zoning code changes, as well as details of the form-based influences of the new Denveright 2040 plan are reported here.
The Denver Post
