The only justified restriction on what an owner puts on his own land is the common law of nuisances. There should be no zoning, and no using tax funds to create or preserve open space.

What makes this hard to legislate is that owners of existing homes act as a cartel, by using planning agencies to keep other people's unbuilt land unbuilt in order to create a deliberate shortage of housing and keep prices as high as possible. Now that that strategy has reached its ultimate, ridiculous result (with firms like Blackrock trying to corner the market and looking like they may) it should be a red flag to even the rich that the cartel has gone too far. Maybe it would help if we got federal antitrust law amended to include state and local governments.

> Maybe it would help if we got
> federal antitrust law amended
> to include state and local
> governments.

There are about fifty ways ours would be a better planet if gummint itself were subject to market forces. Like, imagine if the fifty states were truly permitted to distinguish themselves as competitively desirable.

"Ending single-family zoning doesn't ban single-family homes from neighborhoods. It merely allows more freedom for people to build what they want."

I am all-in on letting people do with their property what they want to do - within reason. Don't put a chemical plant in the middle of a residential neighborhood, etc.

Zoning serves a deeper purpose than simply to keep apartment buildings away from single family residences. Apartment buildings mean more people per square foot than SFRs. That puts additional burdens on the streets, access roads, water supply, sewage, electrical grid, and other facilities. And those facilities serving that area may not have been built to withstand that many people living in it.

In addition, apartment dwellers typically are younger and have shorter tenures, so the businesses that support them are different. Fast food chains tend to proliferate around short-term residences - along with their attendant crime, homeless populations, and traffic problems.

In short, I agree that zoning should be dialed back as an instrument of government power, but some zoning does serve a reasonable purpose. To coin a phrase, Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

There's an environmental reason for compacting housing. Condos can be far more efficient than single-story homes. Pripyat was a fine example before Chernobyl blew it away.

Florida is slowly being sterilized by residential streets occupied by homeowners terrified of the weather and their HOA - lest they be cited for actually doing something others can see. It's not pretty at all.

The presence of other people isn't what makes a place better.

Build on, California.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hoover-dams-lake-mead-hits-lowest-water-level-1930s-180978022/#:~:text=Since%202000%2C%20the%20water%20level,that%20level%20at%201%2C071.56%20feet.

> Condos can be far more efficient
> than single-story homes

Not sure what you're getting at. 'Efficient' in what respect, and to the benefit of whom?

People don't want to live efficiently.

My whole neighborhood (mostly single-family homes) has been doing its darndest for years to prevent a small mixed-use development (with several apartment units on top and commercial on the bottom) from being built on an empty commercial lot across the street. Supposedly it will “change the character of the neighborhood.” At one point some very nice food trucks were renting the space and you would have thought the world was ending. The same neighbors will then complain on NextDoor all day about the homeless people camping in said vacant lot, burning their trash.

My whole neighborhood (mostly single-family homes) has been doing its darndest for years to prevent a small mixed-use development (with several apartment units on top and commercial on the bottom) from being built on an empty commercial lot across the street. Supposedly it will “change the character of the neighborhood.” At one point some very nice food trucks were renting the space and you would have thought the world was ending. The same neighbors will then complain on NextDoor all day about the homeless people camping in said vacant lot, burning their trash.

Live in an area that is mostly apartments strip malls and condos, trying to move out. It was ok-ish at start but keeps getting worse. When in 20s you care about different things. And quiet and safe aren't top of the list. During pandemic closings, it became bad for me. Others may like it. They are trying to convert empty office buildings to condos adding probably 200 people to that block.

Talking to people who lived here decades ago, it once was all single family and quiet. But if a developer can put 16 units on your property, each worth 1/3 of what your home is, they can offer double or tipple the price. it's tough to not have groups of people sell.
Does it change the character of the area? Definitely. May take a few developments to notice, but it rarely stops with one.

The problem in CA is not zoning for single family homes, it is the ability of even a few people to complain and stop construction. It is also draconian rules for construction such that the cost skyrockets. They demand that if you put in apartments, you must make x% of them low-income (which locals then object to). They now want solar panels on the roof of all new buildings. Greenspace is an absurd amount.
The "end of zoning" is not about freedom: it is in fact to prevent towns from being suburbs, on the basis that zoning for single family homes keeps blacks out--of course that isn't true. I have neighbors of all races around me in a nice suburb.

I wonder how much housing we'd free up in California if we kicked out all two million illegals?

....so The Goddess and other resident libertarians applaud a court overturning a public referendum - in the midst of a post about limiting gubmint fiat...

Niiiiceee.

1. As other posters have pointed out, libertarian principles don't apply so cleanly to a fixed, immovable asset like real estate - or to an intangible asset like a community's character.

2. Before dismissing the fears of class warfare, The Goddess should review the history of 60s "urban renewal" projects used as part of the Marxist attack on family and community - which often went hand-in-hand with "social justice" wedge programs like forced school busing.... Maybe then she will understand the coded language of today's radical Dem leadership when they talk about "fundamentally transforming" the suburbs.

"You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you."

"When a Leftist talks about changing *the* world, they mean to change *your* world."

At one point some very nice food trucks were renting the space and you would have thought the world was ending. ~ sofar at July 14, 2021 11:57 AM

My neighborhood HOA organizes food truck events. They invite a food truck to someone's house, park it in the driveway, and invite the entire neighborhood to pick up dinner that night. The owners of some of the host houses put up tents and encourage mingling. The turnout is usually pretty impressive.

Not sure why this disappeared...

"Not sure what you're getting at. 'Efficient' in what respect, and to the benefit of whom?"

Condos are FAR more efficient to heat, cool and provide electrical, water and sewer services than single-family homes. In addition, they subtend less land, thus changing the water table and flood plain less.

"People don't want to live efficiently."
And so you have SoCal at hand to see the result. Water those lawns - Lake Mead isn't empty yet!

There is lots of room for improvement in condo construction, and they aren't going to be favored for awhile in view of the Sunrise, FL collapse. Some are built very well, indeed, and you can't tell you have a neighbor until you open a door.

Well, if you're going to sarcastically ridicule of other people's tastes, they'll not be too precious with your own.

There is lots of room for improvement in condo construction, and they aren't going to be favored for awhile in view of the Sunrise, FL collapse. Some are built very well, indeed, and you can't tell you have a neighbor until you open a door.

Radwaste at July 15, 2021 9:32 AM

I play the banjo frequently late at night. Wanna be my condo neighbor?

The equity in a home is frequently the largest single asset a family may have. It may even exceed all other more liquid assets combined.

Any move which promises to reduce the market price of a home reduces the equity, which is to say takes away a lot of money. It is particularly unfair when something which had been promised, actively or by implication, such as zoning, is changed with the resulting loss of equity. Which, as I say, had been partly built based on the implied promise.
The mortgage payments don't drop and the local tax assessor is curiously slow in making the appropriate changes.
You're just out a pretty big chunk of money you weren't counting on losing at somebody else's hot idea.
People are likely to complain.

I like HAYBY. How About Your Back Yard