Borough officials in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, told Mission First and Christ Episcopal churches that their charitable work goes beyond what the zoning code allows for downtown churches.
There is telling people how to live, and there is maximizing people's ability to live the lives they want.
Property owners can now build fourplexes in San Francisco, but only if they've owned the land for five years, place the new units under rent control, and don't try to make them much larger than a single-family home.
Three environmentalists groups had argued that the city failed to perform a state-required environmental analysis of its Minneapolis 2040 comprehensive plan.
Even if the value of their property goes down, current homeowners still often have much to gain from breaking down barriers to new housing construction.
This month, the city passed a number of liberalizing reforms that legalize more types of housing and make already-legal homes more practical to build.
As COVID-19 spread across the country, complex rules around land use and building permits made housing the poor and vulnerable effectively impossible.
The mayor's 'City of Yes' initiative would peel back regulations on everything from dancing in bars to all-studio apartment buildings.
The idea is exactly as dumb as it sounds.
Officials in Marin County, California, argue a temporary moratorium on new short-term rentals in western portions of the county is necessary to preserve the area's limited housing stock.
Housing production is rising and rents are falling. But newly legal duplexes and triplexes make up only a tiny fraction of new development.
Atlantic writer Jerusalem Demsas argues that blue states can't give "refuge" to people fleeing abortion restrictions if they don't cut back on zoning restrictions that lead to sky-high housing costs.
The answer to this important question is highly uncertain. I tentatively predict a significant, but still modest, increase in abortion-driven migration.
Officials in Gallatin County, Montana, say a state law that prohibits local governments from forcing businesses to turn customers away is preventing it from cracking down on zoning code violators.
The administration is proposing to spend $10 billion over ten years incentivizing local and state governments to remove regulatory barriers to new housing construction.
"It's a lot to try and put this stuff all together all on my own, using my own savings, and then having to start all over," says Venus Vegan Tattoo owner Selena Carrion.
The Pine Tree State is embracing California-style housing reforms. It could run into California-style problems.
Trying to sue or zone bitcoin mines out of town is the wrong response to the tradeoffs the industry presents.
These "inclusionary zoning" policies have a record of increasing housing costs and suppressing new housing supply.
Foreign buyers are a small percentage of new home purchases. Excluding them from the housing market does little to reduce housing costs.
It includes commentary by housing policy specialist Emily Hamilton (Mercatus Center), and economist Filipe Campante (Johns Hopkins University).
Dutch officials are updating zoning laws to allow homes that are fixed to the shore but rise and fall with the water.
City politicians and union activists have said the temporary ban on new delivery warehouses is meant to send a message that the company can't just open a new facility without first providing generous "community benefits."
Since the 1960s, planners have convinced many state and regional governments to limit the physical spread of urban areas.
Supervisors have proposed legalizing fourplexes in a way that preserves NIMBYs’ ability to stop new housing. That could trigger the state’s obscure “builder’s remedy.”
Liberal Berkeley officials might be coming around to the view held by conservative business leaders, who have long argued that California's Environmental Quality Act needs an overhaul.
Azael Sepulveda is suing the city of Pasadena, Texas over its requirement that his autobody shop add 23 parking spaces he insists he doesn't need and can't afford.
Lawmakers are proposing to strip neighborhood activists of the legal tools they've used to freeze the university's student population.
Bianca King argues in a new lawsuit that Lakeway, Texas, zoning officials illegally deprived her of her right to earn a living by denying her a permit for her home day care business.
Brandon Krause has spent $30,000 trying to legalize a business that the city said for years was all up to code.
"Every house that's built is one more acre taken away from (mountain lions') habitat. Where are they going to go?" asks Woodside Mayor Dick Brown.
St. Timothy's Episcopal Church says that a Brookings, Oregon, law limiting its "benevolent meal service" to two days a week unconstitutionally restricts its religious mission to feed the hungry.
The city's restrictions threaten one of the world's most vibrant music scenes.
"We can't even do the things we want to on our own property that aren't even hurting anyone."
The New York congresswoman has endorsed much-needed zoning reform, but also raised typical NIMBY complaints about projects in her own backyard.
Gloversville's Free Methodist Church has 40 beds ready and waiting at its downtown shelter. City officials say the zoning code doesn't allow people to sleep in them.
The Golden State's legalization of accessory dwelling units has produced a glut of new housing. New York area policymakers are trying to replicate the success.
Local ordinances threaten upstart crypto-mining operations.
Zoning officials concede Robert Balitierrez's drive-thru window isn't causing any problems. But they say it's a code violation and has to close anyway.
Jurisdictions around the world are trying to address high housing costs by eliminating regulations on new housing construction.
The $1.5 million that it would cost to fully replace balconies at the historic Kenesaw apartment building could end up tripling the condo fees of some low-income residents.
The otherwise positive proposals are undermined by affordability requirements and density restrictions.
Funding for affordable housing and grants to incentivize streamlining zoning laws could represent a policy win for YIMBYs.
Rev. Bernie Lindley of Brookings' St. Timothy's Episcopal Church says that the new rules violate his First Amendment rights, and that he won't comply with them.
Jordan Stevens' application to legalize her Happy Goat Lucky Yoga business was denied by Hamilton County's Board of Zoning Appeals last month.
The tradable development rights the city has in its possession are only made valuable by its insane restrictions on new development.
"The quality of life we have even during COVID is so much higher than anything humanity experienced, and it's only going to get better."
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