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kitikiti'sh writes:

I live in a great small town. It's a thriving little community, has a wonderful downtown, and a strong economy. It also has (for the time being) quite a few historic buildings.

The town has one historic district, established in the '70s, that covers a few blocks of large and distinguished 19th-century homes, but no historic district or design overlay district for the rest of the city. Even the historic district, there are no guidelines for new construction- a vacant lot in the district now has a suburban-style "snout" house coming right up to the sidewalk.

Downtown, the oldest house in town is scheduled to be torn down for a new snout house. A few blocks east of downtown on the main street, a large brick Italianate house- well-kept, in superb condition- will be torn down for a medical building, and an interesting industrial building will be torn down for a vacant lot. ...

Fringe writes:

A property owner whose two parcels are slated to be cut in two, leaving three remnants, by a state highway widening and relocation project was visited two full years ago by an appraiser, who said highway reps would be visiting soon to negotiate. No more, however, and the silence has been deafening. ...

H writes:

When is it appropriate to hyphen "land-use" and when is it just "land use"? ...

Veloise writes:

Interesting article about Richard Florida. (prospect.org)

"In our interview, Florida shies away from making the abandonment argument as forthrightly. He tells me his Atlantic piece was the "best thing I've ever done" but backs away from it under questioning. "I'm not saying abandon these places," he says. "I'm saying, number one, invest in their assets, number two, invest in their connective fiber" to other cities. He is an advocate of building high-speed rail to link cities like Detroit, Buffalo, and Milwaukee to Chicago and Toronto. What he really opposes, he says, is propping up industries like auto manufacturing. He recognizes that expecting people to leave home for his creative hubs is "gut wrenching" and laments the "massive geographic inequality" that will result. ...

Have we lost our connection with the city? Urban design principles established some 50 years ago are revisited and are even appreciated by a four year old.

By Eli Gescheit

In 1960 Kevin Lynch released his magnum opus, “The Image of the City”. It used case studies of three American cities, Boston, New Jersey and Los Angeles, to establish innovative urban design principles still being used in 2012.

The study involved deploying researchers to these cities to assess how they recognised various physical city features. These features were mapped out and categorised into five key elements, and are considered the building blocks for cities, namely; path, edge, node, district and landmark. The map above is an example of the research. ...

bureaucrat#3 writes:

Recently we've had someone ask about putting a vehicle auction center on a site that previously held an auto dealership. I've been searching the internet and haven't found many regulations dealing with this use specifically. I also have never been to an auto auction, so I'm not completely sure of the differences. I know they would have auctions 1-2 times a week, so you could expect larger crowds fewer times a week, but thats about it. So do you have any experiences with auctions, any examples of good regulations or any other thoughts on the issue. ...

RGC writes:

Due to the economic recession, the close proximity to the university campus, and the allowance of 200 bedrooms per acre, downtown Athens is experiencing an increasing turnover of commercial properties to student housing development, which has raised infrastructure and land use concerns.

How do other college towns regulate residential density in their downtown areas? Do you have a maximum allowed density by number of bedrooms or dwelling units per acre, or is it limited by other standards, such as FAR and dwelling unit size? ...

Cardinal writes:

From the LinkedIn site:

It is with deep regret that we have to report that after 20 years in business as an independently owned and operated publication for citizen planners, the Planning Commissioners Journal will be ending publication this Spring. Unfortunately, the long economic recession and the impact it has had on municipalities—who make up over 90 percent of our subscription base—has left us in a position where it is simply not economically feasible to continue publication. ...

From the geeky, wickedly funny webcomic xkcd: The Word Sustainable is Unsustainable.



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