Mixed Use Development Essay

In 1969, Massachusetts fashioned the law 40B, famously referred to as the “Anti-Snob Zoning Act”, which allows developers to bypass land use restrictions in towns where less than ten percent of the housing meets the state definition of affordable. There are multiple positions and solutions to friction in Massachusetts largely inspired by controversy surrounding the State's affordable housing law, Massachusetts General Laws chapter 40B between housing advocates and open space advocates. This thesis reviews and critiques the current law, and diagnoses various legislative proposals for the progressive feud.

In “New Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Paying Attention to Political Economy and Social Justice,” Don Mitchell incorporates old ideas from Peirce F. Lewis’s original “Axioms for Reading the Landscape.” At the same time, Mitchell includes new ideas into his axioms. In Axiom 1, he explains that “the landscape is not produced through ‘our unwitting autobiography’ (as Lewis describes it), but as an act of (social, not individual) will” (2007, 34). He also stresses the idea that landscape should be produced as a commodity. In contrast, Neil Smith explains the main causes behind gentrification. Smith explains how gentrification happens through a process which he calls “rent gap” (1979, 545). In gentrification, the landscape is a commodity because it loses and gains monetary value through disinvestment and investment.

Rapid urbanisation has caused a variety of problems, including transport congestion, lack of sufficient homes and living conditions, sanitary and health care issues, and crime. For all these problems, city planners have attempted potential solutions, each with varying degrees of success. Cities including London, Manila and Mumbai have several of the aforementioned problems, and have each tried their own potential solutions. This essay will discuss how successful these schemes have been in resolving these issues.

If the Barasi Village’s controversy is resolved and the project ultimately proceeds, its success will somehow reflect public acceptance of mixed-use development in Corpus Christi. This positive sign might relatively pave the path for the implementation of Plan CC. According to the news article, the opponents of the Barisi Village project are mainly the residents from adjacent neighborhoods, who value green space, separation, and sparsity. They also fear the possibility of unsuccessful outcomes, environmental and traffic impact, or even the threat of privacy abuses. In contrast, the project is simultaneously supported by other nearby residents, who hope for an increase in their property values. In addition to that, the plan is encouraged by Pharaoh Valley Neighborhood Association and the City Council. In my perspective, young adults - who tend to favor metropolitan lifestyles, might also positively embrace the plan. Small-business owners might also bolster the project for it offers them financial

Contextualizing history is heavily intertwined with the development and shaping of Los Angeles as a whole. Los Angeles has always been deemed to be one of the hardest cities to develop in being one of the greatest cities in the world. This comes as a result of all of the history behind the buildings in the city. In addition, many of the buildings in the great city (both historical structures and regular buildings) are being renovated and reshaped to keep up with modern trends. Throughout the course of the growth of the city of Los Angeles, the city has seen a lot of growth in terms of infrastructure and population. There has been a recent growth in the popularity and demand for mixed use development. Mixed use development is a very hot

Steen, Karen. "How Leftover Urban Spaces Can Fix Big Problems for San Francisco." SPUR. N.p., 23 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2016. .

Urbanization is inevitable, whether we want it or not. Opposers are constantly bickering about the political and moral consequences of gentrification. This topic is indeed mind boggling and complex. However, there is a need to observe this multi-faceted phenomenon in a different angle. Change is the force of diversity, safety and

According to Jack Poe, master of science real estate appraisal and state certified real state appraiser in Texas, “According to Babcock’s classic study, the primary effect of Houston’s lack of zoning has been…high income neighborhoods have been preserved by the employment of private covenants and low income neighborhoods have sought in-home commercial development (like a small repair shop) as a way to add value to otherwise low value homes. (Babcock 1966, P. 28).” What all this means to the modern developer in Houston is that they have more freedom to develop what they perceive is needed. The remedy to Houston’s continuing discourse over zoning is a democratic zoning process that is not completely laissez-fair in its approach, as currently exists with the no zoning policy, but remains participatory in order to safeguard the “neighborhood commons” whilst still maintaining this membership and stewardship of the land. The no zoning land policy, as it currently stands in Houston, in part meets Aldo Leopold’s criteria for the land ethic because the citizens are members of the land and it is treated as a shared land-community rather than a commodity controlled by government official(s) or political elites. However, to meet the criteria for the land ethic in whole, it must incorporate a flexible zoning policy that would seek to protect the “neighborhood common” (citizens interests and resources) while still respecting the land-community, which Olmsted values so

High Density is said to be the future of residential housing, although not everyone agrees to this way of thinking.

Gentrification has been a controversial issue both in urban planning and politics primarily due to the displacement of poor people by the rich folks (Shaw & Hagemans, 2015). Many individuals have viewed gentrification as an illegal act that should be avoided at all costs. On the other hand, another group of people believe that gentrification is the way forward to promoting growth and development. With such contrasting ideas, this paper is going to take a look at gentrification from a positive and negative perspective, its effects, and how it can be prevented or contained. Apart from this, the paper will also address the following questions.

The method in which this land was zoned by the city created a value surpassing millions of dollars, and allowed their estate tax debts to be paid. This example illustrates an extraordinary effect on the quality of life that uncontrolled spread of urbanization manifested. The pressures by land

In today’s society, it may seem that gentrification can eliminate poverty and increase neighborhood opportunities. Low-income residents and property owners will be the first to be altered by gentrification. In an email to the editor at the Atlantic, Freeman, the director of the Urban Planning program at Columbia states “ Gentrification brings new amenities and services that benefit not only the newcomers but long term residents too. Full service

New Urbanism, a burgeoning genre of architecture and city planning, is a movement that has come about only in the past decade. This movement is a response to the proliferation of conventional suburban development (CSD), the most popular form of suburban expansion that has taken place since World War II. Wrote Robert Steuteville, "Lacking a town center or pedestrian scale, CSD spreads out to consume large areas of countryside even as population grows relatively slowly. Automobile use per capita has soared, because a motor vehicle is required for nearly all human transportation"1. New Urbanism, therefore, represents the converse of this planning ideology. It stresses traditional planning, including multi-purpose zoning,

The mixture of buildings of different conditions are necessary to public life because it otherwise would be neither interesting nor fascinating. But the main reasons are because they ensure low rent yields, encouraging the growth of small enterprises. Large swatches of new construction would only prevent income since not many would afford it, and the demand for it would not be as large as it would need to be.

Finally, many tools were used to document our site visits that would used during the modeling of the buildings. As stated before, PlanGrid was very useful when viewing the construction sheets. PlanGrid was used on an iPad for easy access during the site visit. The iPad, as well as our phones, was used to take pictures of any notable changes or major features of the buildings. The pictures were used as references during the modeling portion of the project. A measuring tape was also used to take the dimensions of sections of the buildings that were not clearly labeled on the construction sheets. For example, the Architecture Annex’s terrance needed a measuring tape to measure its dimensions because the top-down view was absent from the