All articles tagged with #zoning
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton has vetoed a zoning ordinance that would have allowed large-scale solar projects on agricultural land. The council approved the measure on Sept. 10 by an 8-7 vote, but it requires nine votes to override the veto. Gorton argues the rule sets a dangerous precedent for industrial use of farmland, while supporters claim it offers a balanced compromise for clean energy.
El Paso County commissioners voted 4-1 to approve Buc-ee’s zoning appeal, allowing the Texas travel center to be considered an allowed use in the C-1 commercial district at the County Line Road and Interstate 25 site. With the zoning hurdle cleared, all remaining approvals will be handled administratively, including traffic, lighting, landscaping, parking, and roadway plans, after Buc-ee’s submitted its site development plan; the hearing drew hundreds of speakers, with most opposition, and Commissioner Bill Wysong casting the lone vote against.
El Paso County commissioners voted 4-1 to approve Buc-ee’s as an allowed use in the C-1 commercial district at the County Line Road and I-25 site. The decision, which followed a daylong, highly publicized hearing with opposition to Buc-ee’s, means the project can move forward with administrative approvals for site development, including traffic, lighting, landscaping and parking requirements, rather than further public votes.
Philadelphia’s South Street, once a magnet for shops and nightlife, now faces about a 30% storefront vacancy and nuisance businesses like smoke shops and hookah lounges. City planners are weighing a remapping to CMX-3 mixed-use zoning to enable taller buildings with first-floor retail, aiming to attract anchors and boost foot traffic, though the timeline is unclear and residents are divided on the approach. Proposals include a South Street Revitalization Corporation, temporary pedestrian blocks, and a creative district overlay, but effectiveness depends on ongoing neighborhood consensus and council action.
Beacon Partners withdrew its proposal to build a 100,000-square-foot data center on a 13-acre parcel on Jones Sausage Road in southeast Raleigh after more than 30 residents spoke against it; the project was in the very early stages, involving annexation and zoning approvals, and Raleigh has not enacted a data-center moratorium.
Seattle City Council approved a narrow 5-4 SEPA reform to curb city-level appeals of broad zoning changes by moving SEPA challenges to King County Superior Court or the Growth Management Hearings Board, aligning Seattle with nearby jurisdictions. Supporters say the change speeds housing production and supports Mayor Wilson’s Taller Denser Faster plan, while opponents warn it weakens environmental protections and could reduce public input. The measure affects the Harrell growth plan’s next phase and reflects continued partisan debate over how quickly Seattle should grow.
Texas’s SB 840 lets owners redevelop offices, shopping centers, and warehouses into apartments, fueling thousands of new units (at least 8,400 so far) across 19 large cities; statewide multifamily permits have fallen, but those in cities that relaxed zoning have risen. The policy is controversial in suburbs, where higher density and added requirements spark resistance, even as supporters argue that more housing supply can help ease affordability and rents.
A landmark housing bill would remove the 50-year-old permanent chassis requirement for manufactured homes, enabling cost reductions (est. 27%–65% cheaper than stick-built homes) and expanded design options, including multi-story designs and ADUs. Real impact hinges on manufacturers passing savings along to buyers and on HUD setting new standards, plus state/local zoning adjustments; the change is part of the bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act, with the chassis rule seen as its key feature, but obstacles remain due to zoning and regulatory alignment across states.
Congress enacted the bipartisan 21st Century Road to Housing Act into law, aiming to ease affordability by expanding housing supply through incentives for manufactured housing, office-to-apartment conversions, and a grants/loans program to repair older homes, plus prompts for state and local zoning reform. Implementation now hinges on HUD staffing and local action, so benefits may take years. The bill also imposes a first-of-its-kind cap on institutional buyers of single-family homes (no more than 350 per owner) but doesn’t force sales from large holders, and it does not address current high mortgage rates or the “lock-in” effect.
The Nashville Zoo is opposing a proposed 69,000-square-foot data center next to its habitat, arguing that noise, lighting, and other operational impacts could disturb animals—especially clouded leopards—while DC BLOX pledges to minimize effects and local officials consider zoning steps amid a broader backlash against AI data centers.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a housing plan to address inequitable growth, proposing land-use changes and citywide zoning reforms to spur residential development in low-producing neighborhoods, accelerate transit‑oriented housing, and aim for 200,000 affordable homes over 10 years, using tools from the Adams era and creating a fast-track review for 12 identified districts as vacancy remains at a multi-decade low.
Democratic gubernatorial contenders Tom Steyer, Xavier Becerra, Katie Porter and Matt Mahan roll out ambitious housing plans for California, proposing targets like 1 million homes in four years (Steyer), 40,000 shovel-ready units in 100 days (Becerra), and a 20% reduction in construction costs (Porter) plus cost-cutting and modular-building strategies from Mahan. Analysts warn such lofty goals risk overpromising due to local control, permitting bottlenecks, and funding limits, echoing lessons from Newsom’s tenure about translating promises into delivery.
Portland’s zoning overhaul legalized duplexes, fourplexes and backyard homes and then removed the barriers to building them, turning “middle housing” into a practical, cheaper path to homeownership; the city’s incentives and streamlined permitting have spurred more construction, a model that other cities are watching and copying.
Trump’s housing approach is unlikely to fix the affordability crisis. The piece argues prices rise with incomes—especially among college-educated workers—so simply deregulating or freeing up zoning won’t rapidly bring rents and home prices down. Studies suggest adding housing stock could gradually ease prices, but at slow speeds (often decades in major cities), and even then would also raise land and construction costs. Rent control and other fixes have mixed outcomes, so broad, effective reform is more complex than cutting regulation alone.
In private and public remarks, President Trump and NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani found surprising common ground on ULURP, the city’s land-use approval process, with Trump signaling support for reforms that could speed up development. The exchanges—rooted in Trump’s longstanding real-estate interests in New York—signal a potential, issue-focused opening for collaboration on housing in a city facing a severe affordability crisis, even as broader political disagreements persist.