Actually, another important policy tool for making it legal in more places would be to make the Federal capital gains tax property sale roll-over provisions apply on a value per-acre basis. This would shift the current tax bias in favour of greenfield development into a bias in favour of infill development. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
Since zoning power are part of the residual powers that vest at the state level, a state could provide for a blanket easement within a certain radius of a dedicated transport corridor stop that receives state funding for multi-use development with a height envelope no lower than three stories.
There are also owner compacts in some suburbs that provide restrictions on owners over and above the legal restrictions. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
nd finally, a series of laws that helps explain the lack of mass transit in edge cities and why this will never change. Note that "FAR" stands for "Floor-to-Area Ratio," the ratio of the total floorspace of a building to the area of the land the building is on. It's basically a measure of population density. The level of density at which automobile congestion starts becoming noticeable in edge city: 0.25 FAR. The level of density at which it is necessary to construct parking garages instead of parking lots because you have run out of land: 0.4 FAR. The level of density at which traffic jams become a major political issue in edge city: 1.0 FAR. The level of density beyond which few edge cities ever get: 1.5 FAR. The level of density at which light rail transit starts making economic sense: 2.0 FAR. The level of density of a typical old downtown: 5.0 FAR. The density-gap corollary to the laws of density: Edge cities always develop to the point where they become dense enough to make people crazy with the traffic, but rarely, if ever, do they get dense enough to support the rail alternative to automobile traffic.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
With the exceptions of places that manage to elect more far-sighted politicians, the definition of "economic sense" is the one we don't like but have to live with. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
This also comes with a long-term decline in the market value of auto-only suburban housing. When that declines to the point that auto-only suburban housing is valued below replacement cost, and transport-supplemented suburban housing is valued above replacement cost, that is a setting that is similar to the suburban transformation itself, when the market value of the urban density brownstone townhouses dropped below replacement cost and the processes of slum development and white flight to the suburbs began.
When developer profits hinge upon provision of a transport line, and when mixed used multiple lot occupancy is the most cost-effective way to leverage that access to a transport line, then zoning regulations in large numbers of suburban areas in the US will change. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
