Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It mentions "subsidies" period. There's an assumption that cities neither give nor receive subsidies. This is untrue. "Arbitrary and strict" are rather broad. Just what about a particular suburban code is "arbitrary and strict"?
Read the full quote. It says subsidies "which have produced and supported the modern suburb", not "all subsidies". I have no idea where you got that assumption, I can't find it anywhere. The only assumption "that cities neither give nor receive subsidies" is from you, cities are not addressed in the post. Not addressing something could it's just not the topic of the post, the post is what has governed recent suburban construction.
If I write a post without mentioning something, please don't assume anything from it.
Depends on the suburb. Lot sizes (maybe less so in Colorado, but not everywhere is Colorado), IMO parking requirements, etc. I also just gave an example.
It mentions "subsidies" period. There's an assumption that cities neither give nor receive subsidies. This is untrue. In fact, some subsidies benefit cities and suburbs alike. "Arbitrary and strict" are rather broad. Just what about a particular suburban code is "arbitrary and strict"?
For fences:
Quote:
Adjacent to Side Setback Area of Key Lot or Corner Lot
Maximum three feet in height for a distance of twelve and one-half feet measured from the street property line and fifteen feet as measured from the rear lot line.
For overhangs:
Quote:
Eaves of the residential building and/or a roof (e.g., a patio cover) which is attached to the residential building may project horizontally for a distance of not more than four feet into the air space above the surface of the ground in the rear setback area required by other provisions of this title.
Porches and stairways:
Quote:
Unenclosed porches and stairways, if they do not extend more than three feet above surface grade, may extend into a front setback area not more than five feet. Porches and stairs can be covered.
These are all strict requirements regarding what can and cannot be done and, the question begs, why any of those measurements?
Well, I'm not in that field, so I don't know all the answers, even though I've been accused many times of thinking I know everything.
When we lived in DENVER ("the city") there were restrictions on what kind of fence you could have, as well. A fence couldn't be > a certain height (I don't remember what now), and you couldn't have a "privacy" fence. DH told me that in OMAHA (also "the city") fences had to all be "see through".
I can certainly see some restrictions on fences, especially on a corner lot (which your quote references) for driver safety! It's a little hard to see around a fence at a stop sign, which I recall b/c one of our neighbors once had such a fence on a corner lot. I think most communities have such a regulation.
I can't address the patios and the stairways. Perhaps you could ask someone in that municipality.
Add: I think you could find equally as onerous of regulations in any city.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 09-10-2013 at 05:38 PM..
I'd guess it's because of appearance standards. Some of them look a bit off, but if that's what the homeowner wants I don't see why it should be restricted, unless there was an obvious safety need. These fences make the block look a bit ghetto, IMO:
the fences are there because these houses are owned by immigrants coming from a culture where fences are the norm. Note they paved over the entire front. Long-time residents are unhappy.
“We like to utilize every single square inch of land, every inch of territory,” explained Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, head of a Bukharian synagogue and community center in Kew Gardens Hills. “For some reason, people don’t appreciate it.”... The Bukharian tendency to pave over everything is practical, he continued. Bukharians preferred a terrace or patio to a lawn, which he called “useless land.” A yard required mowing — “a waste of time,” he said.
some houses use hedges for more privacy. Looks like big open front yards aren't the norm, at least for France, even when the lots are big they block them with fences and shrubs:
For porch setbacks it's probably more inherited aesthetics, and there may be a lost justification from when cities preemptively planned for widening streets. But overhang restrictions have a purpose in high wind regions for safety considerations. Codes are different everywhere though.
6. The store employees won't be living there. Again, you have this 180 degrees wrong. In a new urbanist model, the store employees not only will have a plethora of options of where to live affordably (maybe they could even live above the store if it weren't illegal to do so), they will be able to give up a car and live far more cheaply than they could in a car-dependent community.
...until urban crime reaches the point where businesses can't afford to do business in the area anymore, leaving the employees in a mass-transit dependent community with no way to get to areas where they can buy cheap groceries and goods. Poor in the cities don't need cars to get to work: they need cars to get to cheap and available goods. Have you walked (hah, as if outsiders would dare!) or driven through northeast Philly, or even west or south Philly? One crappy, tiny little overpriced convenience store after another crippled by crime and higher sales tax rates than the suburbs surrounding the city. The people who live in these areas either have a car and drive to the suburbs to buy decent groceries or they suffer the bad food options and high prices of the utopian urban culture you dream of.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
