Portland passes low-density zoning reform

Re:Portland passes low-density zoning reform by alistairSH on Wednesday August 26, 2020 @04:14PM (#24286749)

I know some mountain and coastal areas actually do have view ordinances, but they're typically very limited (sometimes only to trees, not construction, etc). But, I don't believe that's the norm in most places.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Portland passes low-density zoning reform by Tiktaalik on Wednesday August 26, 2020 @05:00PM (#24287206)

City of Vancouver has a policy of protected public views.

The goal is to make it so that views of Vancouver's mountains are reasonably accessible by anyone, not just those that purchased a north facing suite in a tall condo tower.

It's pretty much the same underlying concept as why we create public parks.

The view cones are scattered around and are usually tied to areas of heavy public pedestrian activity, such as parks.

The policy is very popular.

https://vancouver.ca/home-property-development/protecting-va...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Portland passes low-density zoning reform by alistairSH on Wednesday August 26, 2020 @07:54PM (#24288674)

That's super neat, thanks for sharing.

As a counter, Seattle doesn't have much comparable. You an buy "air rights" to protect your view, but there isn't a general protection for home-owners. It's fairly common for a small home to be replaced with a newer, much taller, structure, taking neighbor's views with it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Portland passes low-density zoning reform by CountSessine on Thursday August 27, 2020 @12:07AM (#24290032)

This goes a long way toward explaining the housing affordability disaster in Vancouver.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Portland passes low-density zoning reform by Tiktaalik on Thursday August 27, 2020 @11:44AM (#24294796)

Not at all. You can look at the map of view cones and see that there's a handful centered around the downtown.

Meanwhile south of there there's about 50+ blocks of untouched single family homes.

The view cones has been no real barrier to development and unlike SF Vancouver is building constantly.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Portland passes low-density zoning reform by zjaffee on Thursday August 27, 2020 @01:24AM (#24290391)

NYC has a very complicated system of buying and selling air rights which is what I was thinking of when I wrote this.

[ Parent | on HN ]