Re:Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affor...
by MrFoof on Monday February 27, 2023 @05:56PM
(#34963176)
In the case of Cambridge, MA, a reasonable stance is kind of required if the city is going to materially grow further. Without it, Cambridge would stagnate if progress was halted by quagmires of bickering. The only real thing of note is larger apartment buildings are largely put in the SE and NW ends of the city.
For those who've never been, Cambridge is one of the densest cities in the entire US -- ~122,400 people over 6.4 square miles of land -- even though it's predominantly three story tenements throughout, and still maintains a 1950s Americana "Main Street USA" running through the core of the city.
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Though a fair number of the Boston "suburban cities" (save Brookline) have been re-reviewing their zoning and review processes. They all know they're landlocked and out of room with regulations that prevented further building what was already there. It's been nice to see that become increasingly relaxed to allow things to get done.
Re:Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affor...
by zamnos on Monday February 27, 2023 @06:35PM
(#34963619)
A more ambitious culture that was any good at engineering megaprojects could just build skyscrapers on top of the Charles and instantly gain a bunch more land area. Might even be easier than building skyscrapers and then tunneling a freeway under them.
Re:Lawsuits Block Thousands of Seattle Homes, $39M for Affor...
by sokoloff on Monday February 27, 2023 @06:43PM
(#34963705)
There’s plenty of land to be bought and redeveloped. We nowhere near the point where we have to ruin the enjoyment people get from the river and public parks on either side of it.
In the course of attending those, I usually got to sit through 3-5 others each time. All of the discussions seemed quite reasonable and almost all were approved as proposed or with only minor changes. When an abutter is making obviously nonsense arguments, they get to say their piece and then the project is approved; when there are genuine concerns about the proposed variance, the design board seems to help the applicant reach a state that balances their desire to use TJ’s property and whatever the underlying reason for the rule they’re seeking relief from is.