Archive for the 'zoning' Category
Family-friendly, Bill White, winning cities, NIMBYs, and more
Closed Published by Tory Gattis November 29th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesCatching up again on some smaller misc items:Joel Kotkin in the Wall Street Journal on the rise of family-friendly cities vs. “cool, hip” cities.”…an analysis of migration data by my colleagues at the Praxis Strategy Group shows that the strongest …
With the Ashby high-rise controversy and the scattered calls for zoning - whether traditional or form-based - Texas Monthly gives us a reminder from Dallas of one of the dark side-effects of strong government control of land-use:There are no winners in…
WSJ on the Ashby tower and Houston development
Closed Published by Tory Gattis October 25th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesLast week the Wall Street Journal had an article specifically discussing the controversial high-rise residential tower proposed for Ashby at Bissonnet (details and FAQ), but also broadly talking about the lack of zoning in Houston. Unfortunately, the …
The Metro board met today to make some big decisions on the rail plan (Chronicle story). The bombshell is that all the lines they thought were going to start as bus rapid transit (BRT) are being upgraded to full light rail (LRT). Evidently the numbe…
Evidence for Opportunity Urbanism
Closed Published by Tory Gattis October 8th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesDigging through some of my older stuff looking for some good blog material, I came across this Demographia analysis of Sydney vs. DFW. Their main point is that Sydney’s extremely tight land use restrictions drive up housing costs, which are three time…
What really preserves a neighborhood’s character?
Closed Published by Tory Gattis August 27th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesI went to a workshop tonight put on by the City of Houston Planning Department on tools to protect neighborhoods, with a focus on deed restrictions. There was a lot of good material, but the most interesting to me was an impromptu debate that occurred…
Opportunity Urbanism op-ed in the Chronicle
Closed Published by Tory Gattis June 10th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesMost of you probably caught my Opportunity Urbanism op-ed on the front of the Houston Chronicle Sunday Outlook section today, but even though it’s too long for a typical blog entry, I’d like to put a copy here for comments and permanent archival (Chron…
Does land-use planning/zoning inhibit a great restaurant scene?
Closed Published by Tory Gattis April 29th, 2007 on Houston StrategiesOne of my posts last week inspired quite a debate in the comments on whether land-use planning or zoning has any impact on the restaurant scene in a city - interesting enough I thought the topic deserves its own post. The post noted that Houston was r…
Houston as a land use model, our skyline and social rankings, LA rail rejects “trust, but verify”, Bangkok TOD, and more
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesTime again for the miscellaneous small items, which I hope will give you plenty of reading material for a while. I’ll be traveling over the holidays, so this may be the last post for 2007. Have a Merry Christmas, and I’ll see you again in the New Yea…
Texas strength, planning debate, losing Kirby’s trees, Metro
Closed Published by Tory Gattis January 1st, 1970 on Houston StrategiesThe smaller misc items have been piling up quickly since last week:Just got the announcement of the new Metro Park-and-Ride in Katy. What makes it notable is that they’re using the parking lot for the Cinemark theater out there, which is a great way t…