All is excellent, and I would add one more element which would be to streamline financing. I think this would have to be tied to permit process streamlining, but having cities work with banks to have prepackaged loan products for building a backyard cottage would significantly reduce the expertise required to carry out one of these projects. I have thought for years about adding a backyard cottage, but don’t have the time to bring myself up to speed on all that is required.
As many have observed, the challenge in zoning reform is that you are asking existing residents to vote against their immediate self interest for the sake of hypothetical future residents. It would be nice to have a constitutional affirmation of property rights, with restrictive zoning considered a Fifth Amendment “taking”. Yeah, the courts have ruled against that, not the first or the last bad ruling.
All is excellent, and I would add one more element which would be to streamline financing. I think this would have to be tied to permit process streamlining, but having cities work with banks to have prepackaged loan products for building a backyard cottage would significantly reduce the expertise required to carry out one of these projects. I have thought for years about adding a backyard cottage, but don’t have the time to bring myself up to speed on all that is required.
As many have observed, the challenge in zoning reform is that you are asking existing residents to vote against their immediate self interest for the sake of hypothetical future residents. It would be nice to have a constitutional affirmation of property rights, with restrictive zoning considered a Fifth Amendment “taking”. Yeah, the courts have ruled against that, not the first or the last bad ruling.