[happytoexplain]

>Remove Zoning

>Remove Red Tape (Environmental impact assessments

I absolutely understand what prompts this desperation, but much like the desperation that prompted the election of Trump, it's very, very much more bad than it is good.

[triceratops]

What's the problem with removing zoning? Which I interpreted, charitably, as "remove low-density zoning" and not as "let anyone build a lead smelter in their yard". (Also, a suburban area is probably not a lead smelting operation's preferred location anyway).

Environmental impact assessments are great if they actually do what they say. But they can also be weaponized to block any new development in existing cities. Forcing suburban sprawl into less populated areas is a worse outcome if you want to protect the environment.

[Schiendelman]

It's not clear that there's any bad in practice. All the fears I've seen about eliminating zoning turn out to be misunderstandings of either law or economics.

Jane Jacobs had a chapter about fixing this in 1961, and she's 10x more right now than she was then.

[Permit]

> it's very, very much more bad than it is good

Is it? I don’t have a clear picture in either direction. What does an environmental impact assessment for a housing project typically result in?

[rickydroll]

Well, I've witnessed this on dozens of houses in the town where my ex-wife grew up. The local river was slow-moving in a shallow river valley. Every spring, it would flood, and houses built within a half-mile of the main river would flood up to the second floor.

Would the environmental assessment help? I'd like to think so, but when I almost bought in the area, I discovered that the floodplain maps were "optimistic."

[s1artibartfast]

That's not what an environmental impact assessment is. Environmental impact assessments look at potential harms to the environment, not the property. It would look at if building a house would impact the wildlife, and sometimes other related phenomenon

[Schiendelman]

Insurance solves this for you. You don't need government. I bet that town allowed those houses anyway, so zoning didn't prevent it.

[cucumber3732842]

Nope. I will f-ing yeet that baby along with the bathwater.

Every idiot (they're not even useful anymore FFS, look at the results) says this based on abstract assessments of individual rules and laws. But in practice the overall effect of the system is that all those environmental assessments and stormwater permits and all the other things aren't even speed bumps for big business interests with lawyers and engineers on staff. Those interests can construe any evil as compliant and do so at cost. The rules are unscalable cliffs to "normal" people and businesses who can't justify paying mid four to low five figures up front for projects that might not even generate that much value.

[rexpop]

You're saying regulation is a moat for monopolists?