An Introduction to Zoning
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Date: 2019-09-12
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Comments and reviews: 10
Trainfan1055
I like to design cities in my train simulator. When I do, I usually have a simple system I follow. Each block in the downtown area is a mixed zone that allows commercial and residential space. That way, if you wanted to, you could live near your work place. However, the residential areas in downtown are usually dense and comprising of mainly high-rise buildings. In the center of the downtown area is a transportation hub that services a subway, a tram and a bus line. The intercity trains will only stop at the downtown zones of each city. The subway stops at each zone in a city and the tram stops at each street. The residential zones will comprise mainly of small-, medium-, and large-sized houses. It will also have schools, colleges and universities. Also allowed in these zones are certain industrial buildings, but they can't produce smoke or harmful chemicals. Finally, there's an industrial zone that allows smoke-producing factories such as power stations and oil refineries. The airport is usually located far from the residential areas because I take into consideration whether or not the residents would be okay with hearing airplanes taking off and landing.
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I like to design cities in my train simulator. When I do, I usually have a simple system I follow. Each block in the downtown area is a mixed zone that allows commercial and residential space. That way, if you wanted to, you could live near your work place. However, the residential areas in downtown are usually dense and comprising of mainly high-rise buildings. In the center of the downtown area is a transportation hub that services a subway, a tram and a bus line. The intercity trains will only stop at the downtown zones of each city. The subway stops at each zone in a city and the tram stops at each street. The residential zones will comprise mainly of small-, medium-, and large-sized houses. It will also have schools, colleges and universities. Also allowed in these zones are certain industrial buildings, but they can't produce smoke or harmful chemicals. Finally, there's an industrial zone that allows smoke-producing factories such as power stations and oil refineries. The airport is usually located far from the residential areas because I take into consideration whether or not the residents would be okay with hearing airplanes taking off and landing.
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Mike Orr
Zoning was created to exclude minorities and working-class people from the non-industrial side of town. It wasn't needed to keep polluting factories away from houses: public health laws could do that. The separation of residential, retail, theaters, and government came out of Le Courbesier's vision of pockets for each use, and has no practical benefit and makes people travel farther. The biggest problem now is that most American cities reserve 75% of their land for single-family houses only, and they don't have enough housing for the population and refuse to relax the restrictions because existing homeowners don't want changes to their neighborhood -- never mind that other people can't find an affordable place to live and end up in a hard-to-get-to suburb or homeless. It's unacceptable that denser housing is allowed on only 10-25% of the land, but that's what American zoning has evolved into.
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Zoning was created to exclude minorities and working-class people from the non-industrial side of town. It wasn't needed to keep polluting factories away from houses: public health laws could do that. The separation of residential, retail, theaters, and government came out of Le Courbesier's vision of pockets for each use, and has no practical benefit and makes people travel farther. The biggest problem now is that most American cities reserve 75% of their land for single-family houses only, and they don't have enough housing for the population and refuse to relax the restrictions because existing homeowners don't want changes to their neighborhood -- never mind that other people can't find an affordable place to live and end up in a hard-to-get-to suburb or homeless. It's unacceptable that denser housing is allowed on only 10-25% of the land, but that's what American zoning has evolved into.
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Daniel Balean
Dear Dave, i would like to add something regarding the history of zoning that I think is interesting and hope you and others like. This is regarding the development of zoning codes. While zoning codes are as old as cities the idea of zoning different uses in a city comes out of the Industrial Age. An interesting story is that of Tony Garnier and his industrial city. He was a French architect who designed a city with separate uses where residential and industrial zones were separated. He proposed this idea because before the industrial revolution people loved and worked in the same areas. Once people became to work away from home and in factories which produced a lot of pollution, Garnier proposed to zone these areas from each other to give people a better life. He is considered an early modern planner whose work influenced Le Corbusier and his famous plan for Paris.
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Dear Dave, i would like to add something regarding the history of zoning that I think is interesting and hope you and others like. This is regarding the development of zoning codes. While zoning codes are as old as cities the idea of zoning different uses in a city comes out of the Industrial Age. An interesting story is that of Tony Garnier and his industrial city. He was a French architect who designed a city with separate uses where residential and industrial zones were separated. He proposed this idea because before the industrial revolution people loved and worked in the same areas. Once people became to work away from home and in factories which produced a lot of pollution, Garnier proposed to zone these areas from each other to give people a better life. He is considered an early modern planner whose work influenced Le Corbusier and his famous plan for Paris.
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GWS
I would prefer zones to be exclusive rather than inclusive. Like for example, put exclusion zones around residences for producing noise beyond certain decibel levels, production of certain chemicals or emissions, things like that. When you specify the exact uses of property, it makes the city rigid. I think that cities should operate how people use them, not how a government defines that they use them. There needs to be a certain level of organization, but at the end of the day cities are built for people, not governments and their donors, and supply and demand should reflect how cities are used so long as it isn't infringing upon reasonable standards of other residents.
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I would prefer zones to be exclusive rather than inclusive. Like for example, put exclusion zones around residences for producing noise beyond certain decibel levels, production of certain chemicals or emissions, things like that. When you specify the exact uses of property, it makes the city rigid. I think that cities should operate how people use them, not how a government defines that they use them. There needs to be a certain level of organization, but at the end of the day cities are built for people, not governments and their donors, and supply and demand should reflect how cities are used so long as it isn't infringing upon reasonable standards of other residents.
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Dongonzales123
Its very intersting that mixed zoning is so uncommon in the united states. Exclusive zoning is very rare in germany (or at least in the cities and towns. Residential zones often allow shops that provide everyday necessities, such as bakeries, small shops, hairdressers and so on. Doctors and law offices are also really common in my neighborhood. I live in a relatively low density residential neighborhood with lots of detached houses and lare yards in berlin but still have like 5 supermarkets within walking distance. I cant imagine having to take the car everywhere
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Its very intersting that mixed zoning is so uncommon in the united states. Exclusive zoning is very rare in germany (or at least in the cities and towns. Residential zones often allow shops that provide everyday necessities, such as bakeries, small shops, hairdressers and so on. Doctors and law offices are also really common in my neighborhood. I live in a relatively low density residential neighborhood with lots of detached houses and lare yards in berlin but still have like 5 supermarkets within walking distance. I cant imagine having to take the car everywhere
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Darth Utah 66
Maybe some zoning is common sense such as keeping factories from being too close to residential development but you get a bunch of codes which impede the free market such as minimum parking requirements, view planes (I get that you want to show off your beautiful landmarks but do we really need to limit the height of buildings just so that people can see a park, and minimum housing sizes. In my book, suburban communities can segregate the use of buildings but downtown areas should be mixed use development.
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Maybe some zoning is common sense such as keeping factories from being too close to residential development but you get a bunch of codes which impede the free market such as minimum parking requirements, view planes (I get that you want to show off your beautiful landmarks but do we really need to limit the height of buildings just so that people can see a park, and minimum housing sizes. In my book, suburban communities can segregate the use of buildings but downtown areas should be mixed use development.
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Máté Fülöp
As a european I see that zoning is not very environmental friendly, I mean the US has a history of shaping itself to the desires of car manufacturers. Big houses, big cities, long distances, not very developed public transportation it's all good for the car manufacturers and not very sustainable in the long run. Also I don't want to bring the question of middle eastern wars and oil into this, but it would be much more sustainable if mixed zones and developed public transportation would be the norm.
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As a european I see that zoning is not very environmental friendly, I mean the US has a history of shaping itself to the desires of car manufacturers. Big houses, big cities, long distances, not very developed public transportation it's all good for the car manufacturers and not very sustainable in the long run. Also I don't want to bring the question of middle eastern wars and oil into this, but it would be much more sustainable if mixed zones and developed public transportation would be the norm.
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Mark Smith
Japan's zoning- nationally set with some little local allowances- is apparently totally incremental (i. e. S1 is S1+ X, S3 is s2: Y all the way up to S10) which at the base level allows small shops and compact residences. All those levels in US cities are a mess and make commercial development more difficult. Japan has the problem that incremental level mean that if a residence is in a basically high density commercial area then you cant discourage them so land prices are inflated.
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Japan's zoning- nationally set with some little local allowances- is apparently totally incremental (i. e. S1 is S1+ X, S3 is s2: Y all the way up to S10) which at the base level allows small shops and compact residences. All those levels in US cities are a mess and make commercial development more difficult. Japan has the problem that incremental level mean that if a residence is in a basically high density commercial area then you cant discourage them so land prices are inflated.
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Christian Seehausen
Check out the way Japan does zoning sometime. It's handled at the national level, not locally. Furthermore, for the most part, each more impactful usage still permits all the lower-impact usages to occur within. For example, it's totally okay to build any type of housing you want in a heavy commercial zone, but vice versa may not be permitted. This is in direct contrast to the United States, where zoning usually allows only one type of usage, and that's all.
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Check out the way Japan does zoning sometime. It's handled at the national level, not locally. Furthermore, for the most part, each more impactful usage still permits all the lower-impact usages to occur within. For example, it's totally okay to build any type of housing you want in a heavy commercial zone, but vice versa may not be permitted. This is in direct contrast to the United States, where zoning usually allows only one type of usage, and that's all.
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Aarón Osinaga
In South America in general we have no separation between residential and commercial areas, for example in my city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in general, the space between your home and the walkside of the street have to be minimum 5m, that space must have a garden or a store, and if you are in a middle-high density area you can build a construction just in front of the walkside but the first story have to be only commercial.
reply
In South America in general we have no separation between residential and commercial areas, for example in my city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in general, the space between your home and the walkside of the street have to be minimum 5m, that space must have a garden or a store, and if you are in a middle-high density area you can build a construction just in front of the walkside but the first story have to be only commercial.
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