The Metz (Schneiders site redevelopment)

[ijmorlan]

This is what happens in suburbia, too: a single developer buys a huge chunk of farmland and develops it, and the result is a sea of sameness, along the lines of Edward Scissorhands. Even the older neighbourhoods in the city have this pattern apparent, albeit on a smaller scale: often you can see how all the houses on a given street have essentially the same design, apparent even after 100 years of living, renovations and updates.

I think part of the problem is modern zoning. Almost every development requires a zoning amendment. This means that in order to build anything, one has to be an expert in navigating the zoning system. This in turns means that the person who already owns the property for whatever reason (maybe they’ve been farming for generations, maybe they bought a house with a large lot not far from downtown) is not equipped to develop it themselves, or sever pieces to others. As a result they sell it to a developer.

I remember seeing a sign advertising a property available for sale, and it said something about being a future strip mall. My thought was, “how do they know a strip mall belongs here?”. The answer of course is that it was zoned for such, and building anything else would be a huge challenge. In that past property use could change in a flexible manner as needed. Now it’s a huge process. Some of this is legitimate — obviously, a propane plant shouldn’t be allowed to move in next door to houses — but in general it pretends that a small number of municipal bureaucrats know better than the entire populace what is needed in the city.