I agree with the thrust of this blog, the more zoning decision-making can be divorced from local politics, the better. At the statewide level, politicians can see where the general interest lies. If zoning is to remain with small communities, then those communities should subsidize housing for young families, by levying a tax on house price increases, whether realized or not. To fail to do so is to permit those older voter power without responsibility, (the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages, to quote Rudyard Kipling)
Yes, thank you. Putting town voters in the position to get either higher property tax or rezone for more housing could work.
I read through thirty rural zoning bylaws from towns around Massachusetts yesterday. Three acre minimums and no secondary dwellings in some… needs to change.
Thankfully the state recently signed a law that should force all towns to allow secondary dwellings. States seem to be catching on.
We are stuck with anti-housing fiefdoms until more state or federal zoning policy is enacted. Towns would have solved the problem by now if their incentives were aligned.
I agree with the thrust of this blog, the more zoning decision-making can be divorced from local politics, the better. At the statewide level, politicians can see where the general interest lies. If zoning is to remain with small communities, then those communities should subsidize housing for young families, by levying a tax on house price increases, whether realized or not. To fail to do so is to permit those older voter power without responsibility, (the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages, to quote Rudyard Kipling)
Yes, thank you. Putting town voters in the position to get either higher property tax or rezone for more housing could work.
I read through thirty rural zoning bylaws from towns around Massachusetts yesterday. Three acre minimums and no secondary dwellings in some… needs to change.
Thankfully the state recently signed a law that should force all towns to allow secondary dwellings. States seem to be catching on.
We are stuck with anti-housing fiefdoms until more state or federal zoning policy is enacted. Towns would have solved the problem by now if their incentives were aligned.