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Comment by baybal2 | Hacker News Reader

I am all for Americans changing their zoning laws.

America must adopt the "build whatever you want on your own land" regime that progressive nations have.

Never heard of a progressive nation that has that. I’ve lived in different countries with different approaches to zoning including the US.

US zoning rules are terrible IMHO with the possible exception of being nice for cars.

I was able to live in the most expensive area of all of Oslo while being just regular middle class. That is because there was some mix of housing not just huge villas. It meant I get to know people far outside my social class and they got to know more refular people. I think that keeps people grounded.

Outside the US what I really like is being able to walk to a local store, gym or whatever. In the Netherlands you’d find cozy cafe’s on the corner you could walk to. So many residential areas in the US are like a dessert. Nothing is going on there.

Having a bit more mix of housing, a couple of convenient local stores etc isn’t exactly like building a refinery or high rise in bel air

>Never heard of a progressive nation that has that.

Half of Europe, and as the comment below says, also Japan.

Half of Europe

Which half? Can you name some of these countries that allow you to "build whatever you want on your own land"? Every country I've lived in has plenty of rules about what you are and aren't allowed to build on your own land.

UK and France for sure. The former bloc countries in Europe effectively share the very lax soviet district level planning system. Germany also has an own district level system, very permissive, only prohibiting mixing of agro/industrial facilities with residential zone. General residential zone is what most of German cities are, and can be said to be heavy mixed use by American standard. Small scale residential is second to that, but it does not preclude mixed use too, nor highrises when municipality issues an explicit permits.

Correction: i checked it, Japan does use explicit zoning, just nowhere as zealous as in US.

I've worked (tangentially) with helping projects get building permits in the UK (and lived there for a few years). Getting permits can be a massive amount work and most parts of the country are very strict about what you can and cannot build. The UK is nowhere near "build whatever you want on your own land"

Germany's system is far from permissive. In residential zones there are very few commercial activities allowed at all (like doctor practices). However we have pretty many mixed zones where certain low touch commercial activities are allowed, such as small markets, bakeries and such, but no industrial activity which is restricted to separate zones where (almost, with the exception for owners) no housing is allowed.

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not.

In the US, we're not going to view as "progressive" anything that lets my next-door-neighbor decide to build an oil refinery in my subdivision. That will take significant value from my house and land, with no recourse available to me. That's... not going to fly here.

What we need is something between what we have now (too rigid) and "build whatever you want on your own land".

To begin with, that should not be a matter of zoning, but of a sanitary code.

Want to build one? Also buy the land to have a minimum distance in between it and the nearest residential.

In contrast to that, a system fully reliant on "expert" opinion to do zoning, can allow for that if that expert thinks that this is a smart thing to do so.

Japan is really the only rich country that has that (and it has the housing prices to show for it).

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