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Originally Posted by DanaC
affordable housing doesn't have to be like that though.
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No it doesn't, but from what I've seen locally it is one way to transition from being a renter to an owner aka- the American Dream. You then upgrade the building or sell the place for enough money to put a sizable down payment on a prefab or other reasonably priced home. The size restriction says that it is illegal to go under 900 sqft which is imposing middle-class standards and costs on folks who are not there yet. It is one of many attacks on the owner-builder, trojan-horsed in zoning regulations. Some people (like me apparently thank God for Pete) do not fit in the economy as it presently exists, but can solve their food, clothing, and shelter issues in ways that maintain their self-respect.
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Also, I don't know what it's like over there but in some areas of the Uk, what tends to happen is large scale housing developments, including affordable housing are built to the point of saturation in the urban areas, because a) it's easier to justify planning permission if it is in land already designated as Housing Land in the Local Development Plan and b) the well off tend not to live in these areas in such great numbers and it tends mainly to be the well off who end up sitting on planning panels.
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The original article and all my assumtions are based on a rural environment. The conflict here is people with urban middle-class sensibilities moving to the country and then legislating away the things they don't like about their neighbors. If they wish to buy up properties and then put deed restrictions in place that is fine, but zoning away their neighbors way-of-life is not.
As you may have guessed, this is a hot-button issue for me. I've gone round and round with tw on this because he doesn't believe people should be able to build the houses they need rather than the supposedly safe (and often shoddily built) assembly line house. If I lived in a township with heavy zoning enforcement, I wouldn't have been able to build on my schedule and eliminate the need for a morgage.
I hope I haven't been too testy on this but I lived in a 12'x12' shed with two kids and a wife, while building my house. Those were the best of times. If I had any zoning enforcement at all it wouldn't have worked. That is why my township supervisors own my vote despite some short-comings. They mind their own business.
Check out our lifestyle
here. This is what zoning prevents.