zoning

Black Residents In Cancer Alley Try A Last Legal Defense Against Pollution

October 16, 2024 Lylla Younes, Next City. Resist! Black America, Cancer Alley, Environmental Justice, Louisiana, pollution, Public Health, zoning

On the banks of the lower Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana, on sprawling tracts of land that break up the vast wetlands, hulking petrochemical complexes light the sky day and night. They piled up over the past half century, built by fossil fuel giants like Nucor and Occidental. In that time, they replaced farmland with concrete and steel, and threaded the levees with pipelines that carry natural gas from as far away as West Texas. When the plants came, the lush landscape of this part of south Louisiana deteriorated. “The pecans are dry. They don’t yield like they used to,” said Gail Lebouf, a longtime resident of the region.

Richmond’s Black Leaders Dreamed Of Creating An Agrihood

October 6, 2024 Barry Greene, Jr, Next City. Resist! Farming, Food and Agriculture, inclusionary zoning, Richmond, Virginia, zoning

When Richmond, Virginia-based nonprofit Girls for a Change was offered a eight-acre parcel of land from a local benefactor, CEO Angela Patton knew the Black youth development organization could do something special for the neighborhood. “We were sitting on this property for a while trying to just figure out what would it be,” says Patton, who has lived in Richmond’s Bensley suburb for nearly two decades. “Would it be a summer camp for girls? Would it be a community center for the community? Would it be a women’s wellness center?” In 2021, Patton announced their plan to turn the vacant land into the Bensley Agrihood, a permanently affordable housing development featuring 10 affordable homes, four tiny homes, a wellness center and a 1.5-acre working community farm that would serve as an amenity for the neighborhood.

Buncombe County Rezoning For Raytheon, Genocide

December 7, 2023 David Forbes, Asheville Blade. Resist! Gaza, Genocide, North Carolina, Raytheon, Weapons Maker, zoning

The Buncombe County commissioners are set to give Raytheon a massive rezoning, over 760 acres owned by Biltmore Farms will be converted from commercial and residential zoning into offices, warehouses and other infrastructure for the giant plant the weapons company is building. The area is huge, over seven times the size of downtown Asheville. It’s the largest rezoning in Buncombe County’s history. Importantly it takes away land designated for things like housing, which this area is of course famous for having no shortage of whatsoever, and instead gives a massive company’s massive factory even more.

Zoning Reform Is Entering A New, Grown-Up Era

November 25, 2023 Zak Yudhishthu, Next City. Create! Housing, Minnesota, St. Paul, Urban Design, zoning

Blink, and you might’ve missed it: St. Paul, Minnesota just ended zoning that restricts neighborhoods only to single-family housing. On Wednesday, October 18, the St. Paul City Council voted to change the city’s zoning code to increase neighborhood-scale density across the city. Areas that today only allow for single-family homes will soon allow for at least four units of housing per lot. At first glance, these changes might recall those passed by Minneapolis in 2019, when the city’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan legalized triplexes city-wide. Minneapolis received extensive attention for the changes, as it was a national leader in eliminating city zoning that excluded every housing type except for single-family homes.

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