About
Reverse Zone, weblog on urban planning, sustainability, and technology.
Martin Laplante
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Recent posts
- Canada and US Driving No Longer Dropping
- This Year Ontario No Longer Needs Coal
- Shaping the Public Realm
- The Days of Sprawl Are Officially Over
- The Telescope is Backward
- Stop The Earth
- Amazon CloudFront New Pricing, Cheap At A Million Dollars
- Canada Spends Billions in Energy INefficiency
- Density as Persons Plus Jobs Per Unit Area
- Now is the Time for New Transit Investments
- UNFCCC Confuses Journalists on Direction of Greenhouse Gases
- Canadian Business Prefers Carbon Tax
- Streets To Home: Down With Continuum of Care!
- Close Roads to Reduce Congestion
- Science and Economics of Climate Change
- Canada and US Driving Continue To Drop
- Alberta Overtakes Ontario in Coal-Fired Generation
- Everyone Not Living In The Suburbs Is Fooling Themselves
- Canada Almost Studies the Possibility of Eventual Road Pricing
- Rogers Messing with DNS
- Will Canada Reach Kyoto Targets With New GHG Inventory Figures?
- The Delicate Balancing Act of Downtowns and the Death of Griffintown
- Internet Identity Keystone Kops
- LA Transit Plan Aims to Save 725 Metric Tons of GHG Annually by 2030
- New York City's Congestion Pricing Plan Dies Yet Again
- New York Discovers Existing Direct Democracy Zoning Rule
- Driving is Going Down in the US
- The Commuting Turnaround in Canada
- Vancouver Churches Get a Licence to Break the Law
- Carbon Capture and Storage For Canada
2008
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2006
2005
Complete List of Posts
Top Posts
- Close Roads to Reduce Congestion
- The Delicate Balancing Act of Downtowns and the Death of Griffintown
- Places to Grow - Pictures Tell the Story
- Why We Still Need Separation of Uses
- Dense Condos Do Not Revitalize
- Hot Air - How to Beat Climate Change By Burning More Coal
- What's Best for Renewables, Merton Rule or Feed-In Tariff?
- LEED for Neighborhood Development Pilot Rating System
- Main Arterial Woonerf
- More on Which is Greener, Houses or Apartments?
- Which is Greener, Houses or Apartments?
- Zoning Exceptions and the Failure of Planning
- 18th Century Planning is Still the State of the Art
- Ontario Municipal Board Says City Can't Plan for Mix or Density of Mixed Use
- Brownfield Brutalism - Urban Planning for Sale
- The Causes of Sprawl
- Energy Star Sprawl
- Is High Density the Cure for Transportation?
- Why not Build Medieval Towns Here?
- Vancouver has it right - Ecodensity
- Ontario has it wrong - Places to Grow
- Jane Jacobs, Christopher Alexander, and Barry Wellman
- Review of This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America
- New York's Downzoning Uprising
- Community Planning - are citizens powerless?
- Paris riots and urban planning
- Minimize Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Reverse Zoning
- Social Sciences: So Much Left Undone
New York Discovers Existing Direct Democracy Zoning Rule
Much to their surprise, New York City local activists discovered that New York City had direct democracy provisions in its Charter, and that these had been there since the end of the 19th century.
Accroding to the Charter,
3. In case a protest against such a resolution [a change in the text of the zoning resolution] approved by the city planning commission shall have been presented to the city clerk within thirty days from the date of the filing of such resolution with the council, duly signed and acknowledged by the owners of twenty per cent or more of the area of:Essentially if you get the signatures of the owners of 20% of the property on the same street within 100 feet, zoning changes must be approved by 75% of city council, not the usual 50%.
(1) the land included in changes proposed in such proposed resolution, or
(2) the land immediately adjacent extending one hundred feet therefrom, or
(3) the land, if any, directly opposite thereto extending one hundred feet from the street frontage of such opposite land, such resolution shall not be effective after the filing of such protest unless approved by the council by a three-fourths vote within one hundred eighty days after the filing of said resolution with the city clerk.
City officials and lawyers were apparently surprised by discovering this rule. Tony Avella, the chairman of the zoning subcommittee, apparently said the rediscovered clause could force city planners to change the way they go about rezoning neighborhoods. It's strange they're surprised, because the entire section of the City Charter dealing with zoning changes essentially fits on a single typewritten page.
It's a shame that the rule is for property owners and not residents. That means that renters have a lot fewer rights than property owners. What else is new? But publicity about this provision also means that developers would be well advised to engage the community when they want changes, and not just shmooze a few decision makers.
Tags: Zoning New York Direct Democracy