housing
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HB1300: Part 1—Deeds, Restrictions, and Covenants
Read more: HB1300: Part 1—Deeds, Restrictions, and CovenantsA deed is a set of conditions that are part of a sale of real estate. The buyer undertakes to uphold the deed’s restrictions, covenants, and agreements. As the property moves from owner to owner, the conditions of the deed survive. The purpose of some deed restrictions is to provide predictability to buyers of the…
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The Fallacy of County-Funded Aging-In-Place
Read more: The Fallacy of County-Funded Aging-In-PlaceHuman relationships are fickle. Probably the most fickle are high-school romances (for those of you who were lucky enough to have had one or two or three). Another example is bloggers on local politics such as myself. We can love our elected leaders, and we can just as easily hand them demerits. Such is the…
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ZTA 24-01: Living Closer to God
Read more: ZTA 24-01: Living Closer to GodThere are reasons I don’t get invited to parties, the most obvious being my enthusiasm over liberalization in zoning laws. A typical conversation when I meet someone new at a wedding goes like this. “What are your hobbies?” “Pushing for removal of height restrictions. Yours?” “I’ll go get myself another brewsky. You stay here.” Just…
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ZTA 23-10 Part 3: Less Parking + More Housing = More Congestion. I’m in.
Read more: ZTA 23-10 Part 3: Less Parking + More Housing = More Congestion. I’m in.We ended Part 2 of this series with CM Evan Glass’s motivations for Zoning Text Amendment 23-10: Reducing parking near transit is a commonsense approach that will make housing more affordable, help us reach our housing goals, and move us toward a more sustainable, green future. Let’s examine the motivations individually. Make housing more affordable…
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ZTA 23-10 Part 2: Sites for No-Parking Residences
Read more: ZTA 23-10 Part 2: Sites for No-Parking ResidencesIn Part 1 of this series we mentioned that Zoning Text Amendment 23-10 exempts residential construction from any parking requirements within a one-half mile of Metro, Purple Line, and Bus Transit Centers. Where are these sites, and what is within a half-mile radius around them? I drew circles around each of the county’s Metro, Purple…
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ZTA 23-10 Part 1: How Parking Mandates Restrict Affordable Housing
Read more: ZTA 23-10 Part 1: How Parking Mandates Restrict Affordable HousingWhen I came out of the closet, publicly and shamelessly, expressing a desire to eliminate residential zoning, fully one-half of my friends pruned me—so I’m now down to one. Let’s see if that remaining friendship will survive this series on relaxed parking requirements. Local jurisdictions have many ways of constricting the housing supply, thereby making…
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Residents of Takoma Park Should Keep Their Affluence to Themselves
Read more: Residents of Takoma Park Should Keep Their Affluence to ThemselvesFor us pro-choice liberals, journeys into Takoma Park are like an ethical vegan attending a rodeo. You want to fit in, but you’re not quite sure how to act, what to say, or what to wear. Do you purchase a sustainable yoga mat made of pressed seaweed and walk around with it rolled under your…
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Rental Inventory Update
Read more: Rental Inventory UpdateOn July 17, 2023, the county council enacted rent control. In Exile the Poor, Keep the Golf Courses I mentioned I’d keep a record of apartment rentals as advertised on realtor.com to test the expectation that because of the rent control rental inventory will shrink. Here is the update for October 4, 2023. Analysis This…
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Livin’ Large: MoCo Young Democrats Hosting “Paint the County Blue” Fundraiser at 3,000 Sq Foot, 2 Acre Estate of CM Dawn Luedtke
Read more: Livin’ Large: MoCo Young Democrats Hosting “Paint the County Blue” Fundraiser at 3,000 Sq Foot, 2 Acre Estate of CM Dawn LuedtkeIt is good to be livin’ large and in charge in MoCo. Us regular hoi polloi in the needlessly expensive, high-tax, housing-short county? Not so much. But it is good to see that a select few are living well in the neighborhood! Remember – these are the people who care deeply about “income inequality” and…
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Exile the Poor, Keep the Golf Courses
Read more: Exile the Poor, Keep the Golf CoursesIn his 1967 speech The Three Evils of Society, Martin Luther King, Jr. accused white civil rights leaders, and whites in general, of promoting “socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.” His line of argument was compelling, and evoked what today’s free-market activists think about government programs: no matter what that program is,…