Land Use Reform and Housing
We need to revise how we govern development in our community. When we see large empty surface parking lots in our commercial districts, massive monocultures of grass lawns, or empty garages, we need to see these as opportunities for housing, neighborhood stores, and places for entrepreneurs. We need to remind ourselves that sprawl increases car dependence, worsens storm water runoff, reduces our tax base, and increases the cost of infrastructure, all while making it harder to build housing and small spaces for new businesses. While changes to our zoning laws are not the only tool the borough has to address these problems, they are some of the fastest and most effective ways our local government can improve our town.
Parking reform: the land needed to create two parking spaces is enough to build a small one-bedroom apartment, or storefront
We need to revise how we govern development in our community. When we see large empty surface parking lots in our commercial districts, massive monocultures of grass lawns, or empty garages, we need to see these as opportunities for housing, neighborhood stores, and places for entrepreneurs. We need to remind ourselves that sprawl increases car dependence, worsens storm water runoff, reduces our tax base, and increases the cost of infrastructure, all while making it harder to build housing and small spaces for new businesses. While changes to our zoning laws are not the only tool the borough has to address these problems, they are some of the fastest and most effective ways our local government can improve our town.
Parking reform: the land needed to create two parking spaces is enough to build a small one-bedroom apartment, or storefront
- Eliminate commercial parking minimums for new construction
- Set Parking maximums
- Allow for parking alternatives for residential construction such as bicycle storage
- require charging stations for the construction of new parking lots
- Reduce setbacks to allow for denser housing
- reduce or eliminate minimum lot size
- allow for more multifamily housing
- Allow for Accessory dwelling Units
- Increase the areas zoned for Urban Mixed Use