09-25-2017, 08:34 AM
That's probably good advice for most people, planners included. The conditions that led to a healthy mix of uses in the past, though, might not exist now. Sometimes there are market failures. And externalities include a lot more than just noise- every new development has a plethora of externalities and impacts on its neighbours and the wider city, good and bad. Shadows are an externality, traffic is an externality, the extra use of city services is an externality.
I sympathize a lot with the idea that private property owners should be left to do what they want with their land, but realistically what they do has a lot of impact on others and in the city needs to be subject to restrictions as a result.
I sympathize a lot with the idea that private property owners should be left to do what they want with their land, but realistically what they do has a lot of impact on others and in the city needs to be subject to restrictions as a result.