iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Yes, Seattle as well. The key issue in Nashville was that there was a simple state HOA law, and lenders treat homes in an HOA like any other single-family homes, so subdivision became redundant.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Right, you can use HOAs, condos, or co-ops to sell the units or interests in the units separately, but the land will remain in some form of common interest ownership.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Yikes. The menu at McDonalds is mostly beef, chicken, cheese, and potatoes (fried, but still). The Happy Meal is meat, fruit, starch, and dairy. They don't serve frosted cereals, pretzels, Starburst, Fritos, or gummy bears. Where's the junk food?

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

On the other hand, the walking distance requirement (no more than a "block"?) would seem to encourage denser developments. The USPS is doing better accounting of infrastructure liabilities than local governments?

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Yes, allowing more units per lot and making it easy for them to be sold separately works just about as well! Nashville never even touched its lot sizes.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

There are a few cities that have recently enacted reforms similar to Houston's, but few as far-reaching and none that have been in effect long enough to build up a track record. For now, Houston stands alone.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

This is an interesting point. Does this effectively require some sort of HOA, or does the developer deed the land where the mailbox sits to the USPS? A cluster box is an apartment building in miniature.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Seems administratively simpler than racheting fines that are capped at the value of the book, so that librarians have more time for other tasks, and aren't having to hound people for minor charges.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

That's the system where I am in CT. Fines were discontinued a few years ago, but there are still renewals, and if a book isn't returned after a few renewals (now automatic) the book is marked lost, a bill is added to the account, and your account is locked.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Ribicoff's administration seems to have been a real turning point for CT, doubling down on highways, abolishing counties, and sanctioning exclusionary zoning through enhanced home rule.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Penny wise and pound foolish. The decisions end up in the hands of paid professionals anyways, but with judges and judicial staff rather than planners and engineers, and the cost is measured as much in time as in taxes.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Despite all those updates to the regulations, the only significant changes in 70 years seem to be 1) the circle was downzoned from 1 to 3 acre zoning; 2) the area outside the circle was downzoned from 2 to 4 acres, and 3) the TOD zone around the RR station was downzoned from no minimum to 1 acre.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Big credit to Roxbury, though, for uploading all of their historical zoning documents. Not many towns have been brave enough to do this: www.roxburyct.com/530/Historic...

roxburyct.com

Historical Zoning Regulations | Roxbury, CT

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

It's at least in part the lack of capacity that explains why, in 1954, someone took out a drawing compass at their desk and inscribed a crude circle around Roxbury's center, and penciled in a wedge in the southwest, and that 70 years later, there had been no urge or ability to update it.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

In the rest of the country, you would typically have a professional planning board that is advisory to the city council. Connecticut suggests that the "zoning legislature," a volunteer commission, also serve as the professional planning board.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

And Connecticut is the only state (quite literally, the only one of all 50) that prohibits zoning by town/city council and by state statute requires a separate "zoning legislature" for all towns with 5,000 or more residents (CGS Sec. 8-1).

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Before cities began requiring car parking, some of the proto-zoning cases involved municipalities prohibiting livery stables, the forerunner of parking garages, on a nuisance-related basis. We went from bans straight to mandates!

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced zoning is indistinguishable from Tokyo."

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Great piece. "New Town" is also a wonderfully unselfconscious name. It also may be one of the last examples of a street-alley system before its revival at the end of the century. They tended to disappear as soon as the grid went wobbly -- but not here!

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Spain (central and east) and Greece (east) have the driest and hottest climates in Europe, and it seems (?) Spain makes it quite difficult to either build a new septic system or drill a private well due in part to groundwater issues. I wonder if Sicily would look similar.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Amazing! I'd wondered if it were still in existence. Thanks for locating it. This unit (the homes appear to be held as a condominium) sold for $585k last year, according to Zillow.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Why yes, I would like it, in fact, I might even like to live in one of those "conditions" myself!

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

It's those states which so often, and going back many decades, have opposed new homes on the ground that they do not pay sufficient tax to cover the burden the children expected to inhabit them will impose on the local educational system. To be continued...

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

The foregone revenues are probably understated, as the housing shortage is particularly acute in states more reliant on local property tax to fund municipal operations, and which have higher relative and nominal average tax bills.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

And beyond that, with another 20 million homes, residential prices could stabilize or decline, and tax assessments would shift back toward non-residential uses, further easing the property tax burden.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

In practical terms, though, with an additional 20m homes, municipal budgets -- heavily contractual and non-discretionary -- would be spread across a larger set of improved properties, and we might expect per-home tax to fall more than budgets would rise.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

If the average property tax bill on a residential dwelling in the United States is around $4,200, as one estimate puts it, and we use Kevin's range, that would suggest a shortfall of between $63 billion and $84 billion in tax revenue. In 2025, total US property tax revenue was $797 billion.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Interesting thoughts from @kevinerdmann.bsky.social in this post, but I want to highlight one point that someone raised at a recent forum: if Kevin is right that the US is short 15-20 million homes, what does that mean for *property tax revenue*? kevinerdmann.substack.com/p/quick-note...

kevinerdmann.substack.com

Quick note on housing and family formation

Scott Winship at the American Enterprise Institute recently posted on substack, “Has Marriage Fallen Because Young Adults Can’t Afford Homes?...Or Are Homes Unaffordable to Young Adults Because They M...

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

And "F15" has more in the way of Top Gun vibes than Top Chef

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Appreciative of Jason Sorens' review of the paper that @ebwhamilton.bsky.social and I authored on addressing regulatory takings through legislation as an alternative to litigation. Getting these laws "just right" is a challenge, and Jason has some further suggestions for improvement.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Yes, absolutely true. The land use system lets you get away with a lot more provided you're doing it in a motor vehicle, not the least of which is simply occupying urban space.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

There's also the general lack of sufficient pedestrian traffic to patronize a kiosk/stall food culture, which is downstream of urban design. A food truck is a roving kiosk that seeks out pedestrian gatherings, which in most of the US are scheduled rather than spontaneous.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

It doesn't work either as a matter of scarce judicial resources or (scarce) common sense to have our state judges have to produce a master's thesis on each apartment building.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Ninety-eight pages. Wonder how many hours went into it.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

A judge can agree to reconsider a decision already issued, but the grounds are usually narrow -- typically that essential facts or law were overlooked. It's not a chance to make the same arguments over again.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Tennis has the advantage of a simple structure that's hard to manipulate and keeps the focus on the gameplay rather than the rulebook. One law review article (will try to find it) observed that football, with its parade of penalties and disputed calls, naturally reflects a more litigious mindset.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

Arizona's Prop 207 is probably the most enduring and effective of all the post-Kelo state laws and amendments. Although 207 was concerned with property rights rather than housing supply, in the article @ebwhamilton.bsky.social and I explain how it has provided a bulwark against downzonings.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Yes, in a civil suit, the remedy on default judgment is a hearing in damages. You don't automatically get the money you are claiming. You still have to demonstrate that you were actually harmed, and what the value of that harm is.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Practice is similar in CT. Filings moot motions for default, and actual defaults are routinely vacated even after entry. Courts are in the business of justice, not gotchas.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

To obtain a dismissal of a contract case in NY courts, I had to go through three unopposed and unanswered orders over eight months specifying that the remedy for noncompliance was default. And even then you can usually move to vacate a default or judgment.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Virginia lawyers, is this typical of litigation practice in VA -- to default and enter judgment against a defendant for a single untimely filing? This is essentially unheard of in CT and NY practice.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Defaulting an entire case for failure to timely file an amended pleading is virtually unheard of in my experience outside VA. Typically the motion for default prompts the tardy party to file the pleading, the motion is moot, and the case proceeds.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

And even for the economics of the local school bus system. Practically speaking, almost every development in America is a transit-oriented development in so far as most are required to establish public school transportation.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

If it is, no one bothered to say it, so we can only speculate. But even in immediate practical terms it is an unfunded mandate, as it requires the town to maintain the property in perpetuity.

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

The fiscal analysis says the state impact is "none" for condemning around a million dollars' worth of development rights without compensation. I guess they assume municipal corporations cannot file takings claims against the state?

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Oh, it's not just that parcel, it's also the 35 acres or so to the east

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

It's between the sewage treatment plant and the railroad tracks

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Charlie Gardner @charlescgardner.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

It's sponsored by our diehard "local control" state representatives who are currently pleading Lamont to veto HB 5002. Their defense is that the town asked for it.

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