Everything wrong with planning in one paragraph...

This is California but don't let's pretend it's any better here in England:

Mandatory parking requirements, sidewalks, curb cuts, fire lanes, on site stormwater management, handicapped accessibility, draught tolerant native plantings… It’s a very long list that totaled $340,000 worth of work. They only paid $245,000 for the entire property. And that’s before they even started bringing the building itself up to code for their intended use. Guess what? They decided not to open the bakery or brewery. Big surprise.

Sanphillippo goes on to cite example after examle of how planning and regulatory codes stop things from happening - leaving unused buildings slowly rotting in valueless environments because fancy urban experts wandered round pretending that there's some magical value in those buildings that aren't being used, won't get used and will stay empty unless you get creative and flexible.

I'm in Bradford. This is half our problem.

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