Comment 41464

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted June 02, 2010 at 10:41:38

Ya know, most people on this planet would be very happy to have a building as large and sturdy as the average Canadian garage. If you're willing to live without your car (or at least leave it outdoors), you're then left with an amazing set of possibilities - workshop, studio, family room, rental space, storefront, greenhouse, brewery etc... if you were allowed to do it. My advice would be the same as his - just build it. If they come after you, play dumb.

Legal systems such as this one need to realise that they have a responsibility to the public - much more than we have any responsibility to them. It is their job to provide rules, codes and by-laws which make sense, not our job to spend countless dollars or hours trying to translate legalese pig-latin which seems to serve no real purpose other than providing jobs for priviliged and highly paid professionals reading it to us.

Zoning bylaws are the legal equivalent of maps coloured by 6th grade geography students. And about as useful. For decades, both theory and evidence have pointed to the simple fact that a diversity of uses is best for urban spaces - homes, shops, workplaces etc. So what, exactly, is the point of arbitrarily limiting urban spaces to only one use?

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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