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Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 19, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Yeah, I'm not necessarily in favor of any of these things. As an actual property owner IRL, I personally do not want a bunch of shitty development in my back yard. I'm just willing to admit it's down to wanting to protect my own property interests rather than making the argument that it's obviously in the public interest.

You would for sure have to rework the zoning code for those to work.

  • For ADUs, they are currently not allowed in my municipality. If it came down to it I would rather my mother-in-law live in a ADU on my property than put her in a home or live in an attached suit. In that situation my MIL would not put significant additional strain on local traffic, because she would not be commuting to work and would probably share grocery runs. If you allowed rental of ADUs in a car-dependent place on minimal lots I do think that would be bad. Is there a way you could allow the former without the latter, IDK.
  • For starter homes 400 ft2 would still not allow Connestoga huts. I've guess we've already discussed 800 ft2 homes here. I think that could work for utilizing otherwise unbuildable lots if combined with generous setback requirements.
  • The key is eliminate minimum lot-size would be for existing neighborhoods. Again, this would need to be combined with generous setback requirements.

I actually do think the strongtowns people take it too far, but it's a pretty big gap from build 1,000,000 Connestoga huts to allow dense infill where there is latent demand. Might as well the gap to my actual position which is that it should not take 8 years and millions of dollars to get zoning approval to replace a laundromat with medium density mixed use development along an existing transit corridor.