The personal opinions of planners and staffers are one of the most significant and under-appreciated aspects influencing if your city builds or not. - ThreadSky

louismirante.bsky.social • 2 days ago

The personal opinions of planners and staffers are one of the most significant and under-appreciated aspects influencing if your city builds or not.

Reposted from push the needle

“Vancouver city council will consider a staff recommendation Wednesday to push back against new provincial rules allowing multi-family residential buildings under six-storeys to be built with single set of fire escape stairs.”

I keep saying staff are the real NIMBYs
vancouversun.com/news/vancouv...

Comments

michaeltucsonaz.bsky.social•2 days ago

Don’t YIMBYs on most city staff have to choose between slow progress toward insanity, a new career, or some acceptance of NIMBY ideology?

I’m not surprised that staff go NIMBY. Cognitive dissonance is no fun.

Feels like staff views are a trailing indicator of public opinion/elected governance.

tombellino.bsky.social•2 days ago

I promise you that the vast vast vast majority of planners have close to zero power in these situations. I have a million stories of being forced to do things I strongly disagree with.

maccoinnich.bsky.social•2 days ago

I 100% believe you and can also think of a number of instances where pushback was entirely from staff. A recent change to Portland’s zoning code to allow more height in downtown was supported unanimously at the Planning Commission and then again unanimously at City Council, but with staff opposed.

tombellino.bsky.social•2 days ago

Who are the “staff”? They don’t poll the entire department, someone or a group of people in a high position decide the department’s position and then staff must work in service of that.

maccoinnich.bsky.social•2 days ago

In the most recent example I’m thinking of, it was bureau leadership

tombellino.bsky.social•2 days ago

Presumably they are technically planners but that’s not who I’m referring to when I refer to planners writ large

tombellino.bsky.social•2 days ago

Where we have impact is at the margins and in off the record conversations with those in power.

urbanlandrent.foundation•2 days ago

Sacramento’s planning staff openly and successfully fought to water down our missing middle housing ordinance because of “off the record” promises they felt they had made to white people in rich neighborhoods.

nilo.bsky.social•2 days ago

Wild!

urbanlandrent.foundation•2 days ago

Said this in public testimony too! “We made a promise to east sac”.

Oh interesting! Council never made that promise! Why are you making guarantees about the specifics of policy to members of the public without direction from council?

nilo.bsky.social•2 days ago

This reminds me of the famous case of Heathrow being operated below capacity due to a verbal promise made at a meeting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranford_Agreement

urbanlandrent.foundation•2 days ago

Also thinking about a council majority in socal who more or less had to overrule their staff at a number of junctures to pass their own missing middle ordinance.

Or the dozens of planning departments I fought on poison pill design standards as a housing element reviewer. Staff is a barrier.

defrank.bsky.social•2 days ago

We’ve got someone in Dc who seems to unilaterally “pre-designate” something as historic. Can’t think of a time they’ve weighed in without finding something worthy.

urbanlandrent.foundation•2 days ago

“There’s no culture of NIMBYism in the planning profession!”

Anyway, fondly remembering the time the American Planning Association came out against the California bill that eliminated parking minimums.

tombellino.bsky.social•2 days ago

Every time you see the word “staff,” replace it in your mind with “department.” 95% of planning staff do not make the decisions.

alexbaca.bsky.social•2 days ago

To be fair: ~*not all planners. Within the Office of Planning, for example, design review and historic preservation are on about something very, very different than the citywide planning team. Inconsistency like this is not great, but NIMBYism w/in citywide planning would probably do more damage.

maxdubler.com•2 days ago

Many working planners are zoning true believers who believe that separating uses, requiring ample off street parking, and preventing multifamily housing construction in single family neighborhoods are vitally important to maintaining their cities’ quality of life.

tombellino.bsky.social•2 days ago

Zoning departments are much more like this, yes. Someone who would choose to only do zoning is gonna end up being way more committed to preserving it.

bradleyewing.bsky.social•2 days ago

If you point out that professional urban planners are sometimes a barrier to new development on /r/urbanplanning, a lot of the verified planners defend the shield and insult activists lol

nilo.bsky.social•2 days ago

Defend the shield is a funny one. Got a chuckle out of me.

daltonhuey.bsky.social•2 days ago

The two most active ones on there are giant NIMBYs themselves

michaelwiebe.bsky.social•2 days ago

This is why we need cost-benefit analysis.

eean.dev•2 days ago

But I've been repeatedly assured that city council, not planners, make the decisions

tombellino.bsky.social•2 days ago

Because that is the case in most cities.

georgespies.bsky.social•2 days ago

Have you now?

dereksagehorn.bsky.social•2 days ago

Fun fact: one of Oakland’s strategic planners unilaterally decided that state ADU law allowing garage conversions of MF buildings would not be processed and the city only backed down after threat of lawsuit by a YIMBY legal org.

caverylittle.bsky.social•2 days ago

When I tried to build an ADU I was told by Oakland’s planners that instead I would need to have the house restored to its original “historic” condition (it is not historic in any meaningful way).

eean.dev•2 days ago

Oakland planners are a great example of this since there's very little appetite for such nonsense on the council

caverylittle.bsky.social•2 days ago

This was in 2018/19, so different times. I was honestly just shocked that they wouldn’t do a desk approval (I believe it was required for them to do this at the time) and made me talk to a historic preservation person who straight up told me that she wouldn’t allow the permit to go forward.

eean.dev•2 days ago

Different times for ADUs, city politics hasn't changed that much in Oakland

louismirante.bsky.social•2 days ago

Good things happen when neighbors get involved

djcrimson.bsky.social•2 days ago

Strategic planners?

dereksagehorn.bsky.social•2 days ago

https://www.oaklandca.gov/teams/strategic-planners-directory

djcrimson.bsky.social•2 days ago

Huh, never knew that was an official division name.

pushtheneedle.bsky.social•2 days ago

They tell us the same thing in Seattle. “The mayor made us” but we are on like our 4th Mayor since the housing crisis crept up here in 2014 and that staff has remained the same the entire time, even leaking an upzone plan in 2015 to trigger backlash.

evanmanvel.bsky.social•2 days ago

Just a note, the folks in this article are not planners.

I've run into a lot of building officials and fire folks who play this sort of worse-case-imaginable in their head rather than acknowledging real trade-offs and looking at data.

princetonyimby.bsky.social•2 days ago

I would guess that the "staffers" responsible for this are more likely to be guys in public safety and the fire department than the planning office, even if the memo was written by "chief building official, Saul Schwebs".

pushtheneedle.bsky.social•2 days ago

Its why it is vital for them to have NIMBY dominated feedback. They need it to launder their concerns

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