Storefront in Berkeley (of course it is Berkeley).
this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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As a Brit, "zoning" has to be the second-stupidest town planning concept I've heard of this week
We have zoning and planning processes here in the UK too, called different things but doing the same job.
All building developments require planning permission.
This is required for construction of new property, extending and changing existing property, and changing the use of property, such as from commercial to residential or visa-versa.
As part of the planning process the authorities will look at what you intend to do, where you intend do do it, and ensure that makes sense. You can't just smack a huge store in a residential neighbourhood for example, nor can you buy up retail property on the cheap and turn it into apartments.
If we didn't have planning permission it would be an absolute nightmare.
What does this mean? What does zoning have to do with being American or not?
It's not a thing here.
Of course it is. They just work differently and are not as stupid as the US zoning laws, but that doesn't mean zoning laws don't exist.
That's quite the bold claim, do you have a source for that? Because last I heard, some politician wanted to introduce zoning last year and got shouted down because it's an objectively terrible idea.
What politician tried to introduce what and where? Europe is not one single legislative body. This stuff differs from country to country inside the EU, but AFAIK every country has some sort of regulations as to what can be built where and how. The laws might differ in their specifics, but they'll serve the same general purpose tailored to their own cultural and geographical needs. It's not zoning itself that leads to US-style suburban hellscapes, it's how they are defined and applied. European countries simply choose not to zone their land like the US does.
Anyway, here's a sample of German zoning regulations for you as an example. It names industrial zones, agricultural zones, mixed residential zones, exclusive residential zones, etc. Again, they won't work the same as the US laws, but they're zoning regulations. You'll see the word "Gebiet" a lot in there, which literally translates to "zone".
Here's a map of Vienna's zones.
I live in the UK. Wasn't aware they were a thing in the EU, thanks for the info.
I would like to recommend to you this 20 min explainer of the exact issue by one of my favourite youtubers:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=aQxP_Ftz2RE
It's not at all just an American thing lol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoning
Didn't realise it was so damn common. What a fucking shitshow!
Dude, calm down, you don't even know what it is
I mean, it's not a shitshow at all when it's done correctly.
It can be an useful tool for sensible urban planning. It doesn't have to be super rigid but it makes planning easier and more organized than some case-by-case basis system or not having a system at all.
Zoning is not a bad thing, bad zoning is. Zoning can stop there being massive polluting factories right outside people’s homes and outside of fragile ecosystems, for example. Outside of airports it requires builders to include AC so that people don’t have to have their windows open to cool their homes(because of the noise). The reason people love old European cities with all their character is to do with zoning laws.
The problem with the US, and us in Canada too, is that zoning is done incredibly poorly. Shitty neighbourhoods with little-to-no mixed-uses and two-story max buildings fucking sucks. I’m glad I live in Montréal in one of the three-story walk-ups with a Depanneur across the street and all the shops I need around the corner down my neighbourhood’s main street.
Anyway the point is that regulations and control or better than no regulations and control but we have a responsibility to do it well, something places like US are famously bad about.