Stop densifying cities and start building out suburbs where the land is cheap.
Using all kinds of regulations to ignore the market signals usually points out that you're doing something wrong (not _always_).
Using all kinds of regulations to ignore the market signals usually points out that you're doing something wrong (not _always_).
You literally can't build the kind of "concrete jungle" that you used to be able to because of environmental.
Like a store with a few parking spaces up front, the building and an alley around the back to one parking space (for the staff) and the dumpster is literally illegal without a multimillion dollar stormwater treatment system or a bunch of extra land (i.e. suburban sprawl).
This is also why you only ever see <low number> family houses on 1/16th to 1/8 acre (depending on the sqft of the house + parking) and the it jumps right to N-over-Y megacorp apartment blocks (maybe with retail on the bottom).
Reformulate the question: why do people tolerate living in dense tiny apartments, without easy access to necessities like childcare and grocery stores?
Sure, it starts with "just do row houses" and "missing middle" and in two generations it becomes "we should allow SROs".
> [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0
That's a propaganda channel that "conveniently" ignores everything against their narrative.
These kinds of density still require cars. Unless you want to have a stay-at-home spouse who can do full-time housekeeper duty (like in that Toronto neighborhood).
For example zoning keeps industry away from residential, preventing disasters like the West Texas Fertilizer explosion.
Aaaand, the real kicker is that the towns typically can't fight too hard because a lot of zoning provisions they'd use are not up to the legal standard it takes to do battle with a megacorp and they'd rather keep them on the books as they are than have the megacorp's lawyers pick them apart.
So you can still have Chernoybl in your back yard with zoning.