Travel the world and you’ll see vibrant, beautiful, old world neighborhoods where small local businesses are integrated with residential homes. I call these ‘mixed use areas’. This is typically the way towns were set up for many years. In the US and some other western countries you see a stark separation between residential and business areas. This is because zoning regulations usually prohibit mom and pop businesses or any businesses at all in residential areas.
Codes
Areas With Few or No Codes: Ozark Plateau
We’ve had a lively discussion for years here on our Natural Building Blog about the best places to live with few or no building codes that make it easy to build a home out of low cost natural materials and create a homestead. In my opinion the Ozarks is a top choice for natural building and homesteading in the US due to many factors.
Best Places to Live: Scenic Byways
As a young man, I traveled across Nebraska on Highway 20 that parallels the main east-west interstate across the state. It’s very beautiful country. The scenic byway was far more interesting than the interstate which I had traveled many times going back and forth to Colorado on vacation. Places like this would be a great place to homestead.
California Green Building Standards Code
“The California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen Code) is Part 11 of the California Building Standards Code and is the first statewide “green” building code in the US.
CodeNEXT: Nightmare Agenda 21 Building Codes of the Future
This is a new building code system that city planners are trying to implement in Austin, TX.
“CodeNEXT is a plan is to effectively do away with old fashioned things like neighborhood zoning and building use restrictions. Those are too complex and burdensome. Now that Austin has become a “destination city,” we shouldn’t live in houses on blocks in neighborhoods. Instead, we should be divided into “corridors,” “nodes” and “transit hubs.” While this may work for designing certain sectors of undeveloped land, it should not be imposed on existing neighborhoods against their will.
New Mexico Tiny House Bill Passes 66-0
Update: This is a horrible bill that now seems aimed at sabotaging the tiny house movement or at the very least exploiting the popularity of tiny houses with excessive taxes.