Environmental Impact:

After the environmental laws were passed there was a great deal of litigation over what kind of environmental impacts certain projects would have. Many applicants were required to do very expensive full-blown environmental impact statements. Those days are over, and most likely if there is a suspected impact on a particular element, the applicant is only required to do an analysis of that one element such as parking or traffic. The more likely problem these days is something to do with wetlands or setbacks from streams. Some people think having a stream run through there property is a quaint and pleasant addition have discovered the little babbling brook creates buffer areas which cause development problems.

Some of the local jurisdictions have changed their philosophy from requiring a certain amount of parking per square foot, or per unit and have actually limited the amount of parking provided to encourage people to take public transportation. Likewise, government has allowed for more dense development to once again justify public transportation. One of the latest trends in mixed-use density is to have a condominium on top of a hotel, on top of a high-end grocery store that specializes in pre-prepared foods.

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