Saw a couple of posts about people who were surprised by a shopping center or high-rise building going up next to or near their new homes.
This is “zoning” – the process cities and counties use to determine what kind of building is allowed in what particular areas. You may be thrilled to buy a house located right next to a beautiful patch of woods that your future kids can play in. However if that patch of woods is, for example, zoned “light commercial,” then right after you buy your house someone could cut down all of those trees and put up a liquor store. Or maybe a Costco or Target that will turn your street into a permanent parking lot with traffic.
Before you buy a house, check how the land surrounding that house is zoned. In bigger cities this information is often online. For example you can look up zoning in the City of Los Angeles here. If zoning information is not available online for the area around a house you’re interested in, call city hall and ask where you can find zoning information. Then go look at it to see what type of building is allowed next to the house you’re interested in.
If you want a house in what most people would consider a “normal neighborhood,” you’ll want to look for a house that is surrounded by “light residential” zoning or its equivalent. If the house is next to commercial or industrial-zoned land, whatever is on the land next to the house right now might be gone and replaced by something you don’t like next year.
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