The Unfinished Suburbs of America - what should happen to Zombie developments? - (pics)

[Liberal_in_LA]

The Unfinished Suburbs of America
Thousands of acres across the country were partially developed during the housing boom. What should happen to them now?

Then the recession hit, and building stopped. The streets and the sidewalks were still there, as were the lots, with red and black electrical wires sticking out of the ground. But only a few houses had been completed. None were anywhere near the Milhorn's house. Out of one window, the Milhorns could see the manicured lawns and bright gardens of their neighbors in the completed development. Out of the other, they saw a bleak field with street signs and lamp posts, but no houses.

That field soon began to look like a garbage dump. There were overgrown weeds, beer bottles, shopping carts. Discarded children's toys and car seats and plastic bags. People from all over town would come to get rid of their old mattresses or party at night. Coyotes and skunks found the open space appealing too. Sometimes, Milhorn would come home from working a night shift and find a skunk sitting in her yard.
In some cases, a few people have moved into homes in these half-built subdivisions, requiring services to be delivered there. In others, the land is empty, except for roads, sidewalks, and the few street signs that haven't been stolen yet.

“It’s kind of horrible,” Milhorn said, standing in her front yard, staring out onto the abandoned development next door, as a man on a motorcycle gunned his engine, speeding in noisy circles around the empty streets.

Milhorn and her husband erected a fence on their property’s boundary to keep out the animals, but that doesn’t stop the people who come in to cruise around the empty streets or party in the tall grass. A road block that had been erected to keep out trespassers was taken down after a drunk driver rammed into it in the dark. Now, the empty streets of the cul-de-sac have turned into a track for drag racers and bikers.

“One of them bit the dust in the middle of the night and was screaming out here in the dark,” Milhorn said, shaking her head.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/11/the-unfinished-suburbs-of-America/382707/?google_editors_picks=true


Some of the homes in this Stockton community are occupied. But many lots are empty, and no one maintains their lawns or sidewalks.


Many of the streetlights in zombie subdivisions don't work any more, since people have stolen the wires from them.


There's room for driveways in this "rock star" subdivision, but there are no cars or homes so far.


Grass is starting to peek through the sidewalks in the Rio Vista development, which was to be called Hearth and Home.


This walled-off zombie subdivision, off a Stockton highway, has a playground and lights, but no homes.


Racers leave tire tracks on this shuttered road in northern Stockton, where development has been halted.

[Anansi1171]

1. I have tried to get a start-up going that would...

...work with City Planners and contract with landowners to support commercial agriculture on those lots. Specifically hydroponics and temporary green houses on a suitable scale, wholly-organic and in a way thats aesthetically-pleasing.

Since we liberals/progressives are still mired in OWS populist rhetoric that will take us nowhere, and since we dont do JFK visioning anymore and we have functionally-ceded entreprenurialism to the Right, we have what we have.

[upaloopa]

2. Where we live a second developer took over

developments like these and finished the houses.

[Xithras]

3. Every one of those will be built out eventually.

I live about 30 minutes south of those Stockton shots. Central Valley real estate values have appreciated about on average 30% over the last couple of years. My own homes value has jumped from around $220,000 to about $350,000 in just two and a half years...still well below the approximately $550,000 it was worth at the market peak, but considerably more than the $250,000 I paid for it as the market was crashing. With the escalation in local land values, the developers are already starting to move back into these abandoned subdivisions to finish them. We had a development up the road from us that looked exactly like your third shot for several years...streets, lights, and tumbleweeds. A developer moved back in about a year ago, and they're building out the last of the neighborhood right now.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. from 550K to 220K to 250K to 350K - that some swing in value. LA is going thru a similar phase

Although our property values didn't crash as far

[KamaAina]

4. Finish them, with manufactured houses if necessary,

add transit and shopping, and rent them out as affordable housing. Especially in California.

[csziggy]

6. In Florida, various things happened to unfinished developments from the 1920s

In 1925 the first Florida land boom went bust and real estate developments all over the state were left unfinished. My grandfather bought one piece of acreage for $5 an acre that up until the family sold it in the early 2000s was plotted for single family residential units. I remember looking at US Survey maps with my Dad and seeing streets and neighborhoods on them that had been laid out but no houses ever built. Sometimes, I would ride my horse through the backwoods and try to locate those phantom neighborhoods. It affected the Miami area much more than it did the part of Polk County where I grew up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_land_boom_of_the_1920s

Outside of Birmingham Alabama is a wildlife area that includes an are that was originally intended for a subdivision. I don't think any houses were ever built but the remains of streets and sidewalks provide nice hiking on the side of the little mountain. http://ruffnermountain.org/

[TransitJohn]

7. The phrasing 'zombie developments' makes me think of

"You only moved the headstones, didn't ya?! YOU ONLY MOVED THE HEADSTONES!!!"