On the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Albemarle Street in the neighborhood of Van Ness, there is a consistent traffic hazard. Flagship Carwash is a thriving local business, amassing a long line of customers waiting through the intersection and down Albemarle Street from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. almost every day. Drivers who do not know that they have ended up in a carwash line cause congestion, confusion, honking, and excessive noise. The blockage causes dangerous traffic issues and restricts access to the road by the public.

In March, The New York Times ran a story about a feud between two neighbors in Fairfax, Virginia, over an unsightly, three-story home addition. The homeowner’s next-door neighbor was angered by the 32-foot-tall addition, which towered over her single-story home from the edge of his property. After complaints about the addition drew local news attention, the zoning board investigated and found that it was 7.2 inches too close to the neighbor’s property, which violated the required 8-foot setback rule. A stop-work order was issued, and construction stopped. Now, the addition stands empty and unfinished, useless to the homeowner and an eyesore to the neighbors.

California Senate Bill 79 was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on October 10, 2025. The law overrides local zoning restrictions to permit higher-density residential construction, up to nine stories, within a half mile of qualifying transit stops, and is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2026. The bill is an example of California’s broader effort to address housing shortages and promote transit-oriented development.

Have you ever felt like you were living at work? Now, you might be. Post-COVID-19, more people are working from home than ever before. Even after recent return-to-work orders, office buildings are still only seeing 63% occupancy. Office to residential building conversions have been proposed as the creative solution to repurpose unused buildings and revitalize abandoned downtown streets. In Montgomery County, Maryland, the county instituted a tax abatement called PILOT, or “payment in lieu of taxes,” under which office buildings converted into residential spaces are wholly exempt from real property tax for twenty years. However, many cities have land-use restrictions in place that may force developers to go through the time-consuming and costly process of requesting a variance, an exception to zoning regulations. So, are cities actually being revitalized through office to residential conversions when there are strict land-use restrictions in place?

Colorado Springs is renowned for its majestic views of the Pikes Peak mountain, overlooking the entire Eastern plains of Colorado. When viewing a map of Colorado Springs, it is evident that the city has grown naturally in accordance with each property getting to have a stellar view of this crown jewel in the Rockies. What makes the map particularly unique is its vertical sprawl—from North to South—each neighborhood seems almost curated towards this particular peak. However, new developments (and developers) have arrived in “the Springs” to attempt to ameliorate the local ongoing housing crisis. This proposed development (dubbed “One Vela”) would place a 27-story skyscraper right in the heart of downtown, a record-breaking 11 stories taller than the current tallest building in the city. Many Springs locals claim this is against the centuries long ban on tall buildings in the city—but is this a fact or fiction?