How to Bring Back Front Yard Businesses

a little while ago i made a video about front yard businesses these are businesses attached to people's homes like this grocery store this barber shop or this cafe in the past people used to build these businesses all the time but then we made them illegal which has arguably led to large swaths of monotonous car dependent neighborhoods with single detached houses empty grass lawns and not much else so what if we were to make front yard businesses legal again what would that look like well people have some ideas [Music] earlier this year urbanarium hosted a design contest called the mixing middle competition the challenge come up with an idea to add new mixed uses into single detached neighborhoods over 40 teams submitted designs for this contest so what i want to do is to highlight some common approaches i noticed and offer some of my thoughts about them [Music] the first approach is probably the most straightforward literally just add something anything onto your house for example in an entry called bimfy the designer proposes tiny towers you can build in your front or backyard creating spaces for small businesses without taking up too much room on your property but to some extent you don't even need to build anything new at all in another entry called simple small things first the designer starts with just converting the garage into a business and using the driveway as a patio from there you can add more and more expansions over time to support the business or to add more housing i want to show you a real world example of how this could work the yonder cider bar in seattle during the pandemic the owners of this company decided to open up a store in their home's garage this is what it looked like before and this is what they turned it into what i like about this approach is that it's very easy to get started it doesn't require a huge investment or a commitment up front and because of that it's also very flexible you can build things out a bit at a time and make adjustments as you go many of the entrants really leaned into this idea by creating standardized designs that are easy to build for example do it together proposes an open source set of designs that can be cut out of plywood and then put together like ikea furniture and the results surprisingly beautiful [Music] then of course another approach is to just start from a blank slate tear the original house down and re-imagine the whole space at once take the co-11 quad plex it turns a corner house into four units wrapped around a shared office space and it even has this public seating area on the second floor a key advantage of starting from a blank slate is that it can help you get the most out of a space you can really see that in the concept like mixed modal this design takes two properties and combines them to create a development with three commercial spaces and seven units of housing now some of my favorite examples of this kind of development can be found in japan cities here don't restrict businesses in residential areas so you end up with a lot of buildings that seamlessly weave together people's homes with their businesses for example this building in tokyo mixes donuts and coffee and housing and cafes which i think we can all agree are both great combinations [Music] then i came across an example that i found intriguing to say the least it involved a corporation building these mixed uses in backdoor plug and play a company leases space from homeowners to install pre-fabricated pods in their front yards or backyards these pods can be stacked up to three stories high and be rented out for a variety of activities like a bubble tea stand or a co-working pod or a balenciaga pop-up store once these pods have been installed people can book them through the company's app which shows where these spaces are and their availability does it feel a bit silicon valley tech bro sure but i do think there's some potential to this idea there's a business in vancouver called city beat farm that works with homeowners to use their front lawns for agriculture people who offer up their front lawns receive a free box of produce every week while the rest of the harvest is sold off they currently have a network of 13 front yards for this if homeowners are willing to let businesses farm on their land i think there's potential for other companies to negotiate similar arrangements instead of bean pods you could have co-working pods [Music] now this last approach goes beyond just mixing businesses with houses an idea that came through in many of the submissions was to have people come together to create these projects a really good example of this is lots in common their submission brings friends and neighbors to pool their finances to build communal living arrangements like co-op housing or co-housing all while creating shared spaces that benefit the larger community they offer a toolkit of designs that groups can use to build their development but they also suggest a number of public amenities like a covered patio an ev charging station or a community garden what i like about this approach is that it really captures the broader spirit of why i think we want more mixed uses in the first place as much as i talk about front yard businesses it's really not just about businesses for me there's something more profound here about how shared spaces can connect people and really bring a community together in the process the strength of a more collective building approach is that it can be much more intentional about this well that was fun but uh let's be real here none of this is technically allowed right now i can't stress this enough these buildings are pretty much impossible to build unless cities relax regulations in single detached neighborhoods the setback rules the height restrictions the far limits the home business regulations the zoning by 15 minutes later and the reality is that those regulations persist today because people have other expectations for those neighborhoods remember the yonder cider bar well here's what happened to them an anonymous person filed this asking the city to shut them down concerned over reportedly blocked sidewalks and the proximity to churches and schools we have one person who's been calling the city a bunch of times calling the cops on us a few times so after this weekend the door will come down for good the flip side of car dependent and monotonous neighborhoods is the fact that they're also private neighborhoods where disruptions are minimal the ideas coming out of the mixing middle competition will often be in conflict with those ideals and that's why i just don't think it'll ever happen you thought i'd leave you on that note no i think there's some ways we can make this work first off corners first concentrate the initial mixed use into key corners that could demonstrate how new businesses could fit well into these neighborhoods expand on what's already happening if you look carefully enough there are already many businesses operating out of single detached neighborhoods usually in immigrant communities if we're looking for people who'd be receptive to these kinds of changes i'd start here create social spaces as part of the rollout single detached neighborhoods just don't have that much space for public life to happen to begin with so i think it makes a lot of sense that we're also building spaces alongside these businesses that allow people to mill about without blocking the sidewalk or stepping onto other properties and finally create agreements between neighbors i honestly think many of these issues could be resolved in a conversation if you want to open a business maybe you could sign some sort of agreement with your neighbor about hours of operation and noise levels without getting municipal regulations involved but ultimately i think it's important that we take a step back from the nitty gritty and reflect on what these single detached neighborhoods look like in the long term 20 or even 50 years from now do we still imagine rows and rows of the same houses with their front yards and backyards or do we see ourselves mixing it up a bit [Music] [Music] [Music] i'm so happy [Music] you can't help him

Channel: About Here

Views: 1,222,730

Keywords: uytae, front yard businesses, about here, urbanarium

Id: 9YspRX7bbTM

Length: 8min 44sec (524 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 22 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/sjschlag]

3 car garages converted to accessory commercial units when?

[u/raumi]

Front yard businesses would be a great way to make suburbs more walkable whilst maintaining the SFH structure of the neighbourhoods they're in. It's a great first step towards making North American suburbia mixed-use.

The only downside I can think of is that residents may not want so many cars parked on the side of their street. But then again, people should really be walking instead.

[u/Valuable_Ad_8652]

I live in Ca railroad town from the late 1800s, the neighborhood I live in is part of original grid in the 50s after they built a road tunnel under the rail tracks, Main Street mostly has old single family and fourplexs. There’s a corner store connected with home in the back. It’s the only corner store/ commercial zoning mixed use area. Everything else they’ve built afterwards as been Exclusionary zoning smh.

[u/MidorriMeltdown]

Starting with the corners is a really good idea. Bring back the corner store.

You can plant seeds in the minds of your neighbours, by sharing simple thoughts like, wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to drive anywhere to get a coffee? Wouldn't it be great if we could just walk down to the corner for bottle of milk?

There are more than a few businesses run out of converted garages in my city. I often day dream about buying land, and building a row of commercial spaces with housing above.

[u/solEEnoid]

This guy's videos are great. He also does pieces for CBC which you can find for free.

[u/[deleted]]

In my country they were never gone, I took a while to learn that Zoning isn't just something simcity and later cities did for simplifying the gameplay.

Also, is that weird the idea to sell liquated gas from a shop?