Apartments above stores? Not a new idea, but one that may need to be re-implemented in cities

[bhikkhu]

8. I tried to do that when I moved to my current city

There were a couple good locations I could have afforded. But - the loan I qualified for was for a residential property, and the qualification process for a commercial property was a whole different kind of application, all kinds of paperwork. So I dropped the idea and bought a house in the suburbs. Later a commercial property right on main street became available, which had a huge ground-floor lobby, and several units upstairs. It needed work but it was overall pretty solid, and it was affordable so I bought it. I whittled away at the cosmetics and beefed up the structural integrity as needed, and my plan was to rent out the ground floor and have that pay for the upstairs renovations, and I figured I could retire early and move in and just get it done at some point.

But - at some point the city just stopped allowing permits. THey changed the process to where no one could apply themselves, but had to go through contractors. Which was ok, I know a lot of contractors and engineers, and finally I ran the whole project by the biggest engineering firm in town and they thought it all looked good, and they could get me permits for the first couple steps toward making it work. In six months they were unable to get any kind of permit for anything and just dropped out; they even gave me my money back. I still don't know why. I corresponded with the city guy in charge for awhile and never got a straight answer either. Anyway, it looked like nothing was ever going to be allowed to happen and my pockets weren't deep enough to fight it, so I sold the building. I got a good price, but it's just a shame to see it still sitting empty and unused, and deteriorating.