the.com/neighborhood character
the thing everyone wants preserved and no one can define until you try to build something.
means a loosely defined bundle of scale, style, and vibe that residents invoke to support or block change in their area.
from emerged as planning jargon in mid-20th-century zoning debates, gained teeth in the 1970s as historic preservation and anti-development movements needed a phrase softer than nimby but just as effective.
legal weightappears in zoning codes without any fixed definition
flexible useinvoked for both bungalows and parking lots
timing tellusually cited right before a project gets denied