Cities sometimes say that a piece of land must be at least x square feet for somebody to build a house on it. That’s mistaken.
This lot on South 7th Street in Philly is pretty small, but it’s about to get a new 3-story home. And while this particular one will be a single-family home, it could just as easily have accommodated 3 or 4 apartments. If Philly’s minimum lot size regulations required a bigger piece of land, no home would get built and this would remain a vacant lot.
Every neighborhood has some skinny lots, and everybody would be better off if they became new housing instead of sitting vacant.
