1/ On today's episode of "Planning as Evolved Past the Need for Zoning... But not Past the Need for Public Action":

The "BIMBY-BUILD IN MY BACKYARD" experience in France, a tool to support municipalities and homeowners to implement infill policies

2/ I know many like to compare the density of central Paris with some random suburban place in the US. But France is probably the most sprawled country in Europe, with not only "pavillionaire" (suburban SF sprawl), but also a lot of "rurbain" areas, that is very like US "exurbia"

3/ Besides, France is the place that brought to Europe the concepts of regional malls, power centers and other complements of the suburban landscape*. So it's like the US, but with roundabouts.

*If you want to know more, give a look at Mangin's "La ville franchisée", a must read

4/ The history of how France ended up resembling the country the French despise the most is quite interesting, but I will stick to how the BIMBY approach is trying to reverse the negative effects of sprawl, encouraging infill (la ville sur la ville, build the city upon the city)

5/ BIMBY is a movement started in the mid-2000s by the experience of two architects. It's a "service de conception à la demande", i.e. on-demand design service that can be put in place by municipalities that want to favor infill housing (plot subdivision, ADUs, etc.)

6/ The idea is that changing zoning to allow more density and plot subdivision and wait for the private to act is not enough and public authorities should also put in place a consulting body that helps homeowners to figure out the advantages of infill:

7/ How does it work? Municipalities put in place a group of experts (architects, planners, financial advisors) that help homeowners to figure out concretely the potential of their land, see if they can add an ADU, divide the plot and how, add a floor with a new unit, etc.

8/ The idea is that many people need an "ice-breaker", someone that helps them (initially with no fees) to understand the benefits (economic, for example) and overcome the obstacles of densifying their own plot and help them navigate the different possibilities and red carpets

9/ The idea is that the public does not simply set the rules, but also facilitates, supports, deploys tools to "orchestrate" (a term the French like a lot), i.e. helps different actors to coordinate their efforts toward a common goal, because implementation is the difficult part.

10/ I know that this is profoundly different from the idea of the State as simple regulators that prevails in the US (We set the rules and than the "market" do the rest). But this BIMBY is a tool to help market actors (developers, designers, contractors) work together better

11/ A BIMBY approach could be very useful as a facilitating tool to make Minneapolis, Portland, LA liberalization of SF more effective.The public subsidizes the cost of consultants working as counselors that helps the homeowners to figure out what they need to be "self-promoters"

12/ Of course, BIMBY is not a panacea. It does not replace different mechanism to create denser housing. But it's a complement to support the "gentle densification" that many would support and could be one of several tools to tackle the deep housing crisis of NA cities

13/ There are today several dozens BIMBY initiatives throughout France. There is little information available in English, but have a look at this wiki (French only, sorry but you can use Google translate :-) :
http://www.wikibimby.fr/index.php/Accueil

And this is the previous episode: https://twitter.com/ChittiMarco/status/1301936079671615488?s=20