I see a lot of press treating it as a given that the only way to make housing more affordable is to build more housing. My gut tells me that this isn't necessarily true; that the supply will never meet the demand in popular metro areas. If 10,000 or 50,000, or 100,000 units were added to existing stock in San Francisco or New York overnight could we reasonably expect it to effect prices, even for an instant?

In some ways unincorporated areas sound awesome: no permitting and zoning bureaucracy, no HOA, lower property taxes...

In other ways it sounds intimidating: where is the water source? How do you manage septic tanks? Is there a fire department or EMS that covers the area? Is there any form of local representation like a city council equivalent? Who mitigates mosquito problem? Who fixes the roads?

Are there tax loopholes for operating a commercial business in an unincorporated areas?

If you're a resident in an unincorporated area, how do you prevent your neighborhood from being annexed? Can you create your own historical site?

What are all the unique opportunities you can do living in an unincorporated area?

• Curious city mouse

I'm a data analyst/planner working with code enforcement for a medium size municipality and am in the process of researching potential software solutions to manage our codes and permitting workloads. I'm trying to get a better sense of what other medium or large cities are using and if it's working or not prior to jumping into the sales rep shark tank. If this is at all in your wheelhouse, any comments on what your departments are using and thoughts about how it's working (good, bad, or ugly) would be very much appreciated! Feel free to inbox if you would prefer to share offline.

A church wants to put up a Rodeo Arena on land zone Single Family Residential and is saying the city cannot refuse because of the RLU. In reading it this seems a bit of a stretch as a rodeo is not traditionally used in worship and does not present any kind of substantial burden on the church, but it would be putting animal pens and parking right up against the back fence of some homes.

Anyone have any experience in their locale where special use permits were requested or forced under the RLU? What was the scenario and how did it go?

I work for a city where the street signs are getting stolen on a frequent basis (it's a college town- there are certain signs that are apparently nostalgic). Do you smart people know how your cities keep track of those? We've airtagged certain signs, but the solution has limitations.

If a road noise contour in a general plan greatly underestimated the amount noise generated and allowed residential development basically abutting the road in question, what (if any) action can be taken after the fact? Is the city obligated to abate the situation?

In a slightly different scenario, what if that road did not connect to a main arterial at the time of development but the city later constructed a segment of the road that served to connect two main arterials, thereby greatly increasing the volume and noise levels?

What is your policy? Requirements?

I built an app for users which is a digital passport (think of it like it may be a loyalty program). Users acquire a passport and then visit all the places it takes them. I also built the web app that allows businesses to manage their passport programs (passport design, distribution, access, controls, analytics -- patent pending). For users, it's an adventure. For businesses, it's marketing, for chambers of commerce and tourism boards, it's potentially a driving economic asset. You can search for okuji if anyone cares to take a look at the basics; everything under the hood is far more technical. Are there any municipalities that are interested in this kind of product?