Impacts of planning rules, regulations, uncertainty and delay on residential property development

This paper proposes a framework for how houses could be developed, with a focus on how regulatory policies and practices affect decision making. The authors surveyed property developers in Auckland on how planning rules and regulations affect the cost of \u27affordable\u27 housing. Almost 90% of the developers surveyed had been affected by delays or uncertainties related to regulation. The typical cost range of regulations is estimated to be between $32,500 and$60,000 per dwelling in a subdivision and between $65,000 and$110,000 per apartment. Academic Abstract Dwelling prices are determined in the long run by the total costs of a development, where costs include regulatory costs, including costs of delay and uncertainty. We outline a conceptual framework for the development process and then develop a real options model of housing development that indicates more formally how regulatory policies and regulatory practices affect development decisions. We apply these insights to the design of a survey of property developers active in the Auckland market, with an emphasis on the ‘affordable’ part of the market. In surveying developers, we aim to elicit their views regarding the impacts that planning rules and regulations have on total development costs. We do not attempt to value the corresponding benefits of the planning rules and regulations, so this study is not a cost: benefit analysis of council planning approaches; rather it documents the costs of the rules and regulations – as perceived by developers – to provide a basis for benefits to be compared. Almost 90% of surveyed developers have been affected by delays or uncertainties related to regulation. Regulations that have had major effects on the actual building costs of apartments include: building height limits, balcony requirements, conforming to Council’s desired mix of apartment typologies and minimum floor to ceiling heights. Major cost effects on developing residential sections and standalone dwellings include: infrastructure contributions not related to the specific development, section size requirements, extended consent processes and urban design considerations stemming from Council’s urban designers. Reserve and development contributions and Watercare levies affect the costs of both types of development. Excluding the cost of Watercare and reserve and development contributions, the typical cost range of the total impact of regulations is estimated to vary between $32,500 and$60,000 per dwelling in a subdivision. In terms of affordable apartments, assuming the total internal floor area remains the same and no deck is built, the impact on total cost typically is estimated to range between $65,000 and$110,000 per apartment

NLTE 1.5D Modeling of Red Giant Stars

Spectra for 2D stars in the 1.5D approximation are created from synthetic spectra of 1D non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) spherical model atmospheres produced by the PHOENIX code. The 1.5D stars have the spatially averaged Rayleigh-Jeans flux of a K3-4 III star, while varying the temperature difference between the two 1D component models ($\Delta T_{\mathrm{1.5D}}$), and the relative surface area covered. Synthetic observable quantities from the 1.5D stars are fitted with quantities from NLTE and local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) 1D models to assess the errors in inferred $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$ values from assuming horizontal homogeneity and LTE. Five different quantities are fit to determine the $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$ of the 1.5D stars: UBVRI photometric colors, absolute surface flux SEDs, relative SEDs, continuum normalized spectra, and TiO band profiles. In all cases except the TiO band profiles, the inferred $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$ value increases with increasing $\Delta T_{\mathrm{1.5D}}$. In all cases, the inferred $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$ value from fitting 1D LTE quantities is higher than from fitting 1D NLTE quantities and is approximately constant as a function of $\Delta T_{\mathrm{1.5D}}$ within each case. The difference between LTE and NLTE for the TiO bands is caused indirectly by the NLTE temperature structure of the upper atmosphere, as the bands are computed in LTE. We conclude that the difference between $T_{\mathrm{eff}}$ values derived from NLTE and LTE modelling is relatively insensitive to the degree of the horizontal inhomogeneity of the star being modeled, and largely depends on the observable quantity being fit.Comment: 46 pages, 14 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ on April 5, 201

NLTE and LTE Lick indices for red giants from [M/H] 0.0 to -6.0 at SDSS and IDS spectral resolution

We investigate the dependence of the complete system of 22 Lick indices on overall metallicity scaled from solar abundances, [M/H], from the solar value, 0.0, down to the extremely-metal-poor (XMP) value of -6.0, for late-type giant stars (MK luminosity class III, log(g)=2.0) of MK spectral class late-K to late-F (3750 < Teff < 6500 K) of the type that are detected as "fossils" of early galaxy formation in the Galactic halo and in extra-galactic structures. Our investigation is based on synthetic index values, I, derived from atmospheric models and synthetic spectra computed with PHOENIX in LTE and Non-LTE (NLTE), where the synthetic spectra have been convolved to the spectral resolution, R, of both IDS and SDSS (and LAMOST) spectroscopy. We identify nine indices, that we designate "Lick-XMP", that remain both detectable and significantly [M/H]-dependent down to [M/H] values of at least ~-5.0, and down to [M/H] ~ -6.0 in five cases, while also remaining well-behaved . For these nine, we study the dependence of I on NLTE effects, and on spectral resolution. For our LTE I values for spectra of SDSS resolution, we present the fitted polynomial coefficients, C_n, from multi-variate linear regression for I with terms up to third order in the independent variable pairs (Teff, [M/H]), and (V-K, [M/H]), and compare them to the fitted C_n values of Worthey et al. (1994) at IDS spectral resolution.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Tables 6 and 7 available electronically from the autho

Review of New Directions for Clarinet by Phillip Rehfeldt

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Cage Celebrations, New York

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Veni Creator Spiritus

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Four Compositions and supporting Commentary

Dance Suite for Solo Piano Piano Quintet Origins for Wind Band Passing Through Three Points, a Suite for Orchestr

The Arid Month

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Jules Kessler

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