We couldn't agree more, but it is one of the sad truths of our form of government that allows the accumulation of laws that can seldom be revised as easily as they are passed. Building codes and zoning ordinances are legacies of past times. Times in which the notion of building livable communities meant that we all lived in one place, worked in another, shopped in yet another area, etc, etc. And all of these areas were for the most part reachable only by car.

Communities were, if the truth be told, designed more as storage units for people, and optimized for automobiles rather than community. Furthermore, buildings were designed with little to no thought to the amount of electricity they consumed, as we were operating under the assumption that electricity would become "too cheap to meter". This has resulted in an astounding fact that large office buildings consume more than 60% of all electricity generated on the planet!!