mental institution?Would need to be significantly larger to be sustainable and at some size you get into "too small to be a nation, too big to be a mental institution" territory.
it doesn't need to be a nation, could be more of a city state. Not sure of how many people occupied CHAZ, but I agree it would need to be larger to be sustainable.
The city isn't chartered to support and help sustain autonomous zones. What some folks seem to be asking for is an ad-hoc annexation of the area by a non-governmental entity.
Did the commune not attract competent urban planners or land use attorneys?
I don't really think it was running for long enough nor planned out thoroughly enough to attract people to it. If you want people to move there you have to have some sort of plan for moving forward and establishing yourself as a legitimate state.
This idea could work, but the proper forethought would have to be established for future plans/a road map for how to get things really moving.
Ultimately, CHAZ didn't really seem like it had this and seems as though it was established in a passionate moment (not necessarily a bad thing), but not enough thought was put into sustainable infrastructure for it to succeed. I also don't really believe it would have been given the room to grow even if it had put that thought in, though.