Episode Summary

  1. Fourplex legislation in San Fransisco highlights the challenges of how we can increase density, increase supply, in hopes of providing more affordable housing options in communities.
  2. Economic development should focus on how to keep money in the community, ultimately focusing on building a strong Main Street economy that can become self reinforcing.
  3. The common perspective of single family home owners is to buy the latest product. Like upgrading their iPhone, they want the new house with the latest appliances, and someone else will worry about the old one.

​Fourplex legislation in San Fransisco (both articles, 5 min read)

​Rethinking economic development policy, specifically for smaller towns (4 min read)

A point of view case study of Appleton, WI (10 min read)

Transcript

Hey everybody it's Kyle. Where, on this podcast, I share, discuss, ponder, and try to connect some dots through the best content I've discovered each week related to urban planning, architecture, and cities.

I want to build with you case studies, discover examples, refine ideas, that hopefully inspire you as you go along your journey. If you don't have time to read, I'm trying to break down the patterns here and help you stay ahead of the curve.

Ultimately, trying to learn, what are the patterns of development?

First up a combo.

An article from Heather Knight at San Fransisco Chronicle an an article from Bay City News in the San Fransisco Examiner.

Quoting now from the examiner:

"In an effort to increase housing production throughout the city, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman on Tuesday proposed legislation to allow fourplex units to be built in areas designated for single-family homes.

Currently, zones designated for single-family and low-density housing only allow for a maximum of three units per lot.

Such zones, however, account for about 60 percent of the city’s developable residential parcels, according to Mandelman’s office.

“The way much of San Francisco is zoned today makes it easier to flip existing housing into luxury monster homes than to build small apartment buildings for working people,” Mandelman said in a statement. “We’ve done a really good job of building housing for millionaires and billionaires over the last decades, but we’ve made it too hard to build housing for everyone else.”

Supervisor Mandelman is looking to make missing middle housing possible in his community. Missing middle housing is that between single family homes, and mid-rises, there's all these other types of housing that can help build stealth density and increase affordability in neighborhoods. That's 1 pattern.

Pattern number 2 is the inventible battle between people who don't want additional density in their communities, or any change.

On ward to an article from strong towns, those unfamiliar with strong towns they advocate for financially responsible economic development in communities that's sustainable. They published a book that's on my "to-read" list. And here Strong Towns founder Chuck Marhon outlines 5 things economic planners need to consider:

Redirecting the flow of capital so that it stays in the community longer, growing local capacity and providing greater community benefits.

Making low-stakes space for entrepreneurs (people in the community with crazy ideas and the passion to run with them) to fail quickly, learn, and get back to innovating.

Accelerating success by aggressively growing enterprises that import capital into the community.

Allowing the community to grow incrementally again, to thicken up and become more productive while shunning the large leaps and silver bullet projects that are a distraction today and a drag on future prosperity.

Reinforcing the Main Street economy that expands the opportunity people have to improve their quality of life, and the lives of those around them, while growing their own financial security and stability.

Last up this week a personal case study of a person looking to buy a duplex in Appleton, WI. I want to quote from the story by Johnny Sanphillippo, the response from his real estate agent and why he doesn't want a duplex,

" These are the places she suggested instead. I looked at the filter she had set on the listings and she had eliminated any property that was built before 1990. That guaranteed the homes on offer would all be out on the suburban fringe along the highways instead of in town. When I asked her about this she was confused and set about educating me on the property market in Appleton.

She explained that you don’t want an older home because they have too much deferred maintenance. Bringing them up to a modern standard is too expensive relative to their resale value. Taxes are too high in old neighborhoods so you want to buy across municipal lines outside the older city limits. You get more house for less money with lower taxes in the newer developments. The schools are much better in the newer areas, and people shop for school districts more than they shop for a house itself. While Appleton is a very safe little city, crime is always a bigger problem at the core compared to the edges. You have to think of the children. And a newer home on a larger lot is a better investment because that’s what quality buyers want. Older homes don’t appreciate, they decline."

The author goes on to make the case that, the real estate agent isn't wrong. This is the perspective that we have with our communities and our cities.

Let's go back to the 5 points from strong towns...this is the exact opposite perspective.

Rather than reinvesting and focusing on place, just keep moving to the new location, ignore the core, go to what's new.

To summarize this weeks patterns:

  • Fourplex legislation in San Fransisco highlights the challenges of how we can increase density, increase supply, in hopes of providing more affordable housing options in communities
  • Economic development should focus on how to keep money in the community, ultimately focusing on building a strong Main Street economy that can become self reinforcing
  • The common perspective of single family home owners is to buy the latest product. Like upgrading their iPhone, they want the new house with the latest appliances, and someone else will worry about the old one.