Episode Summary
- There is a difference between building public spaces and private mixed use development.
- Cities should consider using tiny homes to help provide temporary shelter to their no fixed address communities
- Relax zoning requirements, and reduce parking minimums to help increase housing supply and create more affordable housing
- Apartment construction in the United States continues to remain strong, specifically in the sunbelt despite the challenges of the pandemic, labor market, and material costs.
Links To Sources
10 ideas to improve life in small and midsize cities (5 min read - paywall possible)
Senate Bill 9 passes in California. An opinion in favor (2 min read) and against (4 min read)
Apartment construction remains strong in the United States (7 min read)
Outside The Episode
The image above shows one example of how you can convert backyard space into an additional smaller dwelling unit.
There are a variety of different ways to add an additonal dwelling unit to an existing structure.
Even as accesssory dwelling units become legal, apartment construction continues to rise in the United States.
Transcript
Episode 29 - Patterns of development
Ideas, Density, Apartments - This is patterns of development
Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, welcome to Patters of development. My name is Kyle and on this podcast, we're going to talk about the patterns of development.
What's going on in the world of urban planning, architecture, and development? What keeps happening, do we recognize any patterns, and what can we learn from them? \
Our goal is to create case studies, discover examples, refine ideas, that hopefully inspire you as you go along your journey as a developer, real estate agent, city staff, builder, or citizen.
Following up on last week - this idea that when you build a public space for everyone, you're building it for no one.
I was going to use the example of a farmers market. Build a farmers market to serve your vendors and make it easy for guests to arrive and shop.
Then I was going to say, don't make a concert area, don't worry about a food truck space, don't worry about tables, don't worry about a kids play ground, don't worry about having a plaza, a water feature, nice seating and landscaping.
Because obviously if you loose focus on the main point of a farmers market your going to get this weird space that maybe would get great, a place for kids to play while parents shop, with a place for people to sit and enjoy some live music. But then...what happens when only 1 of those things is happening at a time? It becomes a weird space.
And so I get it.
But! I got stuck on this idea of mixed use. Isn't this the goal of mixed use?
For those of you who don't know "Mixed use" - the wikipedia definition - is a type of urban development that blends residential, commercial, cultural, institutional or entertainment uses into one space.
The common benefits of mixed use according to a working paper from the Lincoln institute of land policy by Qing Shen and Feiyang Sun are:
- Generate neighborhood diversity and vibrancy a la Jane Jacobs
- Encourage non-automobile communting
- Increase opportunity for physical activity (not just working out in the gym but people interacting with one another)
- Enhance accessibility (if you can't drive mixed use is more accessible by providing more density)
- Facilitating stronger neighborhood character (This is how communities get identity...oh this is the food neighborhood...this is the art hipster neighborhood...)
All that said when considering public investment for public space. Focus on one thing, the primary use of that space. When we're talking about PRIVATE investment, buil a place for businesses and people to live, mix those uses together to facilitate activity, life, is happening.
And with that, on to this weeks patterns
An article in the Wall St. Journal: 10 big ideas to improve life in small to midsized cities. What I like about this article isn't the ideas themselves but examples they include. My favorite:
- Tiny homes as homeless shelters
Quoting the article from Conrad Putzier:
"Many city governments agree that building more housing is the solution to homelessness. But apartment buildings are expensive, usually take years to complete, and are often outlawed by zoning codes that prohibit tall buildings. Some cities are looking to build tiny homes to quickly get homeless people off the streets and into permanent housing. Salt Lake City plans to build a tiny-home village for residents who are chronically homeless, encouraging people who would otherwise balk at shelters or apartments to move indoors. The pilot would start off with 40 homes, and potentially grow to 300 to 500 homes. The city has yet to settle on a site or a tiny-home design or determine the cost. The project follows a similar initiative in Austin, Texas, that has already been home to more than 220 people."
SB9 Passed in California which essentially relaxed zoning requirements to allow more units per legal lot.
People in favor of bill argue that by allowing the additional density, it will increase supply of housing thus making housing affordable.
I also share a link of an opinion opposed by MARCEL RODARTE. Who argues that the influx of housing units will put strain on basic infrastructure and limit the cities ability to deliver what citizens expect - parking, delivery of clean water, and removal of unsanitary water.
Last up, some data about apartment construction in the United States. An article in RentCafe's blog by Florenta Sarac, noting that apartment construction in the United States tops 330k for 5th straight year. To quote the article,
"Compared to 2020, there’s only a slight 2.5% decrease in new units, with apartment construction maintaining a steady pace under the circumstances, which include: the pandemic, developers’ struggles to find qualified workers, funding, permits or the sky-high cost of lumber."
The article reports that the Dallas Fort Worth area produced the most apartment units, New York took 2nd, phoenix 3rd, Houston 4th. The sun belt strikes again!
To summarize this weeks patterns:
- There is a difference between building public spaces and private mixed use development.
- Cities should consider using tiny homes to help provide temporary shelter to their no fixed address communities
- Relax zoning requirements, and reduce parking minimums to help increase housing supply and create more affordable housing
- Apartment construction in the United States continues to remain strong, specifically in the sunbelt despite the challenges of the pandemic, labor market, and material costs.
