State and local governments across the country are trying to alleviate their housing crises by allowing denser development in areas dominated by single-family homes.
The nation's affordable housing crisis has significantly worsened over the last few years, but allowing builders to build more housing has sparked a backlash among some homeowners."There certainly is a widespread fear of housing becoming increasingly unaffordable to a large share of the population, and the remedy that is being discussed nationwide [is] changing zoning rules," said Yonah Freemark, a researcher at the Urban Institute.
Low-density neighborhoods are often zoned so that only single-family homes can be built there. Advocates are pushing local governments to loosen those rules and allow multiple types of housing. Changing zoning laws is an especially attractive option because it can increase supply at no cost to the government, Freemark said.
As the housing crisis has spread beyond the nation's most expensive coastal cities, “even these more conservative states see housing costs as a major concern and something they want to intervene to do something about," he said.Arlington, Va., has been mired in a fierce debate over proposals to allow more "missing middle" housing — buildings like duplexes, that aren't single-family homes or large apartment complexes.
The county board recently decided to allow more of that construction, despite loud opposition from some homeowners..Washington's state House has passed a bill that would require cities to allow denser housing on lots that are currently designated for single-family use,
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