
Upzoning! Brought to you by those developer-folks who once facilitated the American Suburban Dream! Now they want suburbanites to change their living spots, or at least nudge over a little (. . . maybe a lot).
In some homebuilder circles there were sighs of celebration when the waters broke in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A decision to upzone across the city changed strictly single-family residential neighbourhood bylaws to allow multiple family dwellings. A new suburban future was born!
Lucrative redevelopment in upzoned neighbourhoods could (just could, mind you) result in more affordable housing in those neighbourhoods, either by direct affordable construction or by “trickle-down” as tired old housing lost its value in the face of shiny new housing.
These are the sunny housing-crisis-ending predictions that accompany wholesale upzoning of city neighbourhoods that are currently filled with space-selfish American Dreamers in their single family sprawl.
So is there actually evidence of more affordable housing brought on by upzoning, if not as a result of ccommunity-wide measures, then at least on a neighbourhood by neighbourhood basis?
There is indeed! But it’s unfortunately not quite as sunny as the predictions suggest. Read more about a report on upzoning in New York City Neighbourhoods in Next City: Use Upzoning Sparingly, New Report Suggests