Eliminating R-1 Is Not the Solution
Englewood is the 27th largest city in Colorado but is the 7th most densely populated city. Changing our zoning won’t solve the housing affordability crisis. It will force out people on the margins and increase gentrification.
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Colorado Faces One of the Highest Rates of Foreclosure or Eviction
Colorado has one of the highest numbers of people facing eviction. Analysts found that 40.1 percent of Colorado residents are at risk of foreclosure or eviction.
The study also found that people of color are having a harder time paying their mortgages. Asian, Black and Hispanic communities are two to three times more likely to be facing foreclosure or be behind on their mortgage payments than white communities. White communities, though, faced a similar struggle when it came to paying rent. More than 45 percent of both white and Black communities are worried they’ll be evicted in the next two months.
Blanket Upzoning—A Blunt Instrument—Won’t Solve the Affordable Housing Crisis
Does Upzoning Boost the Housing Supply and Lower Prices? Maybe Not.
Why betting solely on inclusionary zoning to create affordable housing in Maryland is a losing proposition
“With this practice, inclusionary zoning has become a useful replacement for those who want to create the appearance of supporting affordable housing while doing very little to address the greatest needs of the housing crisis, which are units for low-income families.”
Just Up-zoning the Suburbs Won’t Solve our Housing Problems
The biggest factor, one that’s often ignored in heated housing debates, is that real estate has become a global industry powered by trillions of dollars in investor cash. In The Vacancy Report (SAJE/ACCE/UCLA Law, 2020), researchers point out that in recent decades housing has rapidly become financialized. Private equity and corporate entities have come to dominate the housing market, and they’re only interested in getting the highest rate of return as quickly as possible.
Gutting local zoning codes won’t fix the housing crisis
“Open, public hearings before the planning board or governing body allow residents of the surrounding neighborhood to participate in the governmental decision-making process. It also allows them the right to lawful assembly and freedom of speech, all provided in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Public hearings also provide the right to procedural due process guaranteed by the Fifth and 14th Amendments.”
Eliminating Single-Family Zoning Isn’t the Reason Minneapolis Is a YIMBY Success Story
What’s responsible for the increased housing production then?
Wittenberg credits the city’s elimination of parking minimums—which had typically required one parking spot per housing unit—with facilitating increased construction of smaller apartment buildings.
The city has been chipping away at residential parking minimums since 2009. The Minneapolis 2040 plan eliminated them entirely. (The city has also adopted some rather un-free market parking policies, including parking maximums in some areas and bike parking minimums.)
Upzoning and Single-Family Housing Prices
But the price increases associated with the upzoning redounds most directly to relatively small properties and those in inexpensive neighborhoods. Planners should thus be sensitive to how this type of change can affect housing affordability and housing stock diversity.