How U.S. Cities Can ‘Upzone’ Without Compromising Affordability
Shafkat Anowar/TNS
From Boise, Idaho, to Bentonville, Ark., serious housing affordability challenges are affecting more and more U.S. cities. The root cause is clear: Local land-use regulations and byzantine approval processes for new housing construction are constraining housing supply, leaving too few homes to go around at a decent price. The solution is to roll back rules that are standing in the way of more housing, as well as those preventing less expensive types of homes from being built.
At issue is the concept of upzoning, which means increasing the allowable size and density of buildings that can be built in a given place. Because upzoning increases a property owner’s rights to build on their land, it can also increase that land’s value. Imagine San Francisco policymakers upzoning a block of single-family houses and giving the owners the right to build skyscrapers, creating an option value worth far more than the existing houses.
Source: https://www.governing.com/urban/how-u-s-cities-can-upzone-without-compromising-affordability
