The southern city’s growth is prompting questions about how to increase the housing supply, maintain affordability, and accommodate new residents.

The debate between those who want to preserve single-family zoning and housing advocates who say increases in density are necessary to make housing affordable is heating up in cities and non-urban areas around the country as the housing crisis spreads. As Sean Keenan reports in Atlanta Civic Circle, Atlanta is no different.
In metropolitan Atlanta, “NIMBY” groups concerned about ‘neighborhood character’ and the negative impacts of density increases are finding themselves in conflict with growth advocates who say increasing density is the only way to keep housing affordable for all income levels.
According to Abundant Housing Atlanta co-founder Alison Grady, “Atlanta is becoming more and more unaffordable, in large part due to the outdated zoning code that encourages suburban sprawl and huge homes on huge properties and discourages—or outright bans—more affordable options, such as tiny homes, duplexes, and small apartment and condo buildings.” Now, cities in the Atlanta metro are rewriting decades-old zoning codes to accommodate more growth and create more affordable housing for a growing population. “If Atlanta, Clarkston, and other metro-area cities truly want to make intown living attainable for lower-income residents—and ‘mitigate some of the negative social and environmental impacts of urban sprawl’—upzoning should be part of the equation,” says Sonia Hirt, a planning scholar from the University of Georgia. Atlanta itself is undergoing a revision of its zoning code, scheduled for completion in summer 2024, while other local cities are loosening regulations on ADUs and other ‘missing middle housing.’
FULL STORY: As metro Atlanta cities rewrite zoning laws, will they follow national trend of embracing density?

Rethinking Redlining
For decades we have blamed 100-year-old maps for the patterns of spatial racial inequity that persist in American cities today. An esteemed researcher says: we’ve got it all wrong.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself
The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.

Why a Failed ‘Smart City’ Is Still Relevant
A Google-backed proposal to turn an underused section of Toronto waterfront into a tech hub holds relevant lessons about privacy and data.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing
Kit homes sold in catalogs like Sears and Montgomery Ward made homeownership affordable for midcentury Americans.

Starting in 2026, You Can Charge Your EV at Waffle House
The 24-hour chain infamous for brawls and, to a lesser extent, waffles plans to install fast-chargers at many of its locations.
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