Pre-Permitted Housing Plans Can Combat Blight, Revive Neighborhoods

By 2015, a state land bank program intended to fight blight had accumulated 267 derelict properties in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The problem? The cost of building a house eclipsed what its market value would be when finished. Without the financial incentive to build or improve homes in these neighborhoods, these areas just declined further, reports Ben Abramson of Strong Towns.

A coalition of city, county, and state agencies, along with housing developers, advocates, and nonprofits banded together to identify solutions to help them fill those vacant lots. The first fix: resolve the zoning issues that had rendered 67 percent of land bank acquisitions unbuildable and created financing hurdles for homeowners. The second solution: streamline the permitting process by creating a “pattern book” of pre-permitted housing plans and adding all required permits and inspections to the process, which effectively minimize costly variables and surprises.

After doing a proof of concept with a local nonprofit and ironing out some kinks, as of 2024, 48 homes have been built using Kalamazoo’s pre-permitted plans,” according to the Strong Towns article, including a stacked duplex, a four-bedroom standard house, a narrow house that can fit on a lot as small as 30 feet wide, and an ADU.

“Overall, KNHS says that in 2022, it helped 106 local residents buy or substantially improve their homes. It is also working to train local residents in the building trades to work on future projects,” Abramson writes. “Now the plans have been made available to small for-profit developers. In those cases they must prepay for all permits and inspections, but having access to proven, high-quality designs substantially lowers their upfront costs.”