Rapidly rising housing costs are pushing out the residents at the heart of local economies in resort towns across the country.
Major employers in Western towns are turning to modular housing units to provide affordable housing for workers increasingly squeezed out of the local housing market, reports Hanna Merzbach for Marketplace.
In Jackson, Wyoming, the state’s Game and Fish department is subsidizing housing for some of its employees. “Prebuilt homes bypass the challenge of trying to find local construction workers, and modulars can cost less. Wyoming Game and Fish saved more than $5 million on seven buildings, according to the architect, Greg Mason.” In Kemmerer, Wyoming, employment at a new nuclear plant is prompting the town to bring in 90 modular units, which offer more cost savings at scale than individually.
Modular housing has become a hot topic for housing advocates who want to see the typology, which is often excluded by zoning codes and limited from accessing loans, legalized and regulated more broadly.
FULL STORY: In pricey Western towns, employers truck in workers’ homes from factories
Oakland opens first affordable housing for teachers
The school district says 70% of its teachers can't afford to live in Oakland.
Santa Monica Modular Project Offers Hope for Affordable Housing in Pricy California Cities
The Berkeley Station development used modular construction to build the project on a nine-month timeline.
Report: Dallas Has Just 6 Affordable Homes for Every 10 Middle-income Households
The city’s affordable housing stock is rapidly disappearing.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association