Recent laws making it easier and less costly to build smaller residential buildings are having their intended effect.
Data from the city of Spokane reveals that missing middle housing including duplexes, townhomes, accessory dwelling units and other small multifamily buildings made up 20% of permitted housing units in 2025, signaling strong growth in the sector.
As Karina Elias explains in the Spokane Journal of Business, middle housing accounted for just 3% to 4% of permits between 2020 and 2022. "The uptick in middle housing projects follows the passage of a set of zone changes previously dubbed the Building Opportunity and Choices for All. BOCA was an interim ordinance allowing up to four units to be developed on a single-family lot approved by the Spokane City Council in July 2022." The ordinance, now known as Building Opportunity for Housing, was made permanent in November 2023.
FULL STORY: Missing middle housing gains traction in Spokane
Greenville, SC pushes for missing middle housing
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Delaware Governor Could Force Cities to Upzone
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New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
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EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
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Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
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FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
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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