Commentary: When Neighborhood Change is Inevitable

Writing in Strong Towns, Emma Durand-Wood makes the argument that changes in neighborhood scale aren’t always the tragedy that some community activists say they are.

Durand-Wood points to her childhood neighborhood as an example, where houses slowly began growing in size until the larger size became the norm. Now, more property owners and developers are building larger houses designed for multigenerational living, co-living, or renting out extra spaces to tenants.

For Durand-Wood, the change is a response to shifting needs. “In Canada, multigenerational households have increased in number by 50% since 2001. In the United States, the share of the U.S. population in multigenerational homes has more than doubled, from 7% in 1971 to 18% in 2021.”

Durand-Wood calls on planners and local governments to encourage the construction of multigenerational housing as well as multifamily buildings in new and existing neighborhoods, writing, “Neighborhoods must be permitted to evolve and change” to meet the changing needs of an aging population.