Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
housing affordability
The extra costs of automobile dependency turn assumptions about affordability on their head, according to a recently published report by the Citizens Budget Commission.
Texas Monthly
Housing deregulation for the sake of housing affordability made progress in both Democratic- and Republican-led states last year.
City Journal
Blog post
Some urbanism commentators suggest that gentrification is the result of a "rent gap" between actual and potential rent. How should this theory affect zoning policy?
In Washington, D.C., Airbnb has led to an increase in home prices, and the impact is more significant in neighborhoods with a higher density of short-term rental units.
Urban Turf
The ranks of states considering or taking steps to override local control to allow new density in the residential neighborhoods of cities has swelled once again, this time with a state senator in Nebraska pitching statewide legislation.
1011 Now
State and local lawmakers hope that recent reforms to the Washington State Environmental Policy Act are only an initial step toward ending the law's use as a tool for delaying affordable housing plans.
Crosscut
The ambitious "Homes for All" plan would include upzoning as only one tool for addressing the acute housing affordability crisis in the state of Maryland.
CityLab
The Commonwealth of Virginia will consider a bill that would legalize duplexes in single-family zones throughout the state.
CityLab
Almost 90% of Arlington County land zones for residential use is reserved for single-family homes. Would adding missing middle housing in the form of duplexes and triplexes keep the price of housing in a more manageable range?
WAMU
The Height Act is up for debate again in Washington, D.C., amidst an emotional debate about housing affordability.
WAMU
An ambitious plan to build 40,000 new affordable housing units in the next ten years will require the support of local politicians as well as elected officials at the provincial and federal levels.
The Star
Rents have grown as much as 28 percent in the last year over the past year in the neighborhood of Midtown in Houston.
Houston Chronicle
Two New Jersey suburbs of New York City are taking an interesting approach to attracting New York City Millennials looking for refuge from the high cost of rent in the Big Apple.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek
There's a necessity for Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin's affordable housing ambition: average rents are rising faster than the national average in the North Carolina city.
The Raleigh News & Observer
New survey data shows more Californians are considering leaving the state in response to skyrocketing housing prices.
Public Policy Institute of California
Cities looking to follow Minneapolis's lead in overturning the status quo of exclusionary zoning should consider "gentle density," according to this article.
Brookings
The Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan has attracted so much attention for its changes to single-family zoning, the inclusionary zoning recommended by the plan has flown under the radar.
StarTribune
Blog post
To increase affordability communities should support moderate-priced housing development. This increases housing options for middle-income households, and for lower-income through filtering, as households move from low- to moderate-priced units.
The idea that new development results in rising costs for renters in the surrounding neighborhood drives a new effort in Los Angeles.
Curbed Los Angeles
Recent political interest in local land use regulations requires a thorough and nuanced understanding of the strengths and limitations of the methodologies available for measuring the effects of zoning.
Brookings
