Missing Middle Housing
The city of Ottawa, Canada has produced another goofy animated video. This one explains its efforts to encourage more Missing Middle multi-unit urban housing.
City of Ottawa via Youtube
House Bill 2001 didn't ban single-family houses altogether, just single-family zoning, so change will take time, and money. There are a lot of unknowns for residents to grapple with when it comes to statewide upzoning.
The Oregonian
Factors beyond political chance played into Oregon's recent decision to legalize missing middle housing. One key point: the state was already halfway there.
City Observatory
A bill that seemed like it could be a casualty of a bitter partisan feud managed to squeak under the wire. With Governor Kate Brown's signature, single-family zoning will be prohibited throughout the state of Oregon.
The Oregonian
A thought experiment compares the carbon impact of three new single family homes with the same block if it contained a duplex, a triplex, and a fourplex.
Sightline Institute
The city of Berkeley, famed for its radical left politics in the 1960s, is now considered a bastion of anti-development obstructionism. Those politics could be changing, however.
The Bay City Beacon
Local planners and elected officials are expressing their opinions about Oregon's House Bill 2001, which would allow fourplexes on single-family residential units around the state.
The Oregonian
They're a good start. But compared to similar policies in cities like Portland and Vancouver, Seattle's new policies around accessory dwelling units may be lackluster.
The Urbanist
Affordable housing developers are increasingly asked to build middle-income units, but can't afford to do so.
Mercury News
The Washington Post examines "missing middle" housing as a solution for retaining millennials in cities and interior suburbs. There is still some question, however, about whether millennials are actually leaving urban areas.
The Washington Post
The city of Portland's new residential infill ordinance would reduce the number of 1:1 demolitions—which often convert older, affordable homes into expensive McMansions.
Portland for Everyone
The "missing middle" of housing is a concept familiar to many planners, but it's still probably unknown to most of the public. A story for Austin's NPR station could be an indication that the missing middle is entering the public consciousness.
KUT
Karen Parolek discusses the 'Missing Middle' that is too often overlooked in discussions about affordable housing.
Modern Cities
The Austin Chamber of Commerce is connecting the dots between land use and transportation—and voicing its support for reform of the city's land use regulations.
Austin Business Journal
Blog post
Community resistance may explain why smaller apartment buildings are hard to build.
A new crop of developers are delivering fine-grained urbanism. Ben Brown checks into their boot camp and provides an update on the movement.
PlaceShakers
The Wall Street Journal examines one of the causes of the missing middle of the housing market—luxury multi-family developments pencil out while the supply of mid- and market-rate housing options dwindles.
The Wall Street Journal
Opticos Design, Inc., the Berkeley-based urban planning and architecture firm has launched a new website dedicated to the missing middle of the housing market.
Logos Opticos: Composing Vibrant Urban Places
In contrast to much of the United States, where home sizes are growing again following the recession, developers in Southern California are increasingly building attached homes - reversing the region's history of single-family sprawl.
The Wall Street Journal
Miami’s housing stock can be characterized generally to encompass single family homes and condos. Between these two options, however, other choices are lacking.
Global Site Plans - The Grid
