Certain standards in nearly every city’s land use development code have become conventional wisdom for planners. Few question them. These standards grew out of the last eighty years of what Strong Towns calls the suburban experiment.
I often refer to development shaped by these rules as conventional suburban development (CSD). Cities derive CSD standards from perceived consumer demand. That demand follows builder supply. Builder supply, in turn, follows city requirements.
Notice the loop? The cycle starts and ends with what the city requires. That also means the city can change it – that is if their political will can stand up to the NIMBY-ism that will ensue.
Most planning departments include goals for affordable and attainable housing in their comprehensive plans. Yet nearly every city—especially in Colorado—faces a housing affordability crisis. Cities simply do not build enough homes for residents earning at or below the Area Median Income (AMI).
Affordable homes that do get built often fight uphill battles. Developers face layers of regulation in attempts to make them affordable. For starters, they face neighborhood opposition once existing areas feel “complete.” They face financing challenges from lenders unwilling to underwrite projects that fall outside decades of familiar models.
As a result, most new developments serving households below AMI require public subsidy and Government support. In Colorado, the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) leads this effort and is the primary resource for assisting in Affordable Housing.
CSD homes reflect auto-oriented planning standards. These rules have guided builders for nearly eighty years. They prioritize the automobile above all else.
As discussed in the prior post, The Missing Middle, we are working to better encourage and integrate missing middle housing into the city. For most of the last century, cities planned for large homes on large lots. Two- and three-car garages became the norm. Vehicle storage often consumes nearly half of a home’s footprint, at approximately 400 square feet of the footprint for a modest, two-car garage.
Most city codes require two off-street parking spaces per unit – with a two-car garage being the default. The garage has, by default, become a prerequisite to homeownership. Homeowners pay for the privilege of having at least two cars, whether they have, or can afford, two cars or not. The cost of a bare-bones, two-car garage as a part of a new home starts around $25,000.00.
Recently, I read an article called The Myth of the Golden Years of Housing that compared single-family home amenities of today versus 1956 – seventy years ago. In this article, it showed that only half of the new single-family homes in 1956 included a garage. Comparing this to today, where 96% of the new homes include this luxury. Below are a few more interesting comparisons from seventy years ago from the article.
I was honestly surprised that the number wasn’t closer to 99%. After all, cities often require two parking spaces for homes and the homebuyer is paying for it regardless of their desire or need. It takes a variance, relief, or special zoning in most cases to not include this parking.
Parking is just one of the rules that make it difficult to design affordable homes. We will explore more in future posts, including setbacks and lot coverage. The rules, or standards, set by cities push out the teachers, police officers, and essential workers who keep cities functioning.