Zak Yudhishthu

Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 17:37 UTC

New on the @metroabundance.bsky.social blog, a fascinating post by @zyudhishthu.bsky.social looking at where upzoning got big results in Minneapolis and where it didn't.

Some important lessons here for other cities looking to add more housing. www.metroabundance.org/minneapoliss...

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 18:23 UTC

Call it a natural experiment: the lowest-density zones still have fairly restrictive zoning, and they didn't get much new housing. But go a block over to a corridor zone, and you're seeing some real significant new housing development. When it comes to upzoning, details matter!

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 18:23 UTC

Much of this comes down to important variation across the different zones. In the "corridor" districts of Minneapolis' built form rules, they are more flexible with floor-area ratio, giving you the juice to actually get housing at scale.

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 18:23 UTC

Other newly-enabled units are denser, but I would say still reasonably sized. And providing quite a bit of new homes to Minnesotans! Again, these are all quantifiable impacts of the 2040 Plan that you'd miss by zeroing in on duplexes/triplexes, as much of the discourse has.

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 18:22 UTC

A lot of those buildings are still very nice and moderately scaled! "Missing middle housing" by any reasonable use of the term. Here's a 10-unit townhome in NE, and a 6-unit public housing project, both enabled by 2040 Plan upzonings.

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 18:22 UTC

A focus on 2-3plexes misses much of the 2040 Plan. Many neighborhoods that used to allow only detached single homes or duplexes upzoned more ambitiously, esp. along arterial streets.

That's resulted in ~1k new housing units, made legal via upzoning.
www.metroabundance.org/minneapoliss...

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 18:21 UTC

What really happened when Minneapolis upzoned its neighborhoods in the 2040 Plan? We didn't get a lot of duplexes/triplexes, but rezonings enabled more housing than you might think in low-density neighborhoods.

My new article at @metroabundance.bsky.social
www.metroabundance.org/minneapoliss...

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 02:22 UTC

But don't get lost in the econ studies (zzz). Remember that there are real people, getting excluded from communities that try to reject affordable housing thru land use reforms – whether that's affordable rentals or ownership. Everyone has a shared responsibility here.

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 02:22 UTC

Take an honest look at studies of land use reforms — Houston's lot size reduction, Auckland's broad upzoning, Mpls's parking minimum elimination in Minneapolis. In MN, these changes have all been enacted locally and proposed statewide.

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Zak Yudhishthu @zyudhishthu.bsky.social [ View ] Jun 18, 2024 at 02:21 UTC

Today in the Strib, you can read my time-honored message: zoning changes, both local and statewide, really can help address our housing problems.
m.startribune.com/counterpoint...

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