Housing Studies Show Less Touted Reforms Effective SCOTT MOONEYHAM Director of Political Communications and Coordination THE PUSH FOR BLANKET MANDATES TO DO AWAY WITH SINGLE FAMILY-ONLY ZONING ARE NOT PRODUCING THE RESULTS THAT SUPPORTERS SOUGHT. INSTEAD, A NEW STUDY SUGGESTS LESSER TOUTED REFORMS MAY IMPROVE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY. As states across the country have looked at zoning mandates to answer the problem of housing affordability, a new study examining one of the first jurisdictions in the country to do away with single family-only zoning has led to some surprising results. In December 2018, the Minneapolis City Council adopted a plan with a number of reforms designed to improve housing affordability. The reform that received the most attention was one allowing duplexes and triplexes to be built on any property zoned for single-family residential construction. Five years later, a Pew Charitable Trust study looking at the effects of the reforms finds that, indeed, Minneapolis is seeing housing production rise and rent increases slow, with rents rising less than inflation. But it is the less touted housing reforms that are producing results, not the elimination of single family-only zoning. The study shows that eliminating parking minimums, which prior to the adoption of the reform package had required one parking spot per housing unit, is providing the biggest increase in new housing units. Another reform shown to boost housing supply allows for larger, denser apartment buildings in areas where they previously were not permitted, including commercial areas and near public transit spots. Meanwhile, from January 2020 through March 2022, Minneapolis approved just 62 duplexes and 17 triplexes, with about half being built on lots that were once barred by single family-only zoning rules. Those units represented a fraction of the 9,000 housing units that the city permitted during the same period, with 87% being rental apartments. While advocates for zoning reform, including those at Pew, have been slow to embrace the findings, the results pretty clearly speak to the fact that a blunt instrument like a wide-ranging zoning mandate is far less effective than more targeted, wellconsidered reforms that can have real effects in how housing is constructed and financed. SOUTHERN CITY Quarter 1 2024 34
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