How Zoning Helps Create Housing Affordability
As we continue to explore the power of zoning, let’s look at two primary ways that zoning can help make housing more affordable: by increasing density with compact development and by creating and protecting affordability with zoning codes.
Compact development is building multi-family or single-family homes at higher densities to maximize the available land use. High-density zoning districts allow for more dwellings, such as apartment complexes and multi-family townhomes, to be built. High-density zones can also be zoned for mixed-use, which allows commercial buildings alongside residential ones. For instance, along Railroad Street in Andover, Whole Foods, Andover Commons, Teatone, Mootone and The Andover Condominiums are all in a mixed-use district.
Compact development contributes to housing affordability in multiple ways. In mixed-use neighborhoods, folks can walk from their home to grocery shopping or to public transit, reducing transportation costs and lowering the overall cost of living. In addition, if there are more homes available in a neighborhood, that raises the home supply and can help reduce costs. Special zoning districts and zoning overlays can be used to achieve compact development.
However, when developers pursue high-density building, the cost savings do not always get transferred to the homeowners, especially when the housing supply is tight, or cost of construction is high. So there is an additional tool called inclusionary zoning that can be effective. Inclusionary zoning programs allow for increased density in exchange for a specific number of units being price restricted to be affordable. Inclusionary zoning creates both affordable housing and market-rate housing allowing the new development to benefit people of different income levels. For example, Coachman’s Ridge Condominiums has 80 units of which 20 are priced to be affordable for households at 80% of the area median income (AMI). Coachman’s Ridge would not have been able to be built without the affordable units because the area is in a residentially zoned district that does not allow this type of density. The developers of Coachman’s used inclusionary zoning to build a high density development that includes a specified number of affordable housing units. So as a result, people with differing incomes can reside in one development and there is now market-rate housing that otherwise wouldn’t exist. With inclusionary zoning, market-rate and affordable housing are developed together. It’s a win-win.
Inclusionary zoning policies are often implemented with transit-oriented projects to build a higher density of homes and non-residential spaces around new and existing transit stops. This helps prevent displacement caused by increasing property values prompted by new developments and lets the whole neighborhood enjoy the benefit of a diverse range of households.
Zoning is a powerful tool as it:
Defines allowable uses for residential, commercial, and industrial areas.
Plays a role in how cities, regions, and neighborhoods develop.
Can effectively encourage economic growth and provide affordable housing for people who would otherwise be displaced or not have access to a community.
