Howard Blackson

Liam Dillon: SB9 didn't "end" single-family zoning. Those R1 zones still exist. You're just able to add units to your single family parcel if and whenever resources align with that choice. I think that distinction matters to your readers. SB9 is a slow, marginal tool that is highly ineffectual due to hundreds of other zoning constraints (hence why it hasn't seen high utilization). Mike Webb: Increased supply is the goal, even if just incrementally over time. More housing available helps address affordability and provides more options (over time). Older neighborhoods like Angeleno Heights serve as real-world, positive examples of what SB9 could facilitate if allowed to be implemented (over time). None of this is magic. It takes hard work, determination, and passion to build housing and neighborhoods. Lawsuits just create expensive friction that diverts resources away from the end goal = healthy, beautiful, and complete communities. === Law that ended single-family zoning is struck down for five Southern California cities https://lnkd.in/gkJQWhwm

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Discover how removing parking requirements can lead to more walkable, vibrant communities. Hear from top advocates on parking reform and how their advocacy is reclaiming space for parks, gardens, and walkable streets in our webinar June 5. RSVP today: https://buff.ly/3JQ2vkO #parkingreform #affordablehousing #walkability

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Cities should be built for people, not cars. Parking requirements create a vicious cycle that makes it difficult to build walkable, people-centric housing. Culdesac aims to be a model for walkable development in the U.S. and help create meaningful parking reform.

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Building housing near transportation networks can improve density and walkability, but can also have serious health consequences for residents. https://lnkd.in/gq4psyQG

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Think you can balance the City’s budget? Now’s your chance! 📊 With our Balancing Act simulation tool, you can adjust the budgets for both the Operating and Capital Improvement funds to align city resources with what matters most to you. The challenge? Just like the City Council, you'll need to balance revenues and expenses before finalizing your budget! ➡️ Give it a try and share your thoughts: https://lnkd.in/gXQFegtf City Council and City staff appreciate your feedback to help ensure investments and services are in line with your priorities. #CityBudget #BudgetSimulationTool #CommunityFeedback

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How should Littleton's housing and land use codes evolve? City planners want feedback on ideas to ease limitations on "missing middle" housing types. Weigh in on proposed changes to the Unified Land Use Code (ULUC) with the Neighborhood Housing Opportunities survey: https://ow.ly/pK8K50T1vMf

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What are some of the social, economic and environmental costs of not having enough housing? Fortune magazine’s brief spotlights some of the complex layers preventing the development of new housing supply. But above all, there needs to be more collaboration and fewer barriers to incentivize builders to generate the housing that communities need and there needs to be less pushback from existing homeowners (NIMBYs) to accept new housing development in their neighborhoods. What may prove ultimately helpful is an ROI study that compares the social and economic costs of not having enough housing with the costs of investing in the necessary infrastructure and development to ensure there is enough housing and resources to foster sustainable economic growth. There’s a paywall to the brief Fortune article, but Yahoo Finance republished it for free. Access it by following the link. https://lnkd.in/gtYMGVPv . . . #housing #housingshortage #housingcrisis #housingforbellingham

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The housing crisis within the housing crisis. From my back deck in the Oakland Hills, I can see downtown Oakland. My view includes some 10,000 or so apartments that have been built in mid and high rise formats in the last ten years. A remarkable achievement and in total Oakland has built 16,000 and-some-change of the 17,000 units it obliged itself to build in the last Regional Housing Needs Assessment. The vast majority of these units are ‘For-Rent’ and Oakland has spent a decade+ welcoming young knowledge workers (tech, healthcare, gov't, NGO's etc) into its uptown and downtown neighborhoods. A fantastic trajectory of building a thriving and mixed-use city core that came to a screeching halt when covid hit. But things could be much worse if we didn’t have all those downtown residents. What I have always wondered though when I look across this skyline is what happens when younger knowledge workers become older knowledge workers? What used to happen was people where I live in the hills would, well, die. Or retire and move into assisted care, or to a more genteel retirement-oriented community. And then there would be a natural pipeline of housing stock, adjacent transit and employment districts, starting its next life, with a younger household. But for many reasons, including all of us living much longer and being much healthier as we age, but also various economics + such an incredible influx of nextgen, that pipeline is disrupted and disproportionate. I was looking through some data (linked below) from the NAHB on the size of the housing shortage in the US and I was struck by the extent of the housing shortage in ‘For Sale’ units. The five (core) counties in the SF Bay Area aren’t adding anymore land (similar to many US first ring suburbs). So the answer is adding density, which includes going vertical, and building condos..and even in communities welcoming that density, here is the crux of the housing crisis within the housing crisis. California has a 10-year ‘Right to Repair’  warranty on condo construction that is actually written into state law (to be fair Texas has a similar law at 6-years). In theory the law only applies to structural defects, but it’s been generously interpreted over time and has become a de-facto warranty on envelope integrity and waterproofing- which is a very, very different thing to try and de-risk over a ten year period. We’ve developed a cottage industry of lawyers who keep track of condo age and call up HOA’s at 9.5 years. So investment capital finds easier deals than carrying ten-years of unknown risk. And very few people in the residential business, from investors, developers, architects, contractors to insurance companies want to anchor themselves to condo construction.  So we don’t get new condos, and that pipeline of household formation and homeownership milestones gets clogged up, and people get pushed further and further out. The crisis within the crisis.

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Envisioning the future of cities and towns, from the perspective of the residents, is an important part of the long-range planning process. Nora Bland, AICP, an urban planner with Cushing Terrell, explains some of the tactics used to engage with as many people from a community as possible to craft a strong, publicly supported plan that facilitates smart growth for now and for the future. #planning #longrangeplanning #smartgrowth #smartdevelopment #communityfeedback #communityengagement #publicinput

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The 2024 Dangerous by Design report is out and represents more bad news. Despite the Vision Zero efforts by many cities, "in 2022, the most recent year with complete federal data, the number of people who were struck and killed while walking grew to 7,522, marking a 40-year high. This represents an astonishing 75 percent increase in these deaths since 2010." This is a list that you do not want to be on. :( We have a lot of work to do to stop it from growing and ultimately to reverse the trend. https://lnkd.in/gVg94UxU

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Report: 95% of California Residential Land Zoned for Single-Family A new report from the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley analyzes the state of single-family zoning in California, covering racial and demographic impacts, economic characteristics, statistical relationships, and zoning reform. Their findings show that 95.80% of California's residential land and 30% of all land is single-family-only zoning. Further, excluding unincorporated areas, 82% of residential land is zoned as single-family-only, averaging 77.82% across 519 jurisdictions with a median of 83.93%. They also found a direct correlation between increased single-family zoning restrictions and the percentage of white residents as well as with median household income and the percentage of single-family-only zoning by jurisdiction. To conclude, the report presents a list of target cities for zoning reform using categories such as proximity to central business districts and poor performance in meeting RHNA targets for affordable housing. https://lnkd.in/g5rhgSFw

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Take an in-depth look at the role of federal, state, and local governments in historic preservation. Topics include regulations, funding, and tax relief. https://lnkd.in/gav3uAPi

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How to move from building awareness to changing the default of the North American built environment: - Refuse to accept bad as the default. - Cultivate leaders on the inside of city planning departments, local government, etc. - Help expand the movement by sharing the Strong Towns message and resources.

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City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposes lifting parking mandates for new housing to reduce costs and boost production, while preserving parking options where needed. This supports denser, walkable communities and aligns with other initiatives like Town Center Zoning and Transit-Oriented Development, reducing land use for parking and enhancing urban development. #cityofyes #developmentsites #developmentsiteadvisors #nyc #weknowzoning

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🏡 With shifts in policy and funding, many public housing authorities (PHAs) are repositioning their public housing stock to ensure more stable funding for affordable housing. Repositioning involves converting public housing to a new funding platform, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development offers several strategies to assist PHAs in preserving affordable housing: 🔹 Section 32 Homeownership: PHAs can convert public housing units to homeownership through Section 32, making them available to low-income families. Under this option, PHAs can receive Tenant Protection Vouchers (TPVs) for units occupied by assisted families in the previous 24 months. This strategy is beneficial for PHAs with scattered site developments. 🏠 🔹 Streamlined Voluntary Conversion: PHAs aiming to convert to tenant-based assistance can use Streamlined Voluntary Conversion when they are down to their last 250 public housing units or dispose of properties through Section 18 if eligibility criteria are met. 🔄 🔹 Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD): For PHAs looking to maintain physical units as long-term affordable housing, converting public housing to a Section 8 funding stream through the RAD program or Section 18 is the most common action. This approach helps ensure the sustainability of affordable units. 🏢 👉 Ready to learn more about public housing and repositioning strategies? Check out PAHRC's 2022 report, "Beyond Public Housing: How Public Housing Authorities Are Transforming the Way They Preserve and Expand Their Housing Stock:" https://lnkd.in/e-HChmzG #PAHRC #PublicHousing #AffordableHousing #HousingRepositioning #RAD #Section32 #HUD #CommunityDevelopment 🏘️📈

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🏡 With shifts in policy and funding, many public housing authorities (PHAs) are repositioning their public housing stock to ensure more stable funding for affordable housing. Repositioning involves converting public housing to a new funding platform, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development offers several strategies to assist PHAs in preserving affordable housing: 🔹 Section 32 Homeownership: PHAs can convert public housing units to homeownership through Section 32, making them available to low-income families. Under this option, PHAs can receive Tenant Protection Vouchers (TPVs) for units occupied by assisted families in the previous 24 months. This strategy is beneficial for PHAs with scattered site developments. 🏠 🔹 Streamlined Voluntary Conversion: PHAs aiming to convert to tenant-based assistance can use Streamlined Voluntary Conversion when they are down to their last 250 public housing units or dispose of properties through Section 18 if eligibility criteria are met. 🔄 🔹 Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD): For PHAs looking to maintain physical units as long-term affordable housing, converting public housing to a Section 8 funding stream through the RAD program or Section 18 is the most common action. This approach helps ensure the sustainability of affordable units. 🏢 👉 Ready to learn more about public housing and repositioning strategies? Check out PAHRC's 2022 report, "Beyond Public Housing: How Public Housing Authorities Are Transforming the Way They Preserve and Expand Their Housing Stock:" https://lnkd.in/e-HChmzG #PAHRC #PublicHousing #AffordableHousing #HousingRepositioning #RAD #Section32 #HUD #CommunityDevelopment 🏘️📈

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