Parolek2020TheMissingMiddle

Missing Middle Is…

Between single family and high rise. Multiunit or cluster type compatible in scale with single family with urbanist metrics (walkability, price diversity). Usually 4-8 units in building or lot, up to 19.

Bottom Line

People want it. Really good for the country. Existed historically. But, because of regulation, lack of systemic support, and uncertainty, it is hard to make it profitable now a days. Currently a niche market. But some are able to do it successfully. Cities effectively regulate these types with form-based coding.

People and Places Doing Good Works has tremendous networking value.

Relates To

• Garcia2024MakingMMHousingPencil
• Parolek2020TheMissingMiddle#People and Places Doing Good Work|People and Places Doing Good Work

Notes

Quotes

“Even outside of the affordability and attainability conversation, the simple realities that 30 percent of all households across the country are single persons, that family sizes are decreasing, and that a large percentage of the population is aging and wanting to downsize are reasons enough to want to incentivize and remove the existing density-based barriers and disincentives for the delivery of small units.” - pg 95

Because of their simple forms, smaller size, higher yields, and type V construction, Missing Middle building types can help developers maximize affordability and returns without compromising quality. - pg 45

Scale and Form

Perceived density should be low. Use form and scale matters, not number of units, FAR (floor area ratio), lot coverage, or multifamily.

Fear of density. Have convos and get ahead of community or neighborhood opposition.

• Gather local examples (santa barbara story du/acre). Lots of image assets in Chapter 5 of book. Excellent zoning reference as well for each type.
• Use local terms (if positive.)
• Frame convo: Missing Middle Housing, good list, House-scale, Housing choice, Attainability: where will teachers, firefighters, police, your children live in your community?
• DO NOT use terms density, multifamily, and upzoning.

good list: Duplex(side by side, stacked), cottage court, pocket neighborhood, fourplex stacked (1br/2br, parking vars), townhomes, triplex stacked, multiplex medium aka mansion apartment, courtyard building, live work. note most buildings can be alley/front loaded variations. note, live work was done really well in past, really bad today.

bad list: dingbat, slotted townhomes

more building details a la zoning and standards

Two to two and a half stories maximum (Third story with careful consideration.)

House scale is 55-75 ft. maximum width along the street. Sometimes with wings that takes the total width up to 85 ft. along the street; 55-65 ft. maximum depth. Both the maximum width of the main body and the maximum width including the wings are important and thus crucial to regulate.

Maximum of one off-street parking space per unit, preferably not embedded in the building. Single-wide or narrow driveways if no alley is present.

Private open space is not needed and should not be required. Shared open space exists in the form of a rear yard, sometimes as a side a yard, or a courtyard.

Mix into block, put on “end grain”, or put in transition to high density. aka small individual lot infill, secondary corridors, transitions from higher-intensity corridors. Downtown transitions, new growth edge areas. lol, good luck in zoned “single family neighborhoods”

Money

Planning and zoning have setbacks, maximum densities, minimum lot sizes. This gap is often present even in recently updated zoning code.opportunity

Identifyopportunity by Review the Comprehensive Plans (City, County, or Both), Review the Small-Area Plans, Review Zoning. For how to specifically go about this, look at chapter 7.

Savvy developers use high end finishes and target walkability market and have no competition.

construction types: V verses I or III

Chapter 6 has a few general profit loss breakdowns.

Barriers

Larger buildings (125-150 units) provides easier-to-identify and often larger cost efficiencies than building four-, eight-, or even a sixteen-unit building or series of these buildings. Major reason larger builders and developers, who are looking for higher returns on their investments, are not building and why MM are mostly being built by smaller builders and developers.

re Manufacturing gains in construction Efficiencies can be found elsewhere, such as repeating unit plans and counting on-street parking toward parking requirements as shown in the Prairie Queen/Urban Waters case study.

Impact fees make multiple smaller units economically infeasible

Impact fees are charges paid by the developers of new developments to a municipality to provide new or expanded public facilities (such as roads, sewers, schools, fire and emergency response) required to serve that development. The big issue with impact fees, in terms of them providing a barrier for Missing Middle Housing, is that the fee charged for a unit is typically the same regardless of whether it is 5,000 sq. ft. or 500 sq. ft. Adjust impact fees based on unit size, SO smaller units pay less, and by context (infill versus greenfield).

The irony is that the unintended consequence of this type of pushback is that larger projects are incentivized because they are the only ones that have the funding and the tolerance to risk making it through entitlements. see @Jon Jon JPeg ig video about “bread” type housing and devleopment patterns - https://www.instagram.com/p/C4eHB-9Lx49/

Accessibility - added cost and complexity. 4+ has same codes as giant devs

A possible remedy would be the completion of a specific analysis of Missing Middle-scale buildings, three stories and nineteen units maximum, related to these building code requirements to determine if it would be possible for them to qualify for existing IRC requirements or similar, rather than more restrictive and costly IBC compliance. As far as the authors know, no such analysis is being considered. pg 107opportunity

Condo Issues

Condo projects require builders to more insurance because of 2000s era laws. Builders will get sued. Difficult to get financing to build and to buy (FHA). Condos require HOAs and HOA formation costs are the same at any scale.

Policy

RECOMMEND CHANGES TO PLANS, POLICIES, AND ZONING - see chapter 7 See case studies as well: oregon, twin cities, minneapolis, saint paul, michigan, atlanta georgia, nashville, chattanooga, california, include Grass Valley, Ventura, Livermore, Petaluma, Hercules, Benicia, and Paso Robles.

People and Places Doing Good Work

Here is the organized information in the bullet point format you requested:

• Alliance for Housing Solutions Housing-advocacy group in Arlington, Virginia. Organizing to get ahead of the housing conversation.
• biz_Opticos Design Hired by groups such as Holmes Homes and Isla Vista.
• Brown Design Studio Involved in the East Beach project in Norfolk, Virginia.
• AARP Champions Missing Middle Housing through its Livable Communities initiative.
• Places doing positive zoning work: Medford, Oregon; State of Oregon; Novato, California; Flagstaff, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; City of Minneapolis; Cincinnati, Ohio; Miami, Florida; Beaufort County, South Carolina; Kauai County, Hawaii; Paso Robles, California; San Francisco; Kansas City; Davis, California
• Building a Better Bend Bend, Oregon nonprofit organizing ahead of the housing conversation.
• @Real Estate Groups Realtors and development-industry stakeholders in Greenville, South Carolina, and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, have raised money and hosted events for Missing Middle Housing education.
• @Jim Heid - Small Scale Development Forum created to gather smaller, creative developers to discuss project experiences and lessons learned.
• biz_Incremental Development Alliance Nonprofit training non-developers on how to develop Missing Middle Housing.
• @Dan Bertolet Condos expert at Sightline Institute.
• @CASA Formed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) for condos.
• @Cresolus Architects Architects specializing in tropical regions.
• @Garlynn Woodsong Urban planner turned builder and broker in Oregon; based at 6817 NE Seventh Avenue, Portland, Oregon.
• @David Spence Community-development specialist who founded Good Space after falling in love with the area while working for a CDC.
• @Eli Spevak and @Zach Parrish Small-scale local builders in Portland, Oregon; developers of Cully Grove.
• @Union Studio Architecture @Union Studio Architecture & Community Design Community Design Based in Rhode Island.
• @Jerry Reimer Involved with Urban Village in Omaha, Nebraska, partnered with Scott Semrad.
• @Richmond Livable Corridors Project in Richmond, California.
• @Culdesac Notable urban development project.
• @Jim Tischler Works with Michigan State’s Land Bank Authority.
• @Donlyn Lyndon Faculty member at UC Berkeley and mentor to Parolek, former partner with Charles Moore.
• @Charles Moore Codesigner of Sea Ranch and author of The Place of Houses.
• @Allan Jacobs Author of San Francisco’s first urban design plan in 1971, wrote Great Streets and The Boulevard Book.
• @Michael Southworth A Kevin Lynch protege from MIT, author of Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities.
• @Daniel Solomon Cofounder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, author of Building, Global City Blues, and Cosmopolis.
• @Peter Bosselmann Established urban-simulation labs in Berkeley, Milan, New York City, and Tokyo; author of Urban Transformation.
• @The Perception of Density Report questioning the validity of using density as a zoning metric and exploring how forms affect perceptions of density.
• @Bryan Suchy Coauthor of The Perception of Density.
• @Marshall Foster Became planning director of Seattle and coauthor of The Perception of Density.
• @Peter Katz Author of The New Urbanism and known for building type diagrams.
• @Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Authors of Towns and Town Making Principles.
• @Charles Correa Famous Indian architect with a focus on vernacular, community-oriented design.
• @Form-Based Codes Book emphasizing the importance of Missing Middle Housing types.
• @Form-Based Codes Institute Nonprofit think tank dedicated to form-based codes.
• @Congress for the New Urbanism Advocacy organization focused on new urbanism principles.
• @American Planning Association Professional organization in the field of urban planning.
• @New Partners for Smart Growth Organization dedicated to promoting smart growth principles.
• @Charles Leinberger and Linda Pruitt Authors of Getting to Small Footprint Density.