Dive Brief:
- Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott signed a package of four bills aimed at reducing red tape for housing development in the city. The package “will help make housing more affordable and abundant in Baltimore,” Scott said at a Nov. 3 press conference.
- The legislation updates the city’s building code requirements to allow a single staircase in residential buildings up to six stories and removes parking minimums for new buildings — measures the city believes will drive down the cost of development. It also allows more flexibility for the size and shape of buildings in residential zoning districts.
- The package helps undo some of the damage redlining has caused the city in the past, according to Scott, and joins a number of other city efforts to spark economic growth. “Baltimore’s renaissance is here,” Scott said.
Dive Insight:
Baltimore is among a growing number of U.S. cities digging deep into their regulatory coffers for fixes to a mounting housing affordability crisis.
As a consequence, restrictive zoning and building codes — often cited as barriers that can increase costs and create delays for new development — are getting a second look.
“Baltimore stands to be the one city in America that figures out how to grow and rebuild our population and develop and boom but not displace working people that built this city,” Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen said at the package’s signing. “We can do both and we must do both, and these bills are a move in the right direction.”…