America is facing a housing crisis.
The U.S. is short millions of housing units, and the situation is especially tight for those with low incomes. Half of renters are paying more than a third of their salary in housing costs, and for those looking to buy, scant few homes on the market are affordable for a typical household.
To ramp up supply, cities are taking a fresh look at their zoning rules and the regulations that spell out what can be built where and what can’t. And many are finding that their old rules are too rigid, making it too hard and too expensive to build many new homes.
So these cities, as well as some states, are undertaking a process called zoning reform. They’re crafting new rules that do things like allow multifamily homes in more neighborhoods, encourage more density near transit and streamline permitting processes for those trying to build.
One city has been at the forefront of these conversations: Minneapolis.
That’s because Minneapolis was ahead of the pack as it made a series of changes to its zoning rules in recent years: allowing more density downtown and along transit corridors, getting rid of parking requirements, permitting construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs), which are secondary dwellings on the same lot.