RaleighForward Roundup | Volume XXII

Articles we found interesting this week:

Local Perspective:

1. Interactive map of Raleigh showing home prices increases by zip code, from the N&O.

2. No area is affordable: New Triangle housing report reveals challenges for most buyers, from ABC11.

3. Affordable Housing units coming to Glenwood South, from TBJ.

4. Raleigh unlikely to see much relief from upward pressure on residential real estate prices, from CNBC.

5. Rent trap: Triangle housing costs squeeze middle- to low-income workers to the brink, from the N&O.

6. Raleigh homelessness concerns rise over growing homeless encampment next to I-40 in Raleigh, from ABC11.

7. Living in 160 square feet: Century-old home to transform into 100 micro-apartments in downtown Raleigh, from WRAL.

National Perspective:

1. Are hedge funds really contributing to the housing affordability crisis?  Here is an article suggesting the argument is overblown, from The Atlantic.

2. Black Congregations are Developing Affordable Housing on Church Land, via Shelterforce.

3. “Taking ADUs to the Next Level” is a webinar discussing how to encourage more equitable development using ADUs, also via Shelterforce.

4. Interesting article suggesting that California’s modest version of “Missing Middle” regulatory reform may not be having a significant impact on duplex construction since passage, via the LA Times.

5. The inside story of how Baltimore's inclusionary housing bill got hollowed out, and how activists hope to fix it. Via TRNN. 

6. Series: Challenging Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning. The program has failed by retarding housing production, reducing overall supply, and likely contributing to housing inflation and it also has produced very little benefit for the damage it has caused, from Forbes.

7. Affordable Housing is a Problem of Hypocrisy. People like to talk about what is right, but they don’t want to do much to fix things, also from Forbes.

8. Urban Institute has a great land use lab resource page that is worth a look. Read it here.

9. Tracing the Money: Case Studies in the Budgetary and Zoning Policies of Exclusionary Municipalities, also from the Urban Institute.

10. Atlanta mayor and councilmember look to provide affordable housing for public safety officials, from RoughDraft Atlanta.

11. American Mayors: Affordable Housing Demand is Crushing Us, via Politico.

12. In Omaha, a Streetcar Named Undesirable by Warren Buffett, via NYT.

13. Biden Revives Housing Rule That Trump Derided as ‘Abolishing the Suburbs’ A civil rights-era fair housing policy is back, with new tweaks aimed at making it easier to snuff out segregation, from Bloomberg and The White House.

14. Free speech or out of order? As meetings grow wild, officials try to tame public comment, from the Washington Post.

15. Not sure this is as significant in Raleigh, but it merits consideration. OPINION: Downtowns are Lifeless, from the Washington Post.

16. The Typical American Renter is Rent-Burdened, from the NYT. 

17. New Yorkers Never Came ‘Flooding Back.’ Why Did Rents Go Up so Much? Via Curbed.

18. Urban Institute Report: Addressing the Legacies of Historical Redlining. Read it here.

19. America the Bland is a NYT article discussing the “sameness” of housing architecture across America. Read it here.

20. The ink isn’t even dry on the incorporation charter for the new City of Mableton in Georgia, and already there’s a sizable faction that is trying to secede from it, via Bloomberg.

Items of Interest:

1. Council held a Special Meeting on January 24 to conduct public hearings on a number of zoning issues due to an earlier public notice error. Although it is very early in Council’s new term, there was a hint of a possible return to the “paralysis by analysis” that plagued the 2017-2019 Council (Stephenson, Cox, Crowder, Mendell, McFarlane, Stewart, Thompson and Branch). Several zoning cases that could add to the City’s housing supply, including permanent affordable housing, were deferred or placed into committee for additional study. While deferring cases or placing them in committee is not unusual, Council must act reasonably swiftly on housing proposals due to the significant time it takes to permit, finance and build them. Every delay adds further time between when a project is approved and being occupied by new residents. Rezoning is merely the first step in the permitting process, so every delay adds to the time it takes to actually place units on the ground ready for occupancy. Of the 8 rezoning public hearings conducted on January 24, only 1 was approved and 7 were either deferred or placed into committee. In each of the 8 zoning cases, the Planning Commission recommended approval (6 unanimously, 1 by a 7-1 vote and the other by a 5-3 vote).  

   Interestingly, rezoning Z-53-22 involved a City-initiated case designed to upzone 3 parcels so they could be placed out for public bid for the construction of affordable housing.  Council approved the rezoning of 1 of the 3 subject parcels, while placing the 2 others into committee.  Approving these rezonings only allows the City to initiate a request for proposal (“RFP”) process whereby it sets forth development objectives and performance criteria that guide potential design proposals that are submitted to the City by potential developers.  At that point, the City can accept or reject the submissions.  Several Councilors expressed concerns about floodplain and environmental justice issues while seemingly thinking of these zoning cases in the same context as if they were owned/controlled by a private developer. 

   While such concerns are valid, the unique nature of this kind of City-initiated rezoning reduces those risks. Rezoning these parcels has no impact on the City’s ability to control how and what might ultimately be done with those properties because of the nature of the RFP process.  By deferring action, Council simply added to the potential delay in developing these properties in a way that benefits the City.  A better course might have been to approve the cases and request that staff ensure that the eventual RFP proposal takes these concerns into consideration because Council still has to approve the RFP proposal before it can move forward.

2. Don’t forget that Raleigh staff will be hosting several “Missing Middle” informational sessions in February. The next one is scheduled for February 2. If you are interested or have concerns about recent regulatory reforms designed to encourage “gentle density” across the City, please consider attending one of these sessions. For more dates and times click here. Here is a link to some of the information that will be discussed.

3. Mark your calendar! Council has a budget work session scheduled for February 20, 2023. We’ll include posts about the budget throughout Council’s deliberations this Spring. The budget must be adopted before July 1 of each year and typically is voted on in June.

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