Your roundup from RaleighForward

Fourteen articles we found interesting this week:

1. This is a fascinating story about a software program used by many landlords to set rents through artificial intelligence that may be playing a significant role in accelerating rental rates occurring across the Country, via Pro Publica.

2. Is Houston really better off without zoning? One planner makes the case in the book, “Arbitrary Lines,” M. Nolan Gray argues that a century of zoning has hardened racial and class segregation in cities across the U.S. and worsened the effects of inequality by making it almost impossible to build anything but single-family homes in some cities. In this Urban Edge interview, M. Nolan Gray suggests looking at how Houston has developed.

3. Here is an interesting report by the Kenan Institute at UNC on the 20 fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country and what might happen in 2023. No surprise that Raleigh is #4 and Charlotte is #8. Take a look at the report.

4. San Antonio is using a portion of a $1.2 billion bond package to address housing affordability and its unhoused population, via Bloomberg.

5. This article in Shelterforce explores how to improve the Housing Choice Voucher program. Presently, voucher holders in cities like Raleigh struggle because too few landlords accept Housing Choice Vouchers. Though Raleigh has taken steps to eliminate “source of income” discrimination, increasing housing supply is one of the key takeaways from this article, via Shelterforce.

6. At 360 square feet, these “tiny” rental homes offer an interesting architectural take on affordable housing, via Bloomberg.

7. With the prevailing conservative majority on the US Supreme Court, this lawsuit challenging inclusionary zoning could have ripple effects across the country, via Jurist.

8. Sound Familiar Raleigh? Arlington’s Missing Middle Housing Push Stirs Affordability Debate, via Washington Post.

9. The Rent Revolution is Coming, via The New York Times.

10. More Evidence that Housing Affordability is not a local issue, it’s a National Issue, via MoneyWise.

11. The lack of adequate funding for building and managing affordable housing is one of the biggest barriers to addressing the affordable housing crisis. This article does a nice job of explaining various revenue options states have to fund affordable housing, via National Housing Conference.

12. Here’s an interesting article about how landlords hold rent controlled apartments “hostage” by keeping them off the market when market rents are high, via The City.

13. Inside Charlotte and the NC General Assembly’s “difference of philosophies” on affordable housing: North Carolina is a Dillon’s Rule state, which means that local governments can only regulate areas they are given the authority to, via Axios Charlotte.

14. Pro-housing policies are popular, despite public comments, via Southern Urbanism.

Here is what we will be watching this week:

City Council Meetings:

1. The Safe, Vibrant and Healthy Community Committee meets on October 25 to discuss the potential for establishing a Municipal Service District for the Midtown area similar to the Hillsborough Street Municipal Service District that has been operating for years.  MSD’s are allowed to charge additional property tax and the resulting revenue can be used for things like enhanced trash/litter pickup, safety ambassadors transit enhancement, etc.  Here is a link to the agenda item.

2. The Growth and Natural Resources Committee meets on October 25 and will hear from the Environmental Advisory Board and City staff regarding the City’s building energy use initiative.  Here is a link to the agenda item.

3. The Economic Development and Innovation Committee meets on October 25.  Staff with the Housing & Neighborhoods Department will review the Pathways Center Investment proposals for the National League of Cities Basic Needs Initiative and Partnership Raleigh for consideration by the Committee.  The Committee may choose to recommend funding of this project to the full Council, request additional information, or hold the information to a future date. Here is the link to the full agenda package.

4. The Transportation and Transit Committee meets on October 27 and will discuss the pending North Hills rezoning case (Z-67-21). Here is the link. The Committee will also discuss related transportation issues and planned improvements on Six Forks Road, link here.

Planning Commission Meetings:

1. Planning Commission’s Committee of the Whole meets on Thursday, October 27, 2022.  These are the agenda items we found most interesting:

   • Rezoning Z-17-21 is an infill request to rezone approximately 17.96 acres to allow for added density for an existing senior living community.  Here is a link to the full agenda package.

   • Comprehensive Plan Amendments implementing the Dix Edge Area Study will also be discussed.  At a prior meeting, issues related to affordable housing and environmental issues. Here is the link to the full agenda package.

2. Planning Commission’s Infrastructure and Mobility Committee meets on October 27, 2022 and will discuss an infill rezoning for property located on Clover Lane off of Wake Forest Road.  This is an infill site that will allow for the redevelopment of an existing apartment community to permit additional density. Read more here.

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