December 15th Newsletter
Hello,
RaleighForward and WakeUP Wake County held our first joint reception on December 5th. We have a recap of the event below in case you weren’t able to join us. Thank you to everyone who did make it!
Program Recap: RaleighForward and WakeUp held their first joint programming event as part of a new collaboration effort. On December 5, 2024, RaleighForward and WakeUp welcomed approximately 85 guests to hear from Vicky Been with New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Professor Been gave a talk entitled “The Housing Supply/Affordability Crisis: What can we do about it?”
In her talk, Professor Been reviewed what other states and cities across the country are doing to try and alleviate the upward pressure on housing costs that is making it difficult for people across the country to find housing they can afford.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
The incomes of Raleigh residents are not keeping pace with accelerating housing costs.
Raleigh is making progress in terms of building permit issuance, but not enough to keep pace with rising demand.
Raleigh has enacted important reforms recently that will help reduce housing costs over time. Those include the elimination of minimum parking standards, as well as Missing Middle Reforms.
But, as Professor Been points out, more robust reforms at the state level are needed to make a bigger impact at a faster pace. State legislatures controlled by Republicans and Democrats have enacted significant reforms in recent years. Those states include California, Montana, Colorado, and Florida, among others.
In closing, Professor Been announced that she will soon be publishing a review of recent research findings that demonstrate that adding supply to “hot” housing markets does slow the rate of rent increases and may lead to lower rents in some communities. Research also shows that adding new supply does not significantly increase displacement of those at lower income levels. Her paper is scheduled to be published in the coming months and RaleighForward will include it in a future newsletter.
Thank you to all the sponsors and volunteers that helped make the collaborative programming effort a success!
RaleighForward and WakeUp are working with the National Civic League to develop a program for the first quarter of 2025 on emerging trends in community engagement and public comment. Be on the lookout for more details in coming newsletters.
To help RaleighForward continue to make these programs available to the community, please consider making a donation here. If you are interested in sponsoring an event, please reach out to eric@raleighforward.org.
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The North Carolina General Assembly limits local government zoning authority in a last-minute bill providing disaster relief for hurricane Helene damage.
Senate Bill 382 was supposed to be a hurricane relief bill, but included a number of unrelated provisions, including one that prohibits all local governments from “downzoning” (changing the zoning on a property to reduce or limit the kinds of uses permitted without first obtaining the written approval of each property owner). Although Governor Cooper vetoed that legislation, the General Assembly overrode the veto last week.
Not only does the bill essentially stop local governments from ever downzoning property, but it also made the legislation retroactive to actions taken 6 months prior to the effective date of the legislation-November 20, 2024. In Raleigh, this could have major implications for the recently adopted New Bern BRT Overlay District since 2 Council votes applying the New Bern BRT Overlay to properties within the New Bern BRT corridor occurred within that 6-month lookback. Further analysis is needed to determine exactly what the impacts of SB 382 will be on that specific rezoning.
Going forward, the legislation makes it more difficult to use traditional planning and zoning tools to implement a city’s vision for future development, no matter how much support there is for such change among a city’s population. With these new restrictions, it only takes a few property owners to undermine extensive community planning efforts. This will be an important consideration as Raleigh is in the early stages of developing a new comprehensive plan.
For more information on the possible impacts and unintended consequences of the legislation, click hereand here.
Articles of interest:
Rental rates in some cities are beginning to decline, including Raleigh. Is supply finally catching up to demand?
Historic housing square footage trends, via the News & Observer. The average house size in the U.S. increased significantly over the past 75 years from 909 square feet in 1949 to 2,430 square feet in 2023. However, the past couple of years have seen a slight decrease in house sizes due largely to rising interest rates and worsening affordability.
Kansas City Looks Back on its Long, Costly Ride with Microtransit, via Bloomberg.
Accessory Dwelling Units and Beyond: How can Cities Overcome Barriers to Increasing Zoning Capacity in Single-family Neighborhoods? Read it on JSTOR.
Neighborhood Home Price Impacts of Community Development Block Grant Spending: Longitudinal Evidence From Three Jurisdictions. Read it here.
Report to Congress: Rental Counseling and Evictions. Read it here.
Breaking Barriers to Affordable and Abundant Housing: Comparing US and Germany. Find the study here.
The connection between civic learning and higher education reform. Read it here.
Items of interest in the week ahead:
There are no more City Council meetings in 20215. Council next meets on January 7, 2025.
The City is beginning the budget process for the next fiscal year that starts July 1, 2025. As part of the engagement process for the budget, a series of listening sessions begins on January 7. For details, click here.
The Wake County Continuum of Care conducts a Point in Time Count each year to assess the state of homelessness in Wake County. Conducting a successful count requires significant coordination and community volunteers. The more accurate we can be when we conduct the count helps increase the amount of funding our community receives from the Federal government to address homelessness. It also helps our community better allocate resources to assist those in need of stable housing. If you are interested in volunteering, click here.
Council recently approved additional funding to help residents facing housing insecurity. Read about it here.