Big surprise from Oregon's 4plex bill, 5 years in: EVERY SINGLE CITY that had to legalize 4plexes ended up going beyond the state's baseline.

The state required local debates over fine print. After it, even the cities that fought the law ended up more pro-housing than required! Why did this work so well? Two things in the law, I think:

1) Clear definition of "good enough." No wasted effort debating exact requirements.

2) Clear consequences. If you weren't compliant by 7/1/22, a state model code took effect automatically. Status quo was off the table.

Great moments in political science, in which a research fluke leads to a pretty important finding about housing politics

short thread 1. @CSElmendorf, @ClaytonNall & @stan_okl polled Americans about their housing politics & learned that in general we

a) want lower prices
b) have no firm conviction that more homes will do this (even though we do think this is how car prices work, etc) theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Why re-legalize #FourFloorsAndCornerStores? One reason is that there's not a ton of difference in energy use per person between a neighborhood that looks like this... ...and one that looks like this...

If you'd like a fresh example of how zoning (a simple & fine idea) has become a micromanaging busybody that's accidentally tearing gashes in our civilization, here's one

(thread) 1. Portland high school (with a disproportionately Black student body) is up for a remodel, cool cool opb.org/article/2022/1…

Today, @GovTinaKotek signed this year's HB 2001, a fast-track omnibus package to address Oregon's long-term shortage of homes, especially lower-cost homes.

It's the biggest rewrite of state housing law since 1973, written to last til 2073.

But uh, what exactly does it do?

🧵 @GovTinaKotek First, a grain of salt: I have skin in this game.

Last spring, soon-to-be House Majority Leader @juliefahey told me this bill would be 2023's biggest chance to help fix our housing shortage & asked me to start building support.

https://twitter.com/andersem/status/1520503013697335300?s=20

Good morning! It's a big day in Oregon as our state land use board prepares to vote on the largest cut to parking mandates in modern US history.

In state's 8 largest metros, mandatory auto parking would no longer be a meaningful barrier to homes & jobs.

sightline.org/2022/05/21/ore… Here's a visual summary of the proposed parking reforms. Affected jurisdictions choose one of three options.

sightline-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/upl…

What a potentially magnificent public plaza, linking one of the nation’s biggest car-free streets (16th) to a huge riverfront park…if not for a big curving auto turnaround that takes up half the space!

Denver, you rule in lots of ways! wyd?? The other side of this little loop seems to have perfectly usable auto access. I don’t get it!

Portland's council just unanimously approved new updates to its low-density zoning code, a fast follow-up on 2020's landmark vote to re-legalize 4plexes & mixed-income 6plexes citywide.

We didn't get everything right the first time around!

This project makes 6 great changes: 1) Legalizes townhomes citywide.

You know townhomes from such classic cities as Baltimore and Paris. If you want to own a smaller lot that shares its structure with neighbors, you can - no need to rent to save $.

Our new code even lets them go "sideways" on midblock lots. Yuss.

Portland’s 2021 population drop isn’t great but it

a) made rent hikes here a bit less awful &

b) bought city a bit more time to build the 70k more homes state says we need just to catch up with the *last* 20 years of underbuilding

via @sophiegreenleaf

wweek.com/news/city/2022… @sophiegreenleaf I suspect PDX population is already rebounding & will resume steady growth, a bit slower than 2010s.

But either way, there's a question here: HOW does a city catch up to past underbuilding?

If homes didn't already exist, what's going to make them exist now?

1 main answer...

Many folks think upzoning = more homes, therefore enough upzoning = enough homes.

As a zoning reformer, I'm sad to say this isn't how it goes.

This is wrong for the same reason 4plex legalization doesn't = immediate transformation of every low-density street.

(short thread) The problem with both of these assumptions is COST.

Newly built homes have many cost factors. One of them is land cost per new home. This is high in places with too few homes.

(In places with more homes than would-be residents, like the Ohio city I grew up in, it's low.)

What happens when a small city like Fayetteville, Arkansas, makes commercial parking lots 100% optional?

They did - in 2015. I’m excited to share @Citizen_Cate’s latest, the first article I’m aware of to examine what’s happened since.

https://twitter.com/Sightline/status/1496167866126987264

In the last 7 years, there's been lots of attention to *residential* parking mandates.

Which makes sense! When you require people to pay for parking whether they need it or not, you block housing near transit & make low-car cities impossible.

But...

Confession time: I've been typing the word "duplex" almost nonstop for 5 years. It's been going pretty well!

But...I'm starting to think the word misses a more important goal: a detached backyard home that can be sold separately.

sightline.org/2022/01/05/bac… Since I became obsessed with re-legalizing duplexes, 4plexes & so on, I've heard three very good critiques over and over:

It's hugely disappointing to me that the whole Portland City Council (@tedwheeler, @DanRyanPDX, @CommRubio, @JoAnnPDX, @Mingus4Portland) has decided to do as these folks urge & keep giving landowners (but not tenants) special power to block nearby housing.

https://twitter.com/PNWelcome/status/1460700861739401216

@tedwheeler @DanRyanPDX @CommRubio @JoAnnPDX @Mingus4Portland The issue I'm referring to here is National Register historic districts.

Under Oregon's unusual laws, NR districts are a uniquely undemocratic way for landowners to block nearby housing. This makes them dangerous.

Short thread & how you could help:

This morning, after years of work by hundreds of Portlanders, 4plexes, mixed-income 6plexes, double ADUs, big group homes & backyard RVs became legal almost everywhere in town.

I got @nbrhoodwrkshop & @alfred_twu to help show what's likely to happen next. sightline.org/2021/08/01/we-… @nbrhoodwrkshop @alfred_twu Crucial info about the image above: if the rents look crazy-high, that doesn't mean they're going to be built with those rents.

It means that *if* local rents rose until those no longer looked crazy-high, these buildings will come to the rescue, starting with the cheapest.

Like many people, I really enjoyed Friday's @ezraklein Show interview with @JerusalemDemsas about zoning & other stuff.

It got me thinking about a key strategic question to the pro-housing movement: WHY do states & provinces hold promise for reform?

sightline.org/2021/07/29/sta… @ezraklein @JerusalemDemsas It's very hard to get a housing-scarce city to allow more housing.

How hard? This week, @landpolicy published the longest thing I've ever written - a reported account of how Portland legalized 4 & 6plexes citywide.

So many ways it could have failed!

lincolninst.edu/publications/w…

@sarabronin @desegregateCT @Sightline Ha! I'll give you a pass just this once. :)

CA's SB 35 legalized no-parking buildings near transit and 1/unit elsewhere in its "streamlined" housing approval track for cities the state identifies as underbuilding. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavC… @sarabronin @desegregateCT @Sightline Oregon's HB2001 explicitly struck down all parking mandates for ADUs themselves, and subsequent rulemaking also capped parking mandates for 2-4plexes depending on lot size. (2 total spaces/lot for lots <7k sqft, etc) sightline.org/2020/12/14/ore…

important question: is the flying thing at the end of Harrison Bergeron

a) a Borgesian rock and roll "AND AS WE WIND ON DOWN THE ROADS" type thing, or

b) a big reveal that the whole thing has been a satire and ahktually it's television, not communism, that creates mediocrity web.archive.org/web/2018010219…

Oregon bill that would strike down bans on 3-story attached homes within 1/8 mile of light rail & BRT stops has 1st hearing tomorrow.

1/8 mile = 3 blocks. It's a VERY modest bill. League of Cities had been quiet but just said it'll oppose because it heard from a city (Eugene). Cool things in HB2558:
- mandatory bonus (1 extra floor) if below-market homes are included
- gives cities option to instead allow bigger buildings on a smaller share of the station area
- backed by @1000oregon, @OregonSmart, Welcome Home Coalition

olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Mea…

I am obsessed with what a big deal a federal monthly credit of $250-$350 per child would be for housing sightline.org/2021/02/12/a-f… A few years ago, the heroic folks at @OCPPnews made the case for Oregon to fund a state housing voucher program.

I found it hugely persuasive. It was also seen as so expensive that it could take a decade to win. If we were lucky.

This would dwarf it.

ocpp.org/2019/09/23/sta…

Good morning especially to @juliefahey & @MarkoLiias, cross-Cascadian housing champs sponsoring bills in both OR & WA to strike down local bans on the number of "unrelated" people who are allowed to share big houses.

sightline.org/2021/02/10/it-… These local bans on shared homes may already be illegal under the US Constitution's right of free association and/or state fair housing laws.

It's 2021! The zoning code isn't allowed to decide who does and doesn't count as a "family." sightline.org/2017/06/12/goi…

No law should require someone to pay for parking spaces they don't need.

Oregon just slashed parking requirements statewide. First state-level action of its kind in US history ❤️🌎🏘️

sightline.org/2020/12/14/ore… The rule applies specifically to "middle housing": duplexes, 3plexes, 4plexes, townhomes & clustered cottages.

In most states that'd be a sweet change, but wouldn't matter too much.

But in Oregon, the same law legalized middle housing on almost every urban lot in the state. So.