VIA ZONING REFORM
The state housing authority’s loans to developers involves a competitive process.
One of the ways to earn a higher ranking is to be located in a community that
has engaged in the most significant zoning regulatory reform.
Tom Larson, executive vice president of the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association, said part of the reform is allowing smaller lot sizes and more units per acre.
“We have found it very persuasive to explain to local officials and members of the public that today you can’t build the housing that most of us grew up in — because local regulations won’t allow it.
That frames it.
It changes the narrative,” he said.
“We hear ‘We don’t want the others, those people,’” Larson said about the argument for exclusionary zoning.
“But when they see the regulations wouldn’t allow themselves or their children to move into the community, it personalizes it.
They think of it differently.”
Larson noted that zoning that allows smaller units close to neighborhood conveniences gives seniors a place to downsize into.
That frees up housing inventory for young families.
Young families, in turn, can rehab Wisconsin’s aging housing
stock, where more than half of single-family homes were built before 1980.
No comments:
Post a Comment