Cherry Creek Perspective

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Expanding Housing Affordability Project

Denver City Council Member Kendra Black reports the Expanding Housing Affordability proposal continues to move through the legislative review process and was approved by Denver City Council’s Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure (LUTI) Committee. The next and final step for the proposal will be a public hearing and vote before the full City Council on June 6. You can provide feedback or submit a question or comment for the project team. There will also be an opportunity to provide public comment at the hearing before the Denver City Council on June 6.

https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Community-Planning-and-Development/Denver-Zoning-Code/Text-Amendments/Affordable-Housing-Project#:~:text=The%20Expanding%20Housing%20Affordability%20project%20started%20in%202020.,affordable%20homes%20are%20built%20too.

Why ADUs Can’t Solve the Nation’s Housing Crisis

Walter Jaegerhaus, an architect and proponent of “walkable, compact cities” who’s written about ADUs, says they “might be a perfectly legitimate tool in a big toolkit that has a variety of options in it,” but he also believes that by throwing too much political weight and resources behind ADUs as a solution the nation is missing a larger problem, which is that continuing to build in a largely suburbia-oriented landscape means continuing to back an existing model of urban design that helped create the housing shortage in the first place.

https://shelterforce.org/2022/05/17/why-adus-cant-solve-the-nations-housing-crisis/

Housing Affordability in Transit-Oriented Developments

In the absence of affordable housing policy measures combating the high rents that result from the value of their public transit access, TODs are generally unaffordable for low- and moderate-income households. A lack of city- and state-level policy has left affordability in TODs fragmented because the production relies on nonprofit developers and CDCs who use effective bottom-up approaches such as LIHTC. As regulatory bodies implement more policies that target TODs and developers leverage various funding sources, however, more lower-income households will have access to housing near high-quality transit.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-trending-051722.html

After decades of sprawl, Greeley eyes density in quest to stay relatively affordable

City leaders hope a larger number of smaller homes could help slow down those increases. Such a move would mark a significant shift in Greeley’s growth, which for decades has been characterized by sprawling single-family houses on lots of at least 6,000 square feet. The new code reduced minimum lot sizes in low-density zoning districts to 4,500 square feet and allows for even smaller lots in medium- and high-density areas.

https://www.cpr.org/2022/05/26/decades-sprawl-greeley-density-stay-affordable/

A Senior Affordability Crisis Is Coming, And No One Can Make The Housing Math Work (paywall)

The issue extends past the lowest-earning seniors. For several years, a growing percentage of impending retirees has been identified as in need of middle-market housing, or housing that is neither luxury or subsidized. The number of Americans 65 or older is projected to reach nearly 73 million by 2030 and more than 83 million in 2050, yet a study by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, or NIC, found that by the end of this decade, more than half of middle-income seniors would earn $60K or less annually, falling far short of the $62K projected annual price tag for assisted living and medical costs alone.

https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/senior-housing/more-seniors-will-soon-need-lower-priced-housing-but-developers-are-struggling-to-make-the-math-work-113088

How Ailing Strip Malls Could Be a Green Fix for U.S. Housing Crisis

Now Calthorpe sees an opportunity in the economic wreckage left behind by the 2008 Great Recession. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, he notes that for most working families the pop of the housing bubble marked the end of “the American dream of the single-family home in a cul-de-sac and a couple of cars.” Since then, many tens of thousands⁠ of acres of commercial strip malls have fallen vacant or underutilized as consumers have relied increasingly on online purchases. As Calthorpe sees it, that’s land that could be occupied by millions of units of workforce housing, bringing workers close to their jobs, revitalizing streets and cities, and cutting carbon emissions in half.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-ailing-strip-malls-could-be-a-green-fix-for-u.s.-housing-crisis

Biden’s New Housing Plan: Fire Up the House Factories

Manufactured homes briefly dominated the U.S. housing market during the 1960s. By 1972, these homes — not just mobile homes but small-scale modular houses — accounted for some 60% of all new single-family homes produced nationwide, according to census data. That number has diminished so much that the role of factories in building affordable housing has gone all but forgotten. The Biden administration wants to put America’s house factories — those used to be a thing, really — back to work. A new housing plan by the White House offers a set of actions designed to close the nation’s massive affordability gap.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-20/mobile-homes-might-make-biden-s-housing-plan-work

Efforts to Make Transit-Oriented Development Equitable Starting to Pay Off, Chicago Officials Say

For the better part of a decade, Chicago officials have been encouraging new developments to be built near the ‘L’, hoping to boost neighborhoods where people are more likely to hop a train to get to work or meet up with friends than jump in a car. But like so many well-intentioned policies, Chicago officials found themselves confronting a series of unintended consequences that helped supercharge the deep inequities facing Chicago and its residents, including racial and economic segregation. Efforts to rethink the policy and spur development on the South and West sides while preventing long-time residents from being displaced from the Northwest Side are starting to pay off, symbolized by the grand opening set for Friday of an apartment complex near the CTA Blue Line Logan Square station, Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara told WTTW News on Thursday.

https://news.wttw.com/2022/05/19/efforts-make-transit-oriented-development-equitable-starting-pay-chicago-officials-say

MOBILITY

Denver City Council Members Jolon Clark and Chris Hinds report that crews on the 16th Street Mall project are on site between Blake and Arapahoe streets. There is an intersection closure at Blake and 16th Streets that will continue through May for the replacement of the existing aging water line. Businesses are open. Catch the RTD Free Mall Ride on 15th Street or 17th Street between Wazee and Champa streets. Access to stores and businesses will be maintained throughout the project while work is underway. The 16th Street Mall Project is the first major renovation of this vital downtown corridor since its opening in 1982. A primary driver for the project is the need to address deteriorating infrastructure, specifically the granite paver system, that results in poor drainage, frequent disruptions to the transit system and maintenance costs of more than $1M annually. Highlights of the 16th Street Mall project include:

• Installation of new granite pavers in a pattern similar to what’s on the corridor today, but with better drainage and greater surface friction to improve pedestrian safety.
• Moving transit lanes to the center of The Mall, eliminating the median that runs between the buses on some blocks and creating wider pedestrian walkways and new amenity zones for leisure, local businesses, entertainment and tourism.
• Expanding the number of trees on The Mall from about 150 today to more than 200 at completion with a variety of species and degrees of shade and color throughout the year.
• Small business support made possible by a $1M allocation in the city’s 2022 budget to ensure businesses thrive during the renovation.

https://denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Department-of-Transportation-and-Infrastructure/Programs-Services/Projects/16th-Street-Mall