The Obama Administration recently advocated that local communities change zoning codes that restrict new residential developments, and provided recommendations to encourage construction of more affordable housing.
The administration’s new “Housing Development Toolkit” delves into how local impediments to development keep housing in short supply in desirable areas. Many zoning codes encourage sprawl, drive up housing costs, and worsen gentrification and displacement, the document says.
The toolkit provides several reform recommendations including:
• Eliminating off-street parking requirements
• Creating zoning that allows high density and multi-family developments like townhouses and apartment buildings
• Requiring developers to build some affordable housing
• Providing developers with incentives to build extra affordable units by allowing them to make their projects bigger if they do
• Taxing vacant land so it gets put to a productive use
Environmentalist hailed the recommendations, but there is little the administration can do on its own to implement them. Federal programs that would encourage widespread adoption of these reforms would have to have the cooperation of Congress to move ahead. The administration emphasized the economic benefits of its proposals to try to drum up Republican support.
Related Stories
| Feb 19, 2014
Net Positive Energy + Water is latest green certification standard
The advancement of sustainable construction has reached a new milestone with the development of Net Positive Energy+Water, a new green building certification standard that aims to improve net zero approaches to energy and water conservation.
| Feb 19, 2014
Obama’s climate resilience panel says PVs, cool roofs should be part of solution
Among the suggestions were rooftop solar energy systems and cool roofs, which could be encouraged by policies from local governments.
| Feb 19, 2014
OSHA proposes three-year postponement of crane operator certification requirement
OSHA’s proposal to postpone the compliance date for crane operator certification by three years was made official on Feb. 7 when it was published in the Federal Register.
| Feb 19, 2014
USGBC introduces new online educational platform
The U.S. Green Building Council has introduced “Education @USGBC” a new educational platform.
| Feb 17, 2014
Channeling weather forecasts to building systems can yield significant energy savings
Using weather forecasts to predict outdoor temperature changes can lead to significant energy savings, exceeding 10%, researchers say.
| Feb 17, 2014
Lawmakers may take away control of Florida hospital project from the VA
The project is $100 million over budget and has missed its scheduled completion date.
| Feb 17, 2014
Business, labor at odds over toughening of OSHA silica dust rule
OSHA says the rules will protect workers and prevent 700 fatalities annually. Others say the rules would hurt businesses and jobs.
| Feb 17, 2014
Tulsa, Okla., mulls code change to require storm shelters in new schools
State and city officials are pushing for increased bonding capacity to pay for the storm shelters.
| Feb 13, 2014
Appraisal Institute issues guidelines on evaluating green property
The Appraisal Institute and the Institute for Market Transformation have issued guidelines for training property appraisers to evaluate green buildings.
| Feb 7, 2014
New LEED Dynamic Plaque system will measure building performance
The U.S. Green Building Council recently unveiled the LEED Dynamic Plaque, which is a new system designed for benchmarking and comparing post-occupancy building performance on a global scale.