How To Start Strengthening Your Town With Incremental Development
This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on Strong Towns member Will Gardner’s Substack, StrongHaven. It is shared here with permission.
Source: Michaela Zuzula; Unsplash
The Thick of It
Regular readers of my articles know that I’m a big proponent of thickening the existing neighborhoods in my town (Fairhaven, Massachusetts) and revitalizing our walkable downtown areas. By thickening, I mean allowing neighborhoods to continue growing in the incremental way they used to grow before they were effectively frozen in time by restrictive zoning.
Thickening is a low-risk strategy for towns and has the highest odds of getting good results. It's low-risk because it’s time-tested — we know that walkable downtowns with housing over shops work! — and because the potential for failure is spread across a multitude of actors, all of whom have significant skin in the game. When you encourage many small projects, then when one project flops, the town is still OK. For small towns, this matters. Heck, it even matters for L.A., where this tower ran into financing issues and its foreign owners can’t even be bothered to put a fence around it.
Image provided by writer. Source: The New York Times
Thickening is particularly a winning strategy for Fairhaven (and other towns like it) because, despite its relatively small footprint (12 square miles), it's full of opportunities to thicken. Many streets in the town's core neighborhoods feature empty or oversized lots that could be developed to add a few more families. Many neighborhoods feature a mix of multifamily and single-family homes that could easily become the next increment of development. These gaps exist in places already served by existing infrastructure, which means the town has the opportunity to add more paying customers to the network without adding more infrastructure (and thus more debt and maintenance obligations). And for those who might profess concern about the “character of the neighborhood,” all of this incremental growth would be spread throughout current neighborhoods, strengthening their vibrancy and walkability.
And incremental doesn’t have to mean slow. Incremental growth is potentially the fastest way to grow housing stock, revitalize downtown areas and fill town coffers. Large greenfield projects, despite their promise of hundreds or thousands of housing units, take years of work to come to fruition — usually with large political fights along the way. These are large, often long-shot bets that may not come through, even as local officials sacrifice the bulk of their time and energy on them. Conversely, small infill projects can be initiated in a matter of weeks and months. As these projects happen, they attract further attention and resources to the town and create momentum for growth.
Small Developers, Big Energy
If a town is serious about thickening its current core neighborhoods, there’s one key player it needs to be encouraging: small, local developers. While I know that for some people the “D-word" is synonymous with all sorts of unsavory types, consider that you probably have a few friends who fit this description. A postal worker I know bought the house across the street from me, lived in it for a while as he fixed it up, and then rented it out as a two-family. He’s in the process of beautifully restoring another house in town. That’s incremental development! Another local small developer has restored several beautiful downtown storefront buildings and added apartments above them. I’ve watched as he makes these projects happen as quickly as the red tape will allow. He’s personally created over 20 units of housing within the same timeframe that it would take town leaders to apply for a consulting grant.
So what should towns be doing to encourage and cultivate incremental developers? To answer that question, I reached out to local developer housing creator and business facilitator Jason Lanagan. Within three seconds, I had a response in my inbox with a lot of ideas that I’ll do my best to distill.
First, a couple of don’ts:
DON’T cut the education budget. According to Jay, “the education budget should increase every year as it costs more money every year to provide an excellent education … and if a town is growing then enrollment should increase.” There’s also a strong argument for this from a municipal finance standpoint, he says, as a better educational system “translates into higher property values and more tax dollars for the municipality.”
DON’T let internet trolls dictate terms. Jay elaborates: “Unprofessionally managed towns give ... Facebook mobs too much power. It’s a devastating phenomenon that is a reality in 2024. Cities and towns need a master plan that they adhere to even in the face of vocal opposition.”
Next, a few do’s:
Update zoning codes. Things like reducing minimum lot sizes, doing away with parking minimums, and allowing mixed-use throughout neighborhoods unlock opportunities for small developers to do their thing. As Jay notes, “there are many case studies of other municipalities that have done this work effectively.” You don’t need to reinvent the wheel — just use what other successful towns have implemented as a template.
Provide small developers with access to financial incentives. Jay remarks, “TIFS and TIES are like 401k’s for the town, they are investments that start small and grow over time.” A town's downtown core is usually its most valuable land on a per-acre basis. Anything that encourages investment in this core is going to pay back serious dividends over the long term.
Hire pro-business professionals to run municipal offices. By “pro-business,” Jay means officials “who understand and continuously educate themselves on the matters of growing a city/town and providing excellent services, and who are connected to the state and federal government’s vast educational and program resources.”
Adopt a “How Can We Help You?” attitude toward local developers. According to Jay, town officials who want to encourage local developers need to be transparent and proactive in helping projects succeed. For example, Fairhaven’s Planning Board recently streamlined its permitting process, assembling departments earlier in the process to allow for greater transparency and more rapid feedback on proposals. Coupled with zoning reform, this kind of revised process could remove obstacles for small developers, for whom even small delays can tank projects.
Unleash the Swarm
Many cherished, historic neighborhoods were created by enterprising citizens who built housing and beautiful downtown buildings without access to any capital (let alone Wall Street financing). While building nowadays is now understandably more expensive, many towns are still in a position to unleash a swarm of local developers who have real skin in the game when it comes to the town's success and quality of life. A recent guest post by Coby Lefkowitz on Noah Smith’s Substack speaks to the unique role that small developers can play:
When you build in your own neighborhood, a pride imperative materializes. If you have to go by a project frequently, you want to feel good about the fruits of your labor. There are few things worse than spending several years creating something, only to be disappointed in the final result. Insult is added to injury if your friends, family, co-workers, or adversaries (especially your adversaries) pass your project and are likewise less than enthused with the product. Believe me, they’ll tell you, and it doesn’t exactly feel good.
It’s well worth reading the rest of the post for a more in-depth look at the challenges that small developers face when it comes to financing.
If you want to strengthen your town, then thickening its existing neighborhoods is the best way to get there. And the good news is that the people who can thicken your neighborhood are, in many cases, already living next door. Before making big bets on large, risky and unproven projects that cater to heavily-financed developers who have all the leverage, towns should first cultivate a group of local developer talent who can rapidly help it grow in ways that will benefit everyone for years to come.
To learn more about how incremental development can strengthen your town, get your copy of “Escaping the Housing Trap” today!
Will Gardner is an education consultant and the founder of Alma del Mar Charter Schools. He’s currently scheming about how to improve his town, but he’s happy to help you with whatever you’re working on. You can find him at StrongHaven.substack.com.
