Small, adaptable homes create opportunities for individuals and families to build stable, connected lives. Here’s how this style of development is creating housing opportunities in Florida.
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Jesse Russell is the founder of Hiatus Homes, a development company specializing in small home design and cottage communities. He joins the podcast today to discuss how he became a small-scale developer and how to navigate the challenges of building small homes. (Transcript included.)
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Legalizing backyard cottages can improve residents' quality of life and help families stay connected, all while increasing housing supply and affordability without large-scale disruption to the community.
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To understand how one city leader can spearhead the housing reforms your city needs, look no further than Rebekah Kik, the deputy city manager for Kalamazoo, Michigan.
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What do you do when your city is full of illegal backyard cottages that no one can live in but you really need more affordable housing options? If you’re a city official in Berkeley, California, you recognize that one problem can address the other.
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In this episode, Chuck explores the flawed nature of North America’s current “housing bargain,” where most neighborhoods are allowed to stay exactly the same as long as some neighborhoods are forced to radically change. (Transcript included.)
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In many cities, permitting processes make it difficult to build entry-level housing. Zoning restrictions, local opposition and lengthy approvals all contribute to a lack of affordable homes. Massachusetts has taken a bold step to change that.
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Here’s how Portland, Oregon, is getting more housing built that blends into existing neighborhoods and earns the approval of nearby residents, all while increasing affordability and supporting the local community.
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Cities across North America are recognizing the value of preapproved plans. Here’s why they’re so appealing and how their implementation is affecting cities.
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The U.S. senior housing market is poised to shift from a surplus to a shortage in the next five years. In this episode, Abby and Norm Van Eeden Petersman, Strong Towns’ director of Movement Building, discuss the implications of this shift and how to give more options to seniors. (Transcript included.)
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Tulsa, Oklahoma, is joining a growing list of cities that have integrated preapproved plans into their housing toolkits. This approach makes it easier for small-scale developers to complete projects quickly and cheaply.
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In historic cities, land was treated as a scarce resource and every inch of it was used with ingenuity. This created productive and charming places that could meet the evolving needs of residents. Here are a few ways we can bring that traditional productivity and adaptable charm to modern cities.
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In this episode, Abby is joined by Chicago aldermen Matt Martin and Andre Vasquez to discusses the Western Avenue corridor study, one of the most ambitious planning efforts Chicago has seen in decades. (Transcript included.)
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Parking regulations impose unnecessary restrictions on adding new housing. Many cities recognize this problem but struggle with how to address it effectively. Dubuque, Iowa, offers a real-world example of both the problems and an effective response.
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When suddenly faced with paying his mortgage alone, Noah Tang of Bloomington, Illinois, went old school. He turned his spare rooms into monthly rentals for students in his college town. This helped him make ends meet and also helped him build community.
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In this episode, Abby and Chuck discuss a recent court ruling that confirmed Massachusetts has the authority to sue cities and towns that don’t comply with its multifamily zoning requirements near transit stations.
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Spencer Coyne is the mayor of Princeton, British Columbia. He joins this Bottom-Up Short to explain how he’s implementing the Strong Towns approach in his city, including how to incrementally reform a zoning code and how to do a lot with a small amount of funding.
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Chuck discusses housing with Cullum Clark, director of the Economic Growth Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute. They talk about why there is so much resistance to new development and ways that officials and advocates could engage with the public to reduce that resistance.
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For decades, we've been living under an unspoken grand bargain when it comes to housing. Most people don’t think about explicitly, but it shapes nearly every conversation we have about growth, change and affordability in our cities and towns. It’s time to change the conversation.
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In this episode, Chuck discusses the common misbelief that an incremental approach to housing development is inherently slow, what that means for major cities, and how to make incremental housing more appealing to people who don’t want their neighborhoods to change.
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