Persistent Vacancies
Current market practices perversely incentivize vacancies despite overage of some property types and dearth of others. Solving this problem requires changing the pros and cons of properties. Some of this stuff happens at levels that are functionally out of reach for most people, but some of it can be influenced at local levels.
* Cities have boards of politicians in charge of running them. Somewhere in there are people with a lot of power over what gets built and how it gets used. These people, if motivated to do so, can make dramatic changes. Or conversely, motivated people can seek election to these positions and gain the power to make desired changes.
- Count the souls on board. Check the local cost of living. Check the local range of incomes. Calculate the housing need of your populace and what they can afford to pay for it. A municipality is responsible for housing its people.
- Count the businesses in your area. Identify their needs for commercial properties. You must meet these needs, else the businesses will fail or leave, ruining your economy.
- Count the units in your housing and commercial markets. Compare with the previous numbers. Usually you will see gaps and overages.
- Deny all requests for development that does not meet a need in your community. If people want to build that, they can go somewhere else. Building stuff you don't need here is pointless.
- Advertise what kind of development you do need. You will get more applications if developers know what the local market needs.
- Include redevelopment as well as building from scratch. Do you have inaccessible homes that could be made accessible? Buildings standing empty that could be subdivided into small business slots or affordable housing? Maybe that husk of a big-box store could become a library or indoor playcenter. Turn the old mall into a community center. Waste nothing.
- Slap an escalating tax on vacant properties. If the owner isn't using it, then it should be sold -- maybe someone else can find a better use for it.
- Do something constructive with vacant lots. Check your parks-to-population numbers. Do you need more parks? Turn vacant lots into different types of pocket parks or community gardens. Do you have a housing shortage? Use infill to build rowhouses, cottage courtyards, small apartment buildings, or whatever else fits. Are you short on small business locations? Put in a building that subdivides into many affordable business slots.
- Make it easier, cheaper, and faster to construct desired projects. Review your building codes and other regulations; throw out anything unnecessary. Reduce or eliminate fees on much-needed projects. Streamline the approval process.
- Parking minimums eat up space in ways that don't help your economy, but cutting them without cutting traffic creates problems. Solve this dilemma by first reducing the need, then reducing the parking spaces. Densify toward your core as much as possible. Mixed-use zoning reduces the need to travel for every errand. Make your town walkable and bikeable; if necessary, start at the neighborhood level. Doing this raises property values, which raises your tax intake and thus your budget. Improve mass-transit and paratransit. Remember 1 car parking space = 10 bike parking spaces! Plus walkers and bikers spend more money shopping than drivers do. \o/ Once you've done that, you can do things like depaving, shrinking the parking minimums, and putting carless apartment complexes or rowhouses around your transit centers, bike hubs, etc. Change old parking lots to something more useful.
- If at all possible, obtain some plans you like and pre-approve them. "The following affordable housing models may be built on any residential lot that fits their basic parameters." Have some of each type you want such as freestanding homes, multiplexes, rowhouses, small or larger apartment buildings.
- Analyze your town's best, most popular, most profitable neighborhoods. What would it take to replicate that effective design elsewhere? Then write your zoning and building codes with that in mind. If you want to spot-test this approach, choose one block adjacent to the profitable neighborhood and attempt to extend it in that direction.
- You can then advertise your affordable housing gains, improved transit and walkscore, etc. when campaigning for re-election.
* Local money matters. People with skin in the game will do better by your city than outsiders looking to fleece you for a quick buck.
- If you have a truly local bank or credit union, use it. If you don't, establish one. These institutions will do a much better job of making sure that the construction they finance will truly match local market needs.
- The same is true of local investors. Mobilize them. Rich ones are nice to have. But you can boost small businesses with microloans, allowing many more citizens to become investors and business owners.
* Encourage cooperative business ventures.
- Sometimes people bundle together to build cohousing. This is typically more dense and sometimes more affordable than average, because it balances small private homes against generous common amenities.
- A group of 10-12 small businesses could just as well team up to build a facility rather than a big outside developer. All of these are people important to your local economy, as contrasted with outside corporations just looking to suck money away.
- A food coop is better for the local economy than a megachain grocery store.
Remember that any problem created by human interactions can ultimately be solved by humans. Things like banks and buildings only exist because we make them. So if we want them to be different, we can do that.
* Cities have boards of politicians in charge of running them. Somewhere in there are people with a lot of power over what gets built and how it gets used. These people, if motivated to do so, can make dramatic changes. Or conversely, motivated people can seek election to these positions and gain the power to make desired changes.
- Count the souls on board. Check the local cost of living. Check the local range of incomes. Calculate the housing need of your populace and what they can afford to pay for it. A municipality is responsible for housing its people.
- Count the businesses in your area. Identify their needs for commercial properties. You must meet these needs, else the businesses will fail or leave, ruining your economy.
- Count the units in your housing and commercial markets. Compare with the previous numbers. Usually you will see gaps and overages.
- Deny all requests for development that does not meet a need in your community. If people want to build that, they can go somewhere else. Building stuff you don't need here is pointless.
- Advertise what kind of development you do need. You will get more applications if developers know what the local market needs.
- Include redevelopment as well as building from scratch. Do you have inaccessible homes that could be made accessible? Buildings standing empty that could be subdivided into small business slots or affordable housing? Maybe that husk of a big-box store could become a library or indoor playcenter. Turn the old mall into a community center. Waste nothing.
- Slap an escalating tax on vacant properties. If the owner isn't using it, then it should be sold -- maybe someone else can find a better use for it.
- Do something constructive with vacant lots. Check your parks-to-population numbers. Do you need more parks? Turn vacant lots into different types of pocket parks or community gardens. Do you have a housing shortage? Use infill to build rowhouses, cottage courtyards, small apartment buildings, or whatever else fits. Are you short on small business locations? Put in a building that subdivides into many affordable business slots.
- Make it easier, cheaper, and faster to construct desired projects. Review your building codes and other regulations; throw out anything unnecessary. Reduce or eliminate fees on much-needed projects. Streamline the approval process.
- Parking minimums eat up space in ways that don't help your economy, but cutting them without cutting traffic creates problems. Solve this dilemma by first reducing the need, then reducing the parking spaces. Densify toward your core as much as possible. Mixed-use zoning reduces the need to travel for every errand. Make your town walkable and bikeable; if necessary, start at the neighborhood level. Doing this raises property values, which raises your tax intake and thus your budget. Improve mass-transit and paratransit. Remember 1 car parking space = 10 bike parking spaces! Plus walkers and bikers spend more money shopping than drivers do. \o/ Once you've done that, you can do things like depaving, shrinking the parking minimums, and putting carless apartment complexes or rowhouses around your transit centers, bike hubs, etc. Change old parking lots to something more useful.
- If at all possible, obtain some plans you like and pre-approve them. "The following affordable housing models may be built on any residential lot that fits their basic parameters." Have some of each type you want such as freestanding homes, multiplexes, rowhouses, small or larger apartment buildings.
- Analyze your town's best, most popular, most profitable neighborhoods. What would it take to replicate that effective design elsewhere? Then write your zoning and building codes with that in mind. If you want to spot-test this approach, choose one block adjacent to the profitable neighborhood and attempt to extend it in that direction.
- You can then advertise your affordable housing gains, improved transit and walkscore, etc. when campaigning for re-election.
* Local money matters. People with skin in the game will do better by your city than outsiders looking to fleece you for a quick buck.
- If you have a truly local bank or credit union, use it. If you don't, establish one. These institutions will do a much better job of making sure that the construction they finance will truly match local market needs.
- The same is true of local investors. Mobilize them. Rich ones are nice to have. But you can boost small businesses with microloans, allowing many more citizens to become investors and business owners.
* Encourage cooperative business ventures.
- Sometimes people bundle together to build cohousing. This is typically more dense and sometimes more affordable than average, because it balances small private homes against generous common amenities.
- A group of 10-12 small businesses could just as well team up to build a facility rather than a big outside developer. All of these are people important to your local economy, as contrasted with outside corporations just looking to suck money away.
- A food coop is better for the local economy than a megachain grocery store.
Remember that any problem created by human interactions can ultimately be solved by humans. Things like banks and buildings only exist because we make them. So if we want them to be different, we can do that.