Small Developers
This article talks about the benefits of small developers and how much we've lost with their disappearance.
It also uses the term "swarm" which fits because small developers work a lot like part of an ecosystem. I have a hive of honeybees here, but I didn't buy them and they don't live in a box. Instead, I focused on creating a healthy ecosystem, which happens to be something honeybees like. Their scouts found a nice neighborhood, searched for a vacancy, found a hollow tree, and moved in. That's all it took. I paid no money and did no work specifically for honeybees; I get thousands of dollars worth of work from them for nothing more than space.
The swarm of small developers can be cultivated in similar fashion. Since we desperately need "missing middle" housing in most locales, and that's what they specialize in; and we also need better jobs in most places, which that career provides; then it would benefit everyone to do this. This would also reduce the problem of persistent vacancies, which are created by people out-of-touch with local needs and resources, along with a perverse regulatory environment.
A small town to small city will have a much easier time fixing this than a big city. Big is slow and hard to change; small is nimble and quick. So let's concentrate on the smaller places when small-scale development projects are most prevalent anyhow.
* Decide you're unsatisfied with the status quo, you want something better, and you believe your residents are or could be capable of improving the situation.
* Identify some things you would like to work toward and things you prefer to reduce or eliminate. For example, designate small developers as a subtype of small business you wish to promote and large outside developers as something that has proven insufficient for housing your populace.
* Create an organization to support small developers. Add members representing the city council, lumberyards, construction firms, landscapers, etc. Have you got a tenants' organization? If so, include representatives from them. If not, start that too. This will help people solve problems collectively.
* Examine your codes and regulations. Strip out anything primarily aimed at preventing big outside interests from trashing your town, thus creating a streamlined process for small, local developers. Make the permitting process work for them.
* If you are concerned about making costly mistakes, keep your bets small.
- Use tactical urbanism to test proposals before implementing a final project plan. This assists people in choosing the best plans, and reveals glitches early so they can be addressed before the final build.
- Try out changes in zoning, building codes, etc. within small areas (a block or a neighborhood) rather than your whole town at once. This way, if it turns out that you're not ready to remove parking minimums, you can back off before too much damage is done and try something else.
* Ensure that small developers can access financing. Approach the banks to see if they're interested in your program. If they are not, seek other options. Perhaps you have local investors interested in small business. For renovations, auxiliary dwelling units, and auxiliary commercial units, microloans can be very effective. If you have lots of community support, consider crowdfunding. 100 people chipping in $100 each, 10 people chipping in $1,000 each or 1 person chipping in $10,000 all come to the same end, but the lower cost of entry via crowdfunding allows many more citizens to participate.
* To minimize aesthetic arguments, work with what you have. To thicken a residential neighborhood, look for garage apartments, duplexes or triplexes that resemble neighboring houses, renovating an existing house to add an attic, basement, or side apartment. If you have an old downtown that's mostly 2-4 story live-work buildings, then allow new buildings in that size range or maybe 1 story taller. Renovate a 2-story building with one apartment into a 4-story building with 3 apartments, and you've more than doubled its housing capacity. With infill, aim for things that won't clash with neighboring buildings, like a new brick building between two old ones. But you can put a modern-style rowhouse at the edge of the old downtown, and it won't clash as badly as it would in the middle. Let builders experiment with different styles to see what works.
* Similarly, it helps to set zoning and building codes to allow more of whatever's already there if people want to build that, rather than trying to make everything match modern standards that don't fit that neighborhood. This enables you to renovate or replace damaged historic buildings without losing the character of the historic neighborhood.
* Take advantage of modern options like modular buildings by giving them a space of their own rather than trying to wedge them into historic neighborhoods. These work great for addressing suburban sprawl. Look for a nascent core -- maybe you have a grocery store or strip mall -- and zone it so small developers can pop in a small apartment building, a double row of live-work buildings facing each other, a cluster of small-business sheds, and so on.
* Establish a process to evaluate results, avoid repeating mistakes, and effectively replicate successes. If people love Duplex Style B but hate Duplex Style C, then drop C from your automatic approval list, pop in a new blueprint to test, and mark B as the current favorite so folks know to make more of it. If one neighborhood's rain garden project makes it stop flooding, analyze the working parts of their plan and promote it to other neighborhoods. The city can help by either retrofitting a current park or establishing a new one with a marsh filter and pond to catch the end runoff from a larger water-handling system. Let the small developers handle things at their scale while the city assists with the next level up.
It also uses the term "swarm" which fits because small developers work a lot like part of an ecosystem. I have a hive of honeybees here, but I didn't buy them and they don't live in a box. Instead, I focused on creating a healthy ecosystem, which happens to be something honeybees like. Their scouts found a nice neighborhood, searched for a vacancy, found a hollow tree, and moved in. That's all it took. I paid no money and did no work specifically for honeybees; I get thousands of dollars worth of work from them for nothing more than space.
The swarm of small developers can be cultivated in similar fashion. Since we desperately need "missing middle" housing in most locales, and that's what they specialize in; and we also need better jobs in most places, which that career provides; then it would benefit everyone to do this. This would also reduce the problem of persistent vacancies, which are created by people out-of-touch with local needs and resources, along with a perverse regulatory environment.
A small town to small city will have a much easier time fixing this than a big city. Big is slow and hard to change; small is nimble and quick. So let's concentrate on the smaller places when small-scale development projects are most prevalent anyhow.
* Decide you're unsatisfied with the status quo, you want something better, and you believe your residents are or could be capable of improving the situation.
* Identify some things you would like to work toward and things you prefer to reduce or eliminate. For example, designate small developers as a subtype of small business you wish to promote and large outside developers as something that has proven insufficient for housing your populace.
* Create an organization to support small developers. Add members representing the city council, lumberyards, construction firms, landscapers, etc. Have you got a tenants' organization? If so, include representatives from them. If not, start that too. This will help people solve problems collectively.
* Examine your codes and regulations. Strip out anything primarily aimed at preventing big outside interests from trashing your town, thus creating a streamlined process for small, local developers. Make the permitting process work for them.
* If you are concerned about making costly mistakes, keep your bets small.
- Use tactical urbanism to test proposals before implementing a final project plan. This assists people in choosing the best plans, and reveals glitches early so they can be addressed before the final build.
- Try out changes in zoning, building codes, etc. within small areas (a block or a neighborhood) rather than your whole town at once. This way, if it turns out that you're not ready to remove parking minimums, you can back off before too much damage is done and try something else.
* Ensure that small developers can access financing. Approach the banks to see if they're interested in your program. If they are not, seek other options. Perhaps you have local investors interested in small business. For renovations, auxiliary dwelling units, and auxiliary commercial units, microloans can be very effective. If you have lots of community support, consider crowdfunding. 100 people chipping in $100 each, 10 people chipping in $1,000 each or 1 person chipping in $10,000 all come to the same end, but the lower cost of entry via crowdfunding allows many more citizens to participate.
* To minimize aesthetic arguments, work with what you have. To thicken a residential neighborhood, look for garage apartments, duplexes or triplexes that resemble neighboring houses, renovating an existing house to add an attic, basement, or side apartment. If you have an old downtown that's mostly 2-4 story live-work buildings, then allow new buildings in that size range or maybe 1 story taller. Renovate a 2-story building with one apartment into a 4-story building with 3 apartments, and you've more than doubled its housing capacity. With infill, aim for things that won't clash with neighboring buildings, like a new brick building between two old ones. But you can put a modern-style rowhouse at the edge of the old downtown, and it won't clash as badly as it would in the middle. Let builders experiment with different styles to see what works.
* Similarly, it helps to set zoning and building codes to allow more of whatever's already there if people want to build that, rather than trying to make everything match modern standards that don't fit that neighborhood. This enables you to renovate or replace damaged historic buildings without losing the character of the historic neighborhood.
* Take advantage of modern options like modular buildings by giving them a space of their own rather than trying to wedge them into historic neighborhoods. These work great for addressing suburban sprawl. Look for a nascent core -- maybe you have a grocery store or strip mall -- and zone it so small developers can pop in a small apartment building, a double row of live-work buildings facing each other, a cluster of small-business sheds, and so on.
* Establish a process to evaluate results, avoid repeating mistakes, and effectively replicate successes. If people love Duplex Style B but hate Duplex Style C, then drop C from your automatic approval list, pop in a new blueprint to test, and mark B as the current favorite so folks know to make more of it. If one neighborhood's rain garden project makes it stop flooding, analyze the working parts of their plan and promote it to other neighborhoods. The city can help by either retrofitting a current park or establishing a new one with a marsh filter and pond to catch the end runoff from a larger water-handling system. Let the small developers handle things at their scale while the city assists with the next level up.