Incentivize Infill Housing in St. Joseph’s Core

              In our financial system, homes are both shelter and the most significant investment middle-class Americans make over their lifetime. All people require shelter, but to preserve homeowners’ expectations of financial security, home prices, by definition, must rise.

Vacant lots and derelict abandoned homes reduce the values of nearby homes, and our financial system makes purchasing homes in distressed neighborhoods against most people’s interests.

New infill housing in existing neighborhoods improves the average condition of homes, stabilizes existing home values, provides opportunities for new residents to have affordable housing. The city also benefits from more revenue while serving new infill homes using existing infrastructure and not increasing costs like new “green field” development does.

Zoning that Provides Affordable Options and Preserves Neighborhood Character

              At it’s best, zoning separates where people live from hazards, odors, and noises that reduce peoples’ quality of life and prevents the kind of urban overcrowding seen in American cities at the beginning of the 20^th century. Zoning has also played a role in reducing the availability of affordable housing, among other policy problems.

              St. Joseph needs modern zoning that is not categorically opposed to increasing housing density to address modern problems, namely the lack of affordable housing for low- and middle-income residents.

              Each neighborhood is different, but new duplexes (or responsibly converted existing homes), built in a similar style to existing single-family homes should be allowed in most neighborhoods. A four-plex or garden apartments should be allowed in existing neighborhoods with duplexes. Basically, one level of density up from existing housing should be allowed with limited bureaucratic process (allowed “by right”).

              We need to provide more housing, and reformed zoning allows government to get out of the way, while preserving the fundamental character of our city’s neighborhoods.