Streamlining Housing Development Review Through Zoning Reform
As communities look for solutions to increase their housing supply to fit their needs, overly complicated zoning review processes often get in the way of development, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuse projects. Updating housing plans, removing exclusionary or outdated regulations, and reforming land use are local changes that can increase attainable housing supply across the country.
The Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook, developed by APA, the National League of Cities and other housing partners, is a free resource that offers elected leaders, planners, and housing champions a collection of strategies, case studies, and models for how other communities are approaching housing and zoning reform. One strategy offered to increase housing supply is to speed or streamline processes for housing development review and approval.
Streamlining processes and increasing housing supply has become a top priority for the White House. In continuation of their Housing Supply Action Plan, the Biden-Harris administration has announced a variety of updates to support communities advancing local zoning reform, such as a second round of the APA-endorsed Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program grant applications, streamlined environmental and historic preservation reviews, and increased support for local permitting reform.
Strategies to Increase Housing Production
Here are five tips from the Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook to streamline your review processes to speed housing production:
1. Expand Administrative or Ministerial Review
Administrative or ministerial review is a process of approval that is conducted by a zoning administrator or municipal staff. By expanding staffs' review powers to include conforming mixed-use, missing middle, and accessory dwelling unit projects, housing development timelines are cut down significantly as it no longer requires housing development to go in front of a planning commission or elected body to be approved.
2. Focus Legislative Review and Approval
Focusing legislative action on updating housing policy, zoning ordinances, and select development agreements can speed up housing production in a community. This gives planners and developers the tools to speed review processes and issue permits faster, resulting in an increase in diverse housing projects. This strategy also helps to prevent especially vocal opponents from exploiting political pressure to redefine projects that are already consistent with an adopted plan or code.
3. Develop a Pattern Book of Pre-Reviewed Design Plans
Pattern books are a set of pre-approved plans by a government body for local use. They can speed review times by streamlining processes of permitting since plans are pre-approved by the community. These developments aid small-scale developers and increase housing supply in a timelier manner.
Listen to Rachel Smith, AICP, talk about how Kalamazoo, Michigan, implemented a pattern book and was able to increase ADU development in the city:
4. Develop Pattern Zones
Pattern zones incorporate certain plans from a pattern book into local zoning, permitting specific pre-approved plans by mapping them onto specified parcels. This speeds up housing production and approves more missing middle housing by creating designated zones for the designs.
5. Combine Streamlined Reviews and Elimination of Discretionary Appeals with Incentives
Communities can incentivize affordable housing projects by streamlining or limiting reviews, entitlement, and approvals processes for affordable housing projects to speed development of housing supply in their municipality. Early analysis suggests this approach expedites and limits, or even eliminates, the need for extra subsidies.
Permitting Reform in Progress
Many communities nationwide are already implementing these strategies and are seeing real results on an increase in diverse, attainable, and equitable housing.
When Claremore, Oklahoma, a small college town of over 19,000 people, was experiencing a surge in demand for housing, the town council got to work adopting the Claremore 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The plan moved to increase housing production by creating a new set of Unified Development Codes. This includes pre-approved plans and designs, which the town demonstrated through a pilot program. This led to significant growth in applications, approvals, and new construction, increasing housing options throughout Claremore.
In San Diego, California, the Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS® and other supporters of accessory dwelling unit (ADU) production collaborated on a free digital handbook to help homeowners design and build ADUs. This gave homeowners resources and tools to be able to quickly permit ADUs and increase housing supply throughout San Diego. ADUs are one of the many missing middle housing options that help create more attainable housing choices within a community.
As planners and elected leaders think about creating options for housing that fit the needs of their communities, expediting or streamlining processes for housing development is a key strategy to speed up housing production and create more diverse types of housing options. Whether it is developing pre-approved designs or updating housing policy, planners play a crucial role in creating attainable and equitable housing options for all.
Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook
More on local Permitting Reform
Learn more about pattern books and other actions your community can take to streamline the permitting process and increase housing production in the Housing Supply Accelerator Playbook.
Top image: iStock Unreleased-jmoor17