Back from the freeze-in Florida!
While it turned out to be a sunny and warm week, the 2018 IBS started out much like last year in Orlando — cold! My service on the Land Use Committee, Land Use Policy Subcommittee takes me to the show early, but it was warming up by Sunday morning. Here’s some key topics of discussion at our meetings:
- Inclusionary Zoning
- Small footprint, “tiny” homes and neighborhoods
This is an exciting trend in the industry. Not RVs made to look like cabins, but permanent homes on foundations, just smaller. This will be an important market trend to meet the growing need for affordable housing. - Accessory Dwelling Units “ADU”
Homebuilders are creating new pathways for building ADUs-another opportunity to meet the need for affordable housing. Design guidelines for siting new ADUs on existing single-family lots and use by right zoning for ADUs were key discussion topics. - Impact Fees
In North Carolina, industry advocates have been successful in pushing back on unreasonable impact fees. Jurisdictions and their utility and service providers are now required to include existing rate payers in the cost of system expansions. - Cluster Mailbox Discussion with USPS
While cluster mailbox mail collection may seem routine to many, it’s still emerging as a development issue in much of the US. A representative from the USPS in Washington DC participated in a lively discussion with the committee and other attendees about reasonable transition from single address service to clustered service, cost implications and maintenance responsibility.
The outstanding staff at HAHB has been creating an Inclusionary zoning calculator tool to help builders make an objective analysis of the costs of an inclusionary housing development for working with jurisdictions and other stakeholders. We’ve made great progress and staff plans to have a draft for public release at our mid-summer meeting in Portland.
If you would like to know more about any of these topics, please give me a call. I will be attending the mid-summer meetings in Portland for the Land Development Committee as well as the Design Committee Education Subcommittee that I am now a member of. I always try to join the Environmental Issues Committee meetings as well, since their work is so closely related to both land development and design.
If you have an issue you would like to have addressed at the national level, let me know and I will bring it up at the meetings.
Now, let it snow-in Colorado!
