Medium-density housing

Last updated May 18, 2024

Medium-density housing is a term used within urban planning and academic literature to refer to a category of residential development that falls between detached suburban housing and large multi-story buildings. There is no singular definition of medium-density housing as its precise definition tends to vary between jurisdiction. Scholars however, have found that medium density housing ranges from about 25 to 80 dwellings per hectare, although most commonly sits around 30 and 40 dwellings/hectare.^[1]^[2]^[3] Typical examples of medium-density housing include duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, row homes, detached homes with garden suites, and walk-up apartment buildings.^[2]^[3]

In Australia the density of standard suburban residential areas has traditionally been between 8-15 dwellings per hectare.^[1] In New Zealand medium-density development is defined as four or more units with an average density of less than 350m².^[4] Such developments typically consist of semi-attached and multi-unit housing (also known as grouped housing) and low-rise apartments.

In the United States, medium-density housing is usually referred to as middle-sized or cluster development that fits between neighborhoods with single family homes and high-rise apartments. This kind of development is usually intended to bridge the gap between low- and high-density neighborhoods. Because this kind of housing refers to density specifically, the type of building or number of units can vary. Medium-density housing in America has historically been perceived as undesirable due to the affordable nature of the housing that attracts low-income residents, and its perceived breach on the established suburban lifestyle.^[5] The various styles of medium-density housing are now being considered as more sustainable development options to help solve the housing crisis in America.^[6]

Characteristics

Medium-density housing is commonly identified by how it contrasts both suburban development and high-density development. Suburbs are characterized by large lot sizes, generous setbacks from the street, low density, and single-uses.^[7] High-density development, such as high-rise apartment towers have very high density with minimal setbacks and located near a variety of other land uses and transit connections.^[2]^[3] In contrast, medium-density development sits between these two extremes. Buildings usual are no taller than 4 stories, shorter than high-rises, but with smaller setbacks and individual lots than suburban areas. ^[3]^[8]

Most often, medium-density housing provides multiple housing units within a shared structure. These buildings tend to share common infrastructure such as party walls, water mains, parking areas, and green space.^[3] Due to the sharing of infrastructure and co-location of multiple units in a single building, medium-density housing tends to have lower per unit construction costs than single-family homes. ^[3] Lower construction cost result in lower housing prices, mean that medium-density housing is often more affordable than a detached home. Many have suggested that increasing the supply of medium-density housing, known as the Missing Middle, is crucial to improving housing affordability in North America.^[9]

Medium-density housing allows for more compact development meaning distances between destinations is shortened.^[8] As a result, areas of medium-density are more likely to be mixed-use with easy access to shopping and services.^[8]

Close proximity to community services and amenities
Efficient use of land, resources, and infrastructure
Small to medium footprints
Smaller, well-designed units
Simple construction
Reduced parking
A sense of community
More affordable

History

United States

In the U.S. most medium-density or middle-sized housing was built between the 1870s and 1940s^[10] due to the need to provide denser housing near jobs. Examples include the streetcar suburbs of Boston which included more two-family and triple-decker homes than single-family homes,^[10] or areas like Brooklyn, Baltimore, Washington D.C. or Philadelphia^[10] which feature an abundance of row-houses. This type of housing, once an affordable option for rental or homeownership has turned into luxury development due to the rising land and construction costs of nearby developments.^[11] Before WW1 the Garden-city movement had become an increasingly popular method for planning neighborhoods. As the U.S. began experiencing a housing crisis for war workers, it began a mass production of housing that followed the Garden-city form. This greatly impacted development patterns across the United States until the Great Depression. During the Great Depression the U.S. government passed the National Housing Act of 1934 to create the Federal Housing Authority with the goal of providing more federally backed loans to Americans so they could purchase homes. This led to the White Flight of the 1940s because many White Americans were able to move from urban cities to homes at the outskirts of the city, as well as purchase cars. This furthered the suburbanization of America which led to the increase in home sizes, land use, automobile use and contributed to suburban sprawl.^[12] Neighborhoods were no longer built to human scale, but rather built to accommodate larger developments; in the suburbs this meant larger single family homes and wider roads for cars and in the city high-rise apartments.^[12]

Levittown, PA is an example of an established post-war suburb with single-family zoning that was created due to urban sprawl (circa 1959). LevittownPA.jpg — Levittown, PA is an example of an established post-war suburb with single-family zoning that was created due to urban sprawl (circa 1959).

In the 1960s architects identified a stark difference between neighborhoods created by high-rise development and suburban sprawl, and realized there was a need for more medium-density or middle-sized housing to bridge the gap between cities and suburbs.^[5] Architects and developers started building cluster housing to address this gap in housing but these kinds of developments weren't marketed towards low-income residents in need of housing.^[5] Due to the recession in the 70's President Nixon issued a moratorium on government funding for low-income housing.^[5] Medium-density or cluster development were framed as an undesirable but necessary solution to the housing crisis by TV programs and newspapers.^[5] Established suburbs of the postwar-era had created distinctions between home and work life, also distancing themselves from their neighbors.^[5] The introduction of medium-density housing into established suburbs was not allowed due to exclusionary single-family zoning and because it was viewed breach of family fundamentals that had been established with suburban living.^[5] Medium-density, cluster or middle-sized housing was referred to as an inadequate, makeshift substitute for those who couldn't afford suburban living.^[5] This perception of medium-density or middle sized housing has been thought to be fueled by irrational fears of density^[12] and wanting to keep low-income residents out of suburban neighborhoods.^[5] This led to the decrease of medium or middle-sized housing in America, referred to as Missing Middle Housing.

Australia

Many traditional types of housing developed prior to car-based cities were at comparable densities, such as the terraced (row) or courtyard housing found in many parts of the world. The inner suburbs in many Australian cities and those activity centres developed during the late Victorian suburban boom have examples of medium density housing. Since the 1960s, many Australian states have encouraged urban consolidation policies which have facilitated the construction of medium density housing. The debate around medium-density housing arose during the Garden Suburbs movement. The first studies on medium-density housing happened during the 1960s during the post-war housing boom, focusing on housing consumption rather than sustainability and affordability.^[13] In the 1970s more studies performed investigated barriers to producing medium-density housing and attributed them to planning. Studies in the 1980s and 1990s however focused more on perceptions of medium-density housing and how it is designed.^[13] Despite positive perceptions of medium-density housing from those who actually lived in it, people living in less dense housing perceived it as negative.^[13]

New Zealand

In New Zealand housing has historically focused on a semi-rural or suburban density and has experienced extensive suburban sprawl.^[14] Several reports have highlighted the need for medium-density housing in New Zealand as a means of providing affordable sustainable housing.^[15]^[16]

Criticism

The design of medium density housing requires careful consideration of urban design principles. In some cases, urban consolidation policies have allowed demolition of existing low-density housing across established residential suburbs, replacing them with various forms of medium-density dwellings. Because of this, many medium-density developments have been controversial in the last 20–30 years because of their perceived negative impacts on the neighborhood character of established residential areas.

In Australia there has been an increasing policy emphasis by state and local governments to regulate the design of new medium density developments, such as the Victorian government's ResCode, released in 2001, and the metropolitan strategy, Melbourne 2030, which seeks to confine such housing to activity centers.

In America, restrictive zoning and "no-growth" ordinances stop cities and towns from densifying their neighborhoods with medium-density or middle-sized housing. Rezoning a city or town can be time-consuming, costly and remains susceptible to community pushback by NIMBYs. Critics of goldilocks density, a term coined by Lloyd Alter, argue that medium-density housing is not a blanket solution for the housing crisis different cities face because each cities will need to take a different approach.^[17]

Related Research Articles

A suburb is an area within a metropolitan area which is predominantly residential and within commuting distance of a large city. Suburbs can have their own political or legal jurisdiction, especially in the United States, but this is not always the case, especially in the United Kingdom, where most suburbs are located within the administrative boundaries of cities. In most English-speaking countries, suburban areas are defined in contrast to central city or inner city areas, but in Australian English and South African English, suburb has become largely synonymous with what is called a "neighborhood" in the U.S. Due in part to historical trends such as white flight, some suburbs in the United States have a higher population and higher incomes than their nearby inner cities.

Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, and mixed-use development with a range of housing choices. The term "smart growth" is particularly used in North America. In Europe and particularly the UK, the terms "compact city", "urban densification" or "urban intensification" have often been used to describe similar concepts, which have influenced government planning policies in the UK, the Netherlands and several other European countries.

In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a single use, they may combine several compatible activities by use, or in the case of form-based zoning, the differing regulations may govern the density, size and shape of allowed buildings whatever their use. The planning rules for each zone determine whether planning permission for a given development may be granted. Zoning may specify a variety of outright and conditional uses of land. It may indicate the size and dimensions of lots that land may be subdivided into, or the form and scale of buildings. These guidelines are set in order to guide urban growth and development.

A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.

Urban sprawl is defined as "the spreading of urban developments on undeveloped land near a more or less densely populated city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for very dense urban planning. Sometimes the urban areas described as the most "sprawling" are the most densely populated. In addition to describing a special form of urbanization, the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development. In modern times some suburban areas described as "sprawl" have less detached housing and higher density than the nearby core city. Medieval suburbs suffered from the loss of protection of city walls, before the advent of industrial warfare. Modern disadvantages and costs include increased travel time, transport costs, pollution, and destruction of the countryside. The revenue for building and maintaining urban infrastructure in these areas are gained mostly through property and sales taxes. Most jobs in the US are now located in suburbs generating much of the revenue, although a lack of growth will require higher tax rates.

Inclusionary zoning (IZ) is municipal and county planning ordinances that require or provide incentives when a given percentage of units in a new housing development be affordable by people with low to moderate incomes. Such housing is known as inclusionary housing. The term inclusionary zoning indicates that these ordinances seek to counter exclusionary zoning practices, which exclude low-cost housing from a municipality through the zoning code. Non-profit affordable housing developers build 100% of their units as affordable, but need significant taxpayer subsidies for this model to work. Inclusionary zoning allows municipalities to have new affordable housing constructed without taxpayer subsidies. In order to encourage for-profit developers to build projects that include affordable units, cities often allow developers to build more total units than their zoning laws currently allow so that there will be enough profit generating market-rate units to offset the losses from the below market-rate units and still allow the project to be financially feasible. Inclusionary zoning can be mandatory or voluntary, though the great majority of units have been built as a result of mandatory programmes. There are variations among the set-aside requirements, affordability levels, and length of time the unit is deed-restricted as affordable housing.

Suburbanization (AE), or suburbanisation (BE), is a population shift from historic core cities or rural areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses away from city centers, low-density, peripheral urban areas grow.

A single-family detached home, also called a single-detached dwelling,single-family residence (SFR) or separate house is a free-standing residential building. It is defined in opposition to a multi-family residential dwelling.

A duplex house plan has two living units attached to each other, either next to each other as townhouses, condominiums or above each other like apartments. By contrast, a building comprising two attached units on two distinct properties is typically considered semi-detached or twin homes but is also called a duplex in parts of the Northeastern United States, Western Canada, and Saudi Arabia.

The YIMBY movement is a pro-infrastructure development movement mostly focusing on public housing policy, real estate development, public transportation, and pedestrian safety in transportation planning, in contrast and in opposition to the NIMBY movement that generally opposes most forms of urban development in order to maintain the status quo. As a popular organized movement in the United States, it began in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 2010s amid a major housing affordability crisis and has subsequently become a potent political force in state and local politics across the United States.

A planned unit development (PUD) is a type of flexible, non-Euclidean zoning device that redefines the land uses allowed within a stated land area. PUDs consist of unitary site plans that promote the creation of open spaces, mixed-use housing and land uses, environmental preservation and sustainability, and development flexibility. Areas rezoned as PUDs include building developments, designed groupings of both varied and compatible land uses—such as housing, recreation, commercial centers, and industrial parks—within one contained development or subdivision. Developed areas vary in size and by zoned uses, such as industrial, commercial, and residential. Other types of similar zoning devices include floating zones, overlay zones, special district zoning, performance-based codes, and transferable development rights.

Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affordable housing refers to mortgages and a number of forms that exist along a continuum – from emergency homeless shelters, to transitional housing, to non-market rental, to formal and informal rental, indigenous housing, and ending with affordable home ownership.

Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some degree physically and functionally integrated, and that provides pedestrian connections. Mixed-use development may be applied to a single building, a block or neighborhood, or in zoning policy across an entire city or other administrative unit. These projects may be completed by a private developer, (quasi-)governmental agency, or a combination thereof. A mixed-use development may be a new construction, reuse of an existing building or brownfield site, or a combination.

Secondary suites (also known as accessory dwelling units (ADU), in-law apartments, granny flats, granny annexes or garden suites) are self-contained apartments, cottages, or small residential units, that are located on a property that has a separate main, single-family home, duplex, or other residential unit. In some cases, the ADU or in-law is attached to the principal dwelling or is an entirely separate unit, located above a garage, across a carport, or in the backyard on the same property. Reasons for wanting to add a secondary suite to a property may be to receive additional income, provide social and personal support to a family member, or obtain greater security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoning in the United States</span> Provision in urban planning in the United States

Zoning is a law that divides a jurisdiction's land into districts, or zones, and limits how land in each district can be used. In the United States, zoning includes various land use laws enforced through the police power rights of state governments and local governments to exercise authority over privately owned real property.

Exclusionary zoning is the use of zoning ordinances to exclude certain types of land uses from a given community, especially to regulate racial and economic diversity. In the United States, exclusionary zoning ordinances are standard in almost all communities. Exclusionary zoning was introduced in the early 1900s, typically to prevent racial and ethnic minorities from moving into middle- and upper-class neighborhoods. Municipalities use zoning to limit the supply of available housing units, such as by prohibiting multi-family residential dwellings or setting minimum lot size requirements. These ordinances raise costs, making it less likely that lower-income groups will move in. Development fees for variance, a building permit, a certificate of occupancy, a filing (legal) cost, special permits and planned-unit development applications for new housing also raise prices to levels inaccessible for lower income people.

Missing middle housing refers to a lack of medium-density housing in the North American context. The term describes an urban planning phenomenon in Canada, the United States, Australia and more recent developments in industrialised and newly industrialising countries due to zoning regulations favoring social and racial separation and car-dependent suburban sprawl.

California Senate Bill 50 was a proposed California bill that would have preempted local government control of land zoning near public transit stations and jobs centers. The bill would have also required, at minimum, four-plex residential zoning statewide. The bill was the successor to a similar bill introduced by state senator Scott Wiener in January 2018 as Senate Bill 827 ; both would have applied to areas within one-half-mile (0.8 km) of frequent transit corridors, including rail stations and bus routes. The bills were sponsored by California YIMBY, a pro-housing lobbying group while they were opposed by local governments, anti-gentrification activists, and suburban homeowners. The bills were written in response to an ongoing housing affordability crisis in California's largest urban areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single-family zoning</span> Residential planning classification

Single-family zoning is a type of planning restriction applied to certain residential zones in the United States and Canada in order to restrict development to only allow single-family detached homes. It disallows townhomes, duplexes, and multifamily housing (apartments) from being built on any plot of land with this zoning designation.

Low-rise high-density housing refers to residential developments typically 4 stories or less in height, with a high number of housing units per acre of land, between 35-80 dwellings per hectare. This housing type is said to provide a middle ground between detached single-family homes and high-rise apartment buildings.

References

1 2 "The Low Rise Housing Diversity Code". www.planning.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
1 2 3 Hodge, Gerald; Gordon, David; Shaw, Pamela (2021). Planning Canadian communities: An introduction to the principles, practices, and participants in the 21st century. Toronto: Nelson. ISBN 978-0-17-670549-7.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Ellis, John (2004). "Explaining residential densities" (PDF). Places . 16 (2): 34–43.
↑ "Medium-density housing in New Zealand | Ministry for the Environment". www.mfe.govt.nz. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Wright, Gwendolyn (1988). Building the Dream. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 313–329.
↑ "New Report Shows America's Rental Affordability Crisis Climbing the Income Ladder | Joint Center for Housing Studies". www.jchs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
↑ Song, Yan; Knapp, Gerrit-Jan (2004). "Measuring urban form: Is Portland winning the war on sprawl?". Journal of the American Planning Association . 70 (2): 210–225. doi:10.1080/01944360408976371. S2CID 154330919.
1 2 3 Yang, Yizhao (2008-07-30). "A Tale of Two Cities: Physical Form and Neighborhood Satisfaction in Metropolitan Portland and Charlotte". Journal of the American Planning Association. 74 (3): 307–323. doi:10.1080/01944360802215546. ISSN 0194-4363. S2CID 153450307.
↑ Wegmann, Jake (2020-01-02). "Death to Single-Family Zoning…and New Life to the Missing Middle". Journal of the American Planning Association. 86 (1): 113–119. doi: 10.1080/01944363.2019.1651217 . ISSN 0194-4363. S2CID 213724059.
1 2 3 "Will U.S. Cities Design Their Way Out of the Affordable Housing Crisis?". nextcity.org. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
↑ "Greater Boston Housing Report Card: Housing Equity and Resilience in Greater Boston's Post-COVID Economy". www.tbf.org. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
1 2 3 Friedman, Avi; Krawitz, David (2001). Peeking Through the Keyhole: The Evolution of North American Homes. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 150–151.
1 2 3 King, Anthony (1999). Medium-Density Housing under the Good Design Guide A Study of the Experiences of Residents and Neighbours. Melbourne: Housing Industry Association Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.
↑ Marriage, Guy; Blenkarne, Eliot (2015). "Density comparisons in New Zealand and European housing" (PDF). The Architectural Science Association and the University of Melbourne: 247–256.
↑ "Embracing higher density housing is a positive sign that Auckland is growing up". Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
↑ "Embracing higher density housing is a positive sign that Auckland is growing up ::". Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities. Retrieved 2024-05-17.
↑ "Is There a Perfect Density?". Planetizen - Urban Planning News, Jobs, and Education. Retrieved 2020-12-17.

External Sources

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[:0-1] 1 2 "The Low Rise Housing Diversity Code". www.planning.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 2020-12-17.

[:5-2] 1 2 3 Hodge, Gerald; Gordon, David; Shaw, Pamela (2021). Planning Canadian communities: An introduction to the principles, practices, and participants in the 21st century. Toronto: Nelson. ISBN 978-0-17-670549-7.

[:6-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ellis, John (2004). "Explaining residential densities" (PDF). Places . 16 (2): 34–43.

[4] "Medium-density housing in New Zealand | Ministry for the Environment". www.mfe.govt.nz. Retrieved 2020-12-17.

[:1-5] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Wright, Gwendolyn (1988). Building the Dream. Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 313–329.

[6] "New Report Shows America's Rental Affordability Crisis Climbing the Income Ladder | Joint Center for Housing Studies". www.jchs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-19.

[7] Song, Yan; Knapp, Gerrit-Jan (2004). "Measuring urban form: Is Portland winning the war on sprawl?". Journal of the American Planning Association . 70 (2): 210–225. doi:10.1080/01944360408976371. S2CID 154330919.

[:7-8] 1 2 3 Yang, Yizhao (2008-07-30). "A Tale of Two Cities: Physical Form and Neighborhood Satisfaction in Metropolitan Portland and Charlotte". Journal of the American Planning Association. 74 (3): 307–323. doi:10.1080/01944360802215546. ISSN 0194-4363. S2CID 153450307.

[9] Wegmann, Jake (2020-01-02). "Death to Single-Family Zoning…and New Life to the Missing Middle". Journal of the American Planning Association. 86 (1): 113–119. doi: 10.1080/01944363.2019.1651217 . ISSN 0194-4363. S2CID 213724059.

[:4-10] 1 2 3 "Will U.S. Cities Design Their Way Out of the Affordable Housing Crisis?". nextcity.org. Retrieved 2020-12-17.

[11] "Greater Boston Housing Report Card: Housing Equity and Resilience in Greater Boston's Post-COVID Economy". www.tbf.org. Retrieved 2020-12-17.

[:2-12] 1 2 3 Friedman, Avi; Krawitz, David (2001). Peeking Through the Keyhole: The Evolution of North American Homes. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp. 150–151.

[:3-13] 1 2 3 King, Anthony (1999). Medium-Density Housing under the Good Design Guide A Study of the Experiences of Residents and Neighbours. Melbourne: Housing Industry Association Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

[14] Marriage, Guy; Blenkarne, Eliot (2015). "Density comparisons in New Zealand and European housing" (PDF). The Architectural Science Association and the University of Melbourne: 247–256.

[15] "Embracing higher density housing is a positive sign that Auckland is growing up". Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities. Retrieved 2023-05-19.

[16] "Embracing higher density housing is a positive sign that Auckland is growing up ::". Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities. Retrieved 2024-05-17.

[17] "Is There a Perfect Density?". Planetizen - Urban Planning News, Jobs, and Education. Retrieved 2020-12-17.

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