• Best practices for ending exclusive single-family zoning

    Your city or state just allowed—or is considering allowing—multiple units on every lot. Here are six tips for successful implementation of the Missing Middle.
    Last year was a groundbreaking one for housing policy and legislation to enable Missing Middle Housing across cities and states. Minneapolis adopted a policy to allow up to three units on any lot, even those zoned for single-family. Oregon passed HB 2001, effectively eliminating exclusive single-...Read more

  • ‘Induced demand’ calls for smarter transportation policy

    Widening of roads usually reduces congestion only for a short period of time, after which the congestion returns—as bad or worse than ever. The above graph shows why the forecast benefits of more roads are almost always a disappointment. “Induced demand is the name for what happens when increasing...Read more

  • Carrying on the work of Christopher Alexander

    A New Pattern Language for Growing Regions provides 80 new patterns, in the format of Alexander’s classic architecture book, and is a worthwhile read for urbanists, planners, and designers of the built environment.
    Architect Christopher Alexander’s 1977 book A Pattern Language has been highly influential in software, inspiring “design patterns” that have become industry standard, and influencing the creation of sites like Wikipedia, notes urbanist and author Michael Mehaffy. By contrast, new pattern...Read more

  • Tiny blocks, big living

    Developers often spend considerable upfront time assembling land into larger and larger parcels. Then when it’s time to master plan the project, the last thing they think they want to do is break it back down again into smaller pieces. But this “disassembly” of land has several advantages. First,...Read more