How 'inside-the-box' zoning and infill development can ameliorate issues of housing affordability, neighbourhood diversity and sustainability.
Recently, policy makers at provincial and municipal levels are have been proposing and making recommendations for zoning initiatives that aim to increase density and foster diversity and equity in the housing market. This has largely occurred in response to the ongoing housing crisis, which is exacerbated by not only a limited supply of housing, but a limited supply of a range housing options available to meet a diverse set of dwelling needs. For example, a market saturated by large single-family detached homes is for the most part best able to meet the needs of large suburban families, or wealthier people who desire the extra space. Basically, people are being priced (and zoned) out of neighbourhoods as the crisis weighs increasingly heavily on young people, new families and marginalized groups.
‘Inside-the-box thinking’ refers to creating innovative solutions within the constraints of ‘the box’ – or in this case, the zoning envelope - the imaginary volume created by the setbacks and the height limit within which you can build. This concept leaves developers free to build the number and size of units that meets their target demographic and housing demand. Referencing 'inside-the-box thinking', Chief planner of the City of Toronto Gregg Lintern used the phrase to explain how “duplexes, fourplexes and, in some cases, walk-up apartments – can fit into low-rise neighbourhoods” if zoning regulations were modified to allow such developments in areas where single-family homes rule. This philosophy is at the basis of the City of Toronto’s Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods initiative which hopes to facilitate the development of more ‘missing middle’ housing in the City, while increasing choice and equitable access to housing.
Referencing 'inside-the-box thinking', Chief planner of the City of Toronto Gregg Lintern used the phrase to explain how “duplexes, fourplexes and, in some cases, walk-up apartments – can fit into low-rise neighbourhoods”
In contrast, 'upzoning' refers to changing in zoning that simply allow for more intensive uses. This can occur by upzoning single-family homes to multi-family dwellings, or upzoning from residential uses to commercial uses.
Up-zoning in North American Municipalities
In 2019, the Minneapolis 2040 – Comprehensive Plan was approved, taking a very strong stand against the long-lived pattern of single-family homes by upzoning the lots on a city-wide scale to allow duplexes and triplexes. The very first policy of the Plan states that in order to increase the supply of housing and its diversity of location and types, neighbourhoods dominated by single-family homes must now allow up to three units on a lot. The purpose of the policy was to address the housing affordability crisis, in which exclusive single-family zoning that restricted multi-family development artificially increased home prices. Reducing economic and racial segregation associated with exclusionary zoning as well as single-family zoning’s contributions to climate change via urban sprawl are also cited as arguments that supported the change (see How Minneapolis Ended Single-Family Zoning).
Some Canadian cities are also upzoning neighbourhoods. In 2018, the City of Vancouver established the Making Room policy, re-legalizing the construction of triplexes and allowed the development of duplexes on most single-family (RS) zones. In the same year, the City of Edmonton published its Infill Roadmap 2018 in support of improving medium- and high-scale infill development. In 2019, the City changed its Zoning Bylaw 12800, increasing allowable housing density in residential zones from Small-Scale Infill Development (RF3) up to Medium Rise Apartment (RA8).
Municipal leaders and policy makers are seeing and responding to the housing and climate crises, and up-zoning is part of the plan. But up-zoning only moves the needle toward greater equity and housing supply, whereas inside-the-box zoning is a much more powerful tool to develop diverse and resilient neighbourhoods. Is there political will to take this bold step?