[Regarding “Asheville City Council Ousts Chair, Vice Chair of Housing Authority Board,” Feb. 13, Xpress:]
As someone with experience in development, I have been following the current discussion about potential changes to our zoning ordinance for cottage development and for flag lots. This approach alone, even if passed, is not going to make a substantial impact on our supply of housing, including housing affordable to our workforce. Too few units. And politically, it’s divisive. Why?
One of the fundamental principles of traditional neighborhood development (think of places that support walking and cycling equally well as motor vehicles, generally pre-World War II) is that like-kind buildings face like-kind buildings across the street. Changes of building type would happen on alleys, not on streets.
Buildings across from potential flag lots or cottage development lots are mostly going to be single-family buildings, which are not “like-kind.” I think this is a big reason for much of the neighborhood opposition to these ideas. And the number of units available from this approach barely dents the housing shortage.
Commercial streets, many of them “suburban strips” characterized by buildings set well back from the street, with parking lots in front, are a better opportunity to build “apartments over commercial” buildings starting at two-four stories, and maybe higher in certain locations. The buildings can be brought up to the sidewalk, with parking behind the building(s). And they potentially provide the residential units we need.
It’s probably obvious to many, and most of your readers, that commercial strips are becoming physically and functionally obsolete. Plenty of available lease space, declining rents and declining tenant quality. This creates the opportunity, with appropriate zoning changes regarding parking, for owners of strip properties to build new, mostly residential buildings on the street side of their property, while keeping the strip buildings on the back of the property in operation, perhaps even as residences.
Commercial parking standards are mostly five parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of building. Residential standards are mostly one or two parking spaces per 1,000 square feet. And commercial and residential parking needs are somewhat complementary, with residents needing parking at night and on weekends to a large degree, and commercial needing them during weekday working hours. So this approach has a certain logic to it.
Asheville is going to need thousands of new housing units over the next decade; our commercial corridors are the best place to provide them, but only if the streets are “complete”— safe and appealing for bicycles and pedestrians as well as the car, and safe and convenient for the young and the elderly who can’t or don’t wish to drive.
— Rob Dickson
Paradigm & Co.
New Urbanism/Traditional Neighborhood Development
Asheville
not sure all that growth will follow the hurricane here… will it ? doubtful.
Yes, above Ingle’s grocery stores and vacant pits of despair such as Steinmart…many have been suggesting such solutions for years.
A good example of the letter writer’s point can be seen on Merrimon Ave in North Asheville, where the Sav-Mor/empty Stein-Mart, empty drug-store building are located, well-back from the street, with a branch bank at sidewalk position. The large parking lot is always mostly empty. Low-rise, affordable apartments could be built over the parking lot, leaving parking at ground level, and perhaps even above the existing Sav-Mor building. Would Ingles Markets company, which already manages rental on their property, see financial advantage in building apartments on this site? Could Mr. Dickson’s company present plans for such a development? Could Mr. Dickson provide a link to his company?
Ingles has said before that they are not interested in building housing. They are known for snatching up properties (especially those that were former grocery stores) and leaving them vacant.
A vacancy tax might not be a bad idea.
This point of view would be more appealing if the bicycle references were dropped. We’ve ruined e-w travel on Hilliard and slowed Merrimon. I do my counts when out and the modal number of bikes per decisively zero.