This multi-unit dwelling on Duane Street shows how higher density housing can fit the scale of an existing neighborhood.
Redwood City’s Quest to Bring Back
Missing Middle Housing by Jill Oviatt Solving the housing crisis in California is complicated. “There’s not one silver bullet,” said Redwood City Vice Mayor Shelly Masur. “In order to build more housing — especially affordable housing — we need to explore lots of options, including one particular type of housing that has been missing.”
Also, missing middle housing is more affordable than single-family homes, and this can be important for middle-income families.
Examining Local Housing Issues and Opportunities
“Missing middle” housing is a term used to describe duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes that are compatible in scale with detached single-family homes. In other words, missing middle housing is “housescale buildings with multiple units in walkable neighborhoods.”
The idea for pursuing missing middle housing in Redwood City originated from its Housing and Human Concerns Committee (HHCC), which identified a series of policy areas to address local housing issues. After an ad hoc committee completed initial research, the HHCC requested a joint study session with the planning commission to discuss potential text changes to existing zoning regulations to facilitate missing middle housing.
These housing units are considered missing middle because they have been missing from new construction, which in the past 40 or 50 years has focused on singlefamily homes and mid-rise apartments.
City planners set out to learn more about this missing housing option; they wanted to know more about current barriers to development and opportunities to improve zoning regulations. Throughout
Defining the Term
this process, the planners always kept in mind Redwood City’s existing neighborhood characteristics. They had a keen eye on the types of buildings, aesthetics, and housing patterns, as the overarching goal is to strike a balance between providing more incremental infill density without disrupting the look and feel of neighborhoods. “Fortunately, we knew we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel,” said Apollo Rojas, a senior planner with Redwood City. “We looked to other similarly sized cities for best practices and lessons learned.”
Other Cities Offer Helpful Insights Some key lessons from researching missing middle housing initiatives in Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada), Olympia, Minneapolis, and Livermore reinforced the importance of having a strong community engagement plan,
Jill Oviatt is director of communications and marketing for the League and can be reached at joviatt@cacities.org.
16
League of California Cities
www.cacities.org
