The Houses that Can't be Built in America - The Missing Middle

there's a similar pattern you'll see in the skyline of cities all over the us and canada the city is sprawling in flat and then suddenly a bunch of giant towers here it is in minneapolis and in charlotte and in seattle but compare that to almost any european city and you'll get a much smoother progression of buildings with lots that are of an in-between size when i criticize american car-dependent suburbs there's a common knee-jerk reaction someone will inevitably claim i live in the suburbs because i don't want to be crammed into a concrete box in the sky as if there's no alternative between a concrete tower and car dependent suburbia with asphalt as far as the eye can see now you might just dismiss this person as being an ignorant idiot and to be fair they probably are but there's a small bit of reality in that statement because in most of the us and much of canada those are your only two options to live an apartment or a single family home there's almost nothing in between urban planners have dubbed this the missing middle problem and it affects almost every city in the us and canada with very very few exceptions as with most things wrong with urban planning in america this all started in the 1940s when cities started promoting car-centric suburbanization with an emphasis on every family owning their own detached home now if single-family homes were built because people wanted single-family homes and the market demanded it that might be okay but it's not that simple instead it became almost impossible to build anything other than single family homes because of strict euclidean zoning i've referred to this before in my livable neighborhoods video and zoning is not the only problem either there are other car-centric policies especially minimum parking requirements that reinforce this as well all of these requirements severely constrain what can be built in particular it makes it almost impossible to build the traditional walkable neighborhoods that are enjoyable efficient sustainable and financially solvent this problem is endemic across the u.s if you look at areas of a u.s city where residential buildings are permitted you find that almost all of it only allows for single-family homes it's illegal to build anything else the worst offender here is san jose where 94 of the land that allows building housing only permits building single-family homes and this is in the heart of silicon valley where more housing is desperately needed canadian cities are much better but still far too high remember what this means is that developers must build single-family homes in these areas even if there's demand for something else there's no other choice this ultimately leads to a scarcity in residential land for any other type of building and even then nearby residents can object to almost any development which means that every new development is going to be a fight this is a major reason why developers build condo towers so often in the us and canada because getting zoning approval isn't cheap or easy and fighting nimbies isn't cheap or easy either so a developer is only going to put the effort into jumping through all of these hoops if they're sure they can make a profit in the end that means making the absolute most of these scarce residential land and ultimately that means cramming in as many residents as possible which is why you end up with this insane situation of the lowest density single-family homes next to giant high-rise towers in the most expensive city in canada but of course it didn't used to be this way consider this street in toronto built in the 1920s here you can see detached homes of various different sizes like this cute blue house or this small bungalow there are also several terraced homes like these and this looks like a single house but it's actually several apartments in one building but it still fits in very neatly into the neighborhood then there's this very small apartment block too and these small terraced homes that have clearly seen better days and finally at the end of the street there's commercial buildings like this one within easy walking distance of residents and apartments were built over most of the shops as well today it is nearly impossible to find any place in the u.s or canada where all of these different types of buildings would be legal to build on the same street something that would be completely normal before the 1940s but even if you could get the zoning variances to build this small multi-unit building which you can't the neighbors would absolutely lose their minds we can't have people of marginally lower socioeconomic status in our neighborhood and what if their skin color was different could you imagine so instead we get a 40-story condo tower down the street the situation in europe is very different here in the netherlands for example you'll very often see mid-rise buildings that are five floors or less and many terraced homes as well it is possible to find single-family homes too of course but it's not the only type of housing available this street in dalventrache an utterly normal city near amsterdam has terraced homes mixed with semi-detached homes and small apartment buildings all in the same place this provides so much more choice in the housing market especially for families not everybody wants to maintain a big house with a big yard and live in a place where you have to drive to do just about anything and it also allows for the type of enjoyable livable walkable urban neighborhoods that i'm constantly praising on this channel as being some of the best places in the world to live you can even live in a concrete box in the sky if you like that kind of thing so maybe you don't like these kind of homes and that's okay they don't like you either but even if you don't like these kind of homes you have to justify why it is illegal to build these kind of homes in almost every neighborhood in the us and canada now of course eliminating single-family zoning doesn't eliminate single-family homes these houses can still be built if there's demand for it it just means they would no longer be the only type of homes that can be built thankfully some cities in north america are starting to make some progress with this issue in 2019 minneapolis abolished single-family zoning and now allows building duplexes and triplexes in any neighborhood in the city vancouver has recently made it possible to build duplexes in all residential neighborhoods though not triplex's and even better legislation means that portland can once again build housing that used to be considered normal such as four plexes and cottage courts which are several small homes around a common yard these cities are taking a good step forward but they're still very much in the minority and unfortunately other regulations such as setbacks lot coverage rules or minimum parking requirements can still make it difficult to build anything other than single-family homes also even with these zoning changes there are still far too many dense but livable housing options that are not permitted such as courtyard buildings townhouses and small apartment buildings ultimately if u.s and canadian cities want to succeed they're going to have to start undoing car-centric housing policy and ending single-family zoning to make the missing middle legal again is a good first step and then they can start to bring back the enjoyable walkable neighborhoods they used to build without having to live in a concrete box in the sky i'd like to thank my supporters on patreon who pay me to film random people's houses if you'd like to support the channel and get access to bonus videos visit patreon.com not just bikes

Channel: Not Just Bikes

Views: 2,520,240

Keywords: amsterdam, netherlands, urban planning, united states, canada, missing middle, missing middle housing, townhouses, why are there so many condos in the us?, city planning basics, missing middle zoning, single family zoning, single family homes, single family home to duplex, duplexes, duplex, triplex, fourplex, city planning, american homes vs european homes, single family zoning laws, american homes vs british homes

Id: CCOdQsZa15o

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/capnsheeeeeeeeeet]

This was really interesting.

[u/dream234]

The zoning laws in the US seem crazy to me (a brit) and make me feel really sorry for residents of these places.

The city I live in is around 2000 years old, but there's still new construction going on, both in the centre and at the edges. Everything is walkable, but there's still places to park cars all over (underground, or overground car parks that aren't attached to a specific business etc).

The "suburban sprawl" isn't isolated from the city by a highway, you can easily get from the centre to the edge on residential roads.

Residential areas are a mix of single, 2 and multi family buildings.

Dotted here and there in the suburbs are schools, rows of shops, parks, pubs, restaurants, mechanics etc.

That planners in the US would purposely block this type of development is mind boggling to me.

[u/reddcube]

If you want to hear more about the missing middle, "99% Invisible" just cover this topic on their newest episode.

[u/NUMBERS2357]

Although anti-density NIMBY types often portray themselves as promoting a traditional form of housing and way of life, the modern style of development - exurban housing tracts connected by so-called "stroads" with commercial activity happening in strip malls embedded in big parking lots - is absolutely not traditional. It's a creature of the last few decades.

YIMBYism is often talked about in the context of high-rises, but if you picture a charming small town, it probably has some degree of missing middle housing and a walkable main street with buildings close together, not separated by parking lots, and (gasp) 3+ story buildings.

The "missing middle" talked about here is very often the sort of neighborhoods that people say are great and they wish there was more of. Popular parts of big cities, core areas of small towns, college campuses, summer beach towns.

Even traditional suburbia - like where The Simpsons live - is often too dense for modern development, with its closely packed houses on rectangular street grids.

[u/MagicSchoolBusKid]

This guys sounds exactly like The Lock Picking Lawyer

[u/fish_slap_republic]

Was that Portland Maine or Portland Oregon in the bar graph? Cause in 2020 Portland OR passed a middle housing bill that allow multi family in all lot as long as at least half of them were low income. also eliminating parking requirements for 75% of the city among some other changes.

Either way the prescriptions of the video are solid, keep voting for positive change everyone.

[u/[deleted]]

[removed]

[u/icyflakes]

My biggest takeaway from this is that you can't build townhouses in these zones. In my mind I didn't even consider that a denser housing, yet it's banned in these zones.

[u/odinsyrup]

"Now, you might just dismiss this person as being an ignorant idiot - and to be fair, they probably are"

And it's comments like this why I cannot stand NotJustBikes or any of his videos. Regardless of his viewpoints, people are not just idiots or wrong because they enjoy living in a suburb.