Years ago, high density was the scurge of the suburbs. Today, it's the in thing.
I covered planning and zoning in the early 1980s for the Raleigh (N.C.) Times, a period when the Research Triangle area was in the midst of a building boom happening so fast that planners downtown could barely keep ahead of developers in the suburbs.
The best way to kill off a proposed development: Claim its density was too high.
Nowadays, that's likely to get a project approved, says an article in this month's issue of Professional Builder magazine. The article is titled, "Manifest Density."
As a frame for the topic, that title isn't far off.
The article by Senior Editor Bob Sperber notes, "America has a problem providing enough land to accommodate its multiplying millions. Ironically, after 400 years of development in the New World, about 95 percent of the nation's land remains undeveloped."
And well it should be. So we need to do a lot with the land that is developed or in a position to be developed. Doing a lot leads to density these days, not big front lawns and spacious back yards. As we'll see in just a bit, a rule of thumb quoted in Professional Builder is: Density plus amenity equals community; density without amenity equals crowding. Moreover, as we're about to see, this is a concept that can build acceptance for density in communities, rather than lead to endless NIMBY battles. Stick with us...
John McIlwain, one of the eminent personalities among national leaders in the affordable housing community and a Senior Resident Fellow at the Urban Land Institute, opines in Sperber's Professional Builder article that economics are driving density as developers struggle to keep homes affordable.
"Density is 'in' whether you like it or not — that's the big picture," says John McIlwain, senior fellow with the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. "Land costs, interest rates and material costs are all expected to rise two or three times the rate of inflation or more in coming years, but the incomes of most entry-level buyers are remaining flat, or just even with inflation," he adds. "One of the few ways builders can keep their houses affordable is through smaller lots and more houses to the acre."
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[David] Dixon [principal-in-charge of urban planning and design for Boston-based Goody Clancy & Associates] says two key factors that have won him approvals and calmed "not in my back yard" fears are the affordable diversity of his plans and the successful argument that high-intensity development would fund public parks and tree-lined streetscapes for all to enjoy. He cites a borrowed axiom: Density plus amenity equals community; density without amenity equals crowding , which also describes the logic he used for public housing redevelopments at Chicago's Cabrini Green and Cleveland's Riverview.
