HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-30-24 Public Comment - M. Egge - Residential LockdownFrom:Mark Egge
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Residential Lockdown
Date:Sunday, July 28, 2024 9:46:29 AM
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Commissioners,
As the world turns its eyes to Paris for the summer Olympics, I submit toyou that there is much that Bozeman could learn from Paris—a city of only
2x Bozeman's land area (but 20x our density) that is successfully
reshaping its transportation system to get people out of cars and onto
bikes and public transportation, and which in recent years has managed totemper housing prices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions per capita by
adding housing units within its existing urban areas (in one of the world's
most famously historic cities). Paris's housing success results from strong
leadership and policies leading Paris to break out of residential lockdown.
Sightline uses the term "residential lockdown" to describe "the near
absence of new homebuilding in existing neighborhoods" which is the norm
across most of the metropolitan landscape of North America (includingBozeman). Sightline notes that a generation of pro-housing and smart
growth advocacy has yet to succeed, except in "allowing scattered pockets
of apartment construction in cities—especially in areas that have few
people or little political power." Sound familiar? Smart growth advocacy:
"has done little, though, to soften the absolute bans on duplexes, three-story walk-ups,apartment buildings, and other forms of 'middle housing' in single-family zones—prohibitions that cover most residential land in North America. Sunbelt places sprawl away at the edges, keeping homes abundant and cheap but at a cost tocountryside, climate, and commute distances. In contrast, sprawl-busting metro areas ... havesucceeded in slowing their own outward expansion but have, at the same time, failed togrow upward enough to keep pace with population. ... Inevitably, prices and rents havesoared. [This pattern is] the physical manifestation of land-use laws written ... by different peoplebut all written in response to the same incentives. The incentives align to lock new homesout of single-detached neighborhoods. The forces that induce lockdown must, therefore, be strong and nearly ubiquitous. I see five:
anti-change sentiments among homeowners, turbocharged byfinancial self- interest, combined with
homeowners’ overwhelming numerical dominance in most electorates, amplified,especially in deep-blue urban centers, by
distrust of one subset of the people in the business of building homes (developers),and
political gridlock produced by decades of classist and racist housing rules, now betterunderstood but difficult to untangle.
Together, these political forces form a balance of power that, in the legal and legislativecontext of North American land-use policy-making, yields scarce housing, invisible walls of
exclusion, and megatons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Paris has managed to break out of this stranglehold. Sightline writes:
Just 15 years ago, metropolitan Paris—the City of Light, a global symbol of cosmopolitanbeauty and romance, the home since 2015 of climate hope—was as hogtied withobstructionist policies and politics as any great city in the world. Its pace of homebuildingwas slower than it had been in the 1970s. ... Housing stock lagged further behind demandwith each passing year. Increases in prices and rents dashed residents’ hopes andexacerbated displacement, exclusion, sprawl, and greenhouse gas emissions. And yet something did change. Political leaders from the president on down said, 'Enough!'(Well, they more likely said, 'Assez!') They overruled parochial obstructionism andimplemented hundreds of policy changes. They were motivated by the goals of nationalunity; prosperity; opportunity for the next generations of citizens; integration by race,religion, and class; cleaner air and better lives; and the global climate. In 2013, the Île-de-France government completed a plan to increase housing—it called for'massive and quality production' of housing— while emphasizing construction in existingneighborhoods and protection of green space. This period witnessed a raft of other new policies. A national law in 2014 voided certainfloor-area-ratio limits in local zoning codes, which unleashed construction of many smalldwellings. Other national reforms trimmed the thicket of building code requirements thatdrove up construction costs. At the local and regional levels, governments made idle orunderused public lots available for social housing. At the same time, greater Paris has been,as Bloomberg’s O’Sullivan writes, 'pursuing some of the most enlightened and progressivetransit policies of any megacity'—a massive transit expansion that is also removinghighways, adding greenspace, and expanding bike- and walkways. The effort has loggedimpressive progress in reducing driving and increasing alternatives to it. As a result, the city of Paris doubled homebuilding, concentrated housing in low-carboninner-ring suburbs, and distributed social housing across more of the metropolis than everbefore. Thus, tens of thousands of people gained the chance to live in favored zones, with allthe opportunities and amenities they offer."
Bozeman continues to exist in the throes of residential lockdown. We've
somewhat succeeded in tamping down sprawl, but housing prices aresoaring, dashing hopes of current and future residents, and giving rise to
widespread displacement.
Following Paris's example, we can break this lockdown, providing both
climate hope and housing hope. Doing so will require your leadership toimplement policies that will unleash construction of many small dwellings
within our existing urban core. I submit to you that a study of Paris's
success may yield inspiration for Bozeman. Adopting a development code
that undoes the regulatory basis of Bozeman's residential lockdown is anecessary (but not sufficient) part of the solution. (It's really not that
radical—Canada just implemented a national policy of four units by right
nationwide.) We should take a page from Anchorage's playbook and end
costly parking mandates that entrench sprawl and car dependency. And,finally, we should imagine and envision a future city in which the majority
of trips are made by walking, biking, or transit and make land use policies
and investments in a multimodal transportation system accordingly. This
vision is achievable through the policy tools available at your disposal, butwill require skillful leadership to bring city homeowners along in supporting
(or at least tolerating) the individual policies that add up to achieving a
shared vision of sustainable, inclusive, and livable city.
Thanks for your consideration (and reading this rather long comment).
Mark Egge1548 S Grand Avenue
Bozeman MT 59715