Close to Hartford’s “seats of power” — state government; insurance companies; and Trinity College; you’ll find Frog Hollow, a predominantly Latino neighborhood. It has a mix of walk-up apartments, neighborhood restaurants, stores, churches, and social clubs. But anchoring it is an innovative mixed-use development called Billings Forge.
The authors’ of the feature article in the Summer 2011 issue of the PCJ respond to comments and questions about their article.
A closer look at how well-designed affordable housing programs can generate economic and fiscal benefits to local communities. Plus brief reports on efforts to provide workforce housing
The practice of bulldozing modest-size homes and replacing them with “McMansions” has alarmed many planners, neighborhood groups, and preservationists. How can communities respond?
Recent legal developments have again put a spotlight on exclusionary zoning practices.
Is it possible to design & build a distinctive looking modern prefabricated house? Take a look at this short video about Alchemy Architect’s weeHouse — and take a look at an earlier progenitor: the Lustron.
“Flexibility … that’s the most important part of my job,” Shaker Heights Planning Director Joyce Braverman told me. She even carries a small reminder of this in her purse, the world famous — and very flexible — Gumby.
By the early 20th century, newly adopted land use zoning controls not only physically separated industrial, commercial, and residential zones, but also by distinguished between single-family and multi-family residential zones. It was not until 1970s that the movement toward inclusionary housing began to emerge.
There has been an evolution in manufactured housing: from mobile homes to homes that are hard to distinguish from traditional, site-built designs.
Almost all of us have faced locally unwanted land uses. However, these “LULUs” are usually designed to provide vital community services. How your community can harmonize its housing and social service needs with the objections of neighborhood opponents.
For most medium and larger cities and counties, HUD requires the preparation of what’s called a “Consolidated Plan.” How planners can use the Consolidated Plan as a to better address the needs of low income residents.
Community land trusts are offering an increasing number of communities a way of developing long-term affordable housing. An introduction to the role community land trusts can play.
Steps planners can take to improve the quality, and acceptability, of multi-family housing.
