YIMBY News for 10/17

[Eric Budd]

How Rural Towns Are Learning to Love ADUs

Governing

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KEYWORD SCORE: 49.56. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, condo, construction, density, development, homeowner, house, housing, housing stock, income, parking, planning commission, rent, single-family, urban, yimby, zoning

Aside from an extra mailbox, there’s little indication from the street that Ron Durand’s lot is home to two homes. But tucked above the garage is a two-bedroom apartment, where his daughter and granddaughter live. It’s the first accessory dwelling unit to be built since the town of Newmarket, N.H., eased its housing rules last year. The idea isn’t new: For generations, some homes included extra units, sometimes called granny flats or in-law suites. But state lawmakers and city planners across the country are increasingly eyeing ADUs as one way to combat the challenges of housing affordability

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Curitiba: 50 Years of Lessons from the World’s First ‘Bus Rapid Transit’

Streetsblog Net

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KEYWORD SCORE: 40.27. affordable, bus rapid transit, bus stop, construction, development, downtown, growth, land-use, mixed-use, mobility, multi-modal, project, rent, transit-oriented, transportation, urban, zoning

Fifty years ago, in 1974, Curitiba inaugurated the first 20 kilometers of a pioneering transit system that, over the years, became known as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). At that time, the city had about 600,000 residents (now nearing 1.8 million, with a metropolitan region of 3.8 million), and was one of the fastest-growing cities in Brazil. The innovative and cost-efficient public transit network helped mold and accommodate this growth, expanding from servicing 54,000 daily passengers in its first year to over 2.4 million by 2014. Curitiba’s BRT system is elemental to the city’s identity, but has

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Ballot Issue 2R: A Denver sales tax hike could generate $100M a year for affordable housing

Colorado Sun

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KEYWORD SCORE: 36.47. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, development, homeowner, house, housing, housing cost, housing crisis, income, project, regional transportation district, rent, renter, supply, transportation

[image: A large, three-story brick building with an arched entrance, surrounded by trees and a grassy lawn under a clear blue sky. Paths lead to the entrance.] Denver voters are being asked to dramatically expand the city’s affordable housing programs by raising the local sales tax 5 cents for every $10 spent. Known as Ballot Issue 2R, the measure was proposed this summer by Mayor Mike Johnston and placed on the ballot by the Denver City Council. It could raise an estimated $100 million each year that city officials say could generate upward of 40,000 affordable housing units over the next dec

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Seattle Finalizes Design for Expanded Elliott Bay Trail in Belltown

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 24.13. bike lane, bike path, construction, downtown, project, rent, transportation, urban, walk

Elliott Bay Connections, the public-private partnership created to upgrade Seattle’s waterfront trail in North Downtown, has finalized its design and is heading toward construction. Funded by private donors including Melinda French Gates, MacKenzie Scott, and Expedia, the improvements are intended to be an additional capstone to the long-planned revamp of Seattle’s central waterfront and open before the city hosts the FIFA Men’s World Cup in mid-2026. The project consists of two main parts: a multi-use trail for people walking and biking between downtown and the existing Elliott Bay Trail, and

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IBR: Forecasting the impossible

City Observatory

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KEYWORD SCORE: 20.80. growth, occupancy, project, rent, transportation

*The case for the $7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement project is based on deeply flawed traffic models that ignore the bridge’s capacity limits, and predict plainly unrealistic levels of traffic growth if the bridge isn’t expanded. These grossly overestimated projections make future traffic look worse and overstate the need and understate the environmental and financial costs associated with freeway expansion.* *The current I-5 bridge can carry no more than 5,000 vehicles northbound in the afternoon peak hour. All of the available statistics, and every one of the experts that has looked

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Shoplifters Gone Wild

The Atlantic

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KEYWORD SCORE: 19.42. construction, development, house, parking, parking lot, rent, supply, walk

*Illustrations by Ben Denzer* *This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. **Sign up for it here**.* The splendor of the American big-box store lay before me, with its endless variety of shaving products in every imaginable size and color—a retail extravaganza, all of it locked behind Plexiglas. I needed a razor, and in order to obtain one at my neighborhood Target, I had to press a red button to summon a store clerk. Depending on where you live, you may know the drill. I waited in Aisle B45 with two women, one in front of the Dove deodorants, the other in the Old Spic

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