Regulatory Barriers - Nation Call To Action: Toolkits

This toolkit, prepared by the Centre County Affordable Housing Coalition, was created to initiate a dialogue between affordable housing stakeholders, developers, and local officials. The toolkit discusses a variety of issues, including the definition of affordable housing, the need for affordable housing, target populations, land use planning, tools for affordability, and a design portfolio, which provides examples of quality housing design.

According to the toolkit, reducing regulatory barriers can increase housing choices by allowing the construction of more diverse and cost-effective housing. The toolkit suggests a wide range of planning tools that can help increase housing affordability, such as reducing lot size and setback requirements, and encouraging a variety of housing types, such as accessory dwelling units, manufactured, live/work, and modular housing. The toolkit also identifies obstacles to affordable housing, including lack of community support, lengthy approval processes, excessive permitting fees, and development requirements. Suggestions to alleviate restrictive development requirements include allowing increased densities in areas that enforce open space requirements, adopting a fast-track approval process, and allowing more flexibility with impervious surface, landscape, and parking requirements. The toolkit gives examples of other approaches that encourage mixed-income development, including plans for a traditional neighborhood development that incorporate commercial and retail development, and the establishment of overlay zones to require affordable housing.