Policy Options to Support Sustainable and Equitable Development
In the coming decades, American communities will be transformed by a number of important trends, including rising energy prices and growing numbers of older adults and younger adults without children. Among other outcomes, these forces are expected to increase demand for housing near job centers, transit stations, and other places where transportation costs are low.
The growing demand for housing in location-efficient areas will have many benefits, including increases in public transit ridership and decreases in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with long car trips. However, without active steps to "build affordability in," housing prices near transit and in other location-efficient areas are likely to rise significantly, pushing low- and moderate-income families to outlying areas. This, in turn, will reduce overall affordability (as higher transportation costs offset lower housing costs) and equitable access to transit, and undermine opportunities for infrastructure cost savings and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
The solution is to work simultaneously to develop communities that are both sustainable and equitable, promoting compact development patterns that meet a greater share of families' needs within close walking or driving distance, and include housing affordable to families of all incomes. The Center for Housing Policy has prepared a series of briefs for practitioners at the local, regional, and state levels that outline options for building affordability in to new sustainable development. Links to each of the briefs in this series are below.
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Related Resource: For more on this topic, visit Promote Sustainable and Equitable Development, a policy guide in the HousingPolicy.org Toolbox that explores these issues in greater detail. The guide includes sections on promoting compact development options, gaining access to well-located land, and using value capture mechanisms to support the creation and preservation of affordable homes. Click here to view a linked table of contents of all topics covered in the policy guide. |
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Local Policy Options to Support Sustainable and Equitable DevelopmentThis brief outlines policy and regulatory tools that practitioners at the local level can use to create and preserve affordable homes in areas where transportation costs are likely to be low. Options discussed in the brief include steps to promote compact development patterns, create a supportive regulatory framework, support the acquisition of well-located land for affordable homes, capture a portion of the value generated by market-rate development to support affordable homes, and preserve and extend the availability of new and existing affordable homes in location-efficient areas. |
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Regional Policy Options to Support Sustainable and Equitable DevelopmentThis brief describes options available to practitioners at the regional level, including Metropolitan Planning Organizations and Councils of Government. While less directly involved in land use decisions, regional actors can take a number of steps to promote sustainable and equitable development. Those described in this brief include providing financial aid to support local planning and implementation of high-density, transit-oriented development, providing public access to regional data, preparing a regional plan for growth, and facilitating coordination and cooperation among local jurisdictions and across agencies. |
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State Policy Options to Support Sustainable and Equitable DevelopmentStates can also play a role in encouraging and supporting localities that create and preserve affordable housing in location-efficient areas. Specific steps discussed in this brief include establishing a statewide planning process to guide the allocation of state resources, removing roadblocks that prevent strategic local action, providing incentives to encourage the local adoption of land use regulations that support location-efficient development, and providing direct incentives to developers and consumers to promote investment in strategic locations. |
We hope these documents will be useful tools for local, regional, and state decisionmakers interested in learning more about options for building in affordability near transit stations, job centers, and other areas where transportation costs are likely to be low.
Readers are invited to provide feedback on these materials by sending an e-mail to chp-feedback@nhc.org.