In Washington state, a single cottage court can achieve densities of up to 21 units per acre, even with one-story homes. This efficiency allows for more housing units on smaller footprints, providing diverse options for residents in growing communities. Such innovative housing types, often referred to as missing middle housing, offer a human-scaled approach to accommodating population growth.
Missing middle housing offers a path to increased urban density and affordability, but existing regulations often make these efficient housing types economically unfeasible to build. For instance, a fourplex with four, 600 square foot units might require four times the parking and open space as a single 2,400 square foot detached home, according to missingmiddlehousing. These regulatory burdens often hinder the very housing types that could address affordability challenges.
As state and local governments increasingly mandate zoning reforms, the availability of diverse, moderately dense housing options will likely expand, gradually easing housing affordability pressures in many urban areas. This shift towards enabling smaller, more adaptable housing types through targeted regulatory reform fosters a decentralized, bottom-up approach to densification.
A cottage court, featuring one-story homes, can achieve net densities from 14 to 21 units per acre, despite each cottage being only 25 feet by 30 feet, according to missingmiddlehousing. This challenges the perception that high density requires multi-story construction. Increased urban density correlates with housing costs, with elasticities ranging from 0.041 to 0.05, according to Sciencedirect, indicating that more housing units per acre can contribute to affordability. Despite this potential, existing regulations present significant hurdles, impeding the construction of efficient housing types, even though such designs aim to make low-density mixed-use buildings more feasible, according to nyc.
Missing middle housing refers to a range of house-scale buildings that fit between single-family homes and large apartment complexes, offering a variety of housing options that are compatible with existing neighborhood character. These include duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, cottage courts, and townhouses. The term 'missing' highlights their historical prevalence in many communities before being largely eliminated by single-family zoning and other restrictive land-use regulations. These housing types inherently provide greater density at a smaller scale, making them a crucial component for addressing urban housing shortages and improving walkability in neighborhoods.
