Nationwide #housing availability and affordability is a major economic and social issue. In some locations, it’s a crisis.
Our company advises developers, but we also advise communities. And we’ve worked with a few #economicdevelopment organizations and cities in Iowa that recognize housing and population are keys to their future success.
We aren’t involved in this project but we’ve been following a zoning battle in Iowa City – a college town integral to fueling Iowa’s economy and retaining the state’s college graduates that often flee to bigger cities in the Midwest. This issue is an example of the complexities and personalization that impact #landuseplanning nationwide, worsening the housing dilemma.
It’s even more interesting in context as #iowa cities (even some near Iowa City) offer tax incentives to attract developers and/or buyers to grow their communities. Some communities in Iowa even have to develop plats to encourage housing like others develop speculative industrial buildings to attract jobs. We were quite surprised a few years ago by what we found when doing a study of Iowa for a client.