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Varied Housing Types

Providing a mix of housing types and sizes is one of smart growth’s basic principles. Building apartments alongside townhouses and single-family homes can keep a neighborhood affordable for a wide range of households. Other strategies, like allowing homeowners to build accessory dwelling units—often called “in-law” apartments—can create smaller, more affordable rental housing options in existing single-family neighborhoods without significantly changing their design.

The New Point neighborhood in Beaufort County, South Carolina, is one recent development that has used accessory dwelling units in its home design. By planning land use strategically and creating smaller homes with in-law suites, developers created a very desirable neighborhood that remained more affordable.

To achieve this mix of housing types, smart growth advocates often look for ways to make zoning codes, land use ordinances, and planning decisions more flexible so that multifamily housing and mixed-use neighborhoods all become more feasible. This strategy also allows families to stay in one neighborhood as their housing needs change—providing larger homes for families and smaller homes for young workers and retirees.

Atlanta’s Livable Communities Coalition works on many of these issues, advocating for strategies that mix home sizes and types and increase affordable housing with good access to jobs. LCC recommends, for example, changing zoning codes to allow a wide range of housing types—including affordable owned and rental housing—and incentive-driven inclusionary zoning.