Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
Several Twin Cities area mayors, including Lakeville’s, contend that Minnesota should uphold its current patchwork of local zoning (“State legislation relaxing zoning is a housing solution with consequences,” Opinion Exchange, March 12). While these leaders call for policymaking nuance and predict consequences, they miss those very goals by ignoring the opportunities ahead of us and deep impacts of our current system.
When discussing “naturally occurring affordable housing,” or NOAH, the authors conflate policies steering public dollars to housing targeted at seniors for the much broader opportunity that helps retain existing, market-based housing attainable to people at all ages and incomes. NOAH can be enabled by new construction taking different forms and price points than currently allowed, helping mitigate the propensity for older housing stock to sell or rent for much more than it otherwise should. Focusing so much attention on senior housing to create churn in the housing market is a well-meaning but overly narrow focus on the issues at hand.
The commentary claims smaller lots in new suburban construction have done little to lower price points. In reality, public sale data on townhouses and single-family homes with lots below 10,000 square feet built and sold in Lakeville since 2022 yielded a price 18% below those above that threshold. This is not unique — the type of reforms proposed have shown to unlock building types that cost less to construct than what we currently see today. Allowing smaller lots is only one of the included solutions in the proposed legislation.
Fear tactics claiming that communitywide health, safety and welfare are at risk, or that cities will struggle to protect natural habitats, went without explanation and are largely unfounded. The authors provide no examples of how allowing triplexes in existing single-family neighborhoods, or apartment buildings in commercial zones, would be detrimental to any of those indicators.
Evidence points to the contrary; environments where people and destinations are closer and traffic can move a little slower with thoughtful design allow residents to enjoy active transportation as part of their daily lives, improving health outcomes. Car crashes are less severe, and pedestrian fatalities are easier to curb. As a bonus, we can slow the spread of housing into existing agricultural and natural spaces while improving site design requirements that protect those very environments.
The proposed legislation, HF 4009 and SF 3964, is mostly geared toward taming our statewide housing costs, but it also serves to support broader access to housing types from one community to another. Terms like “unique character,” regulations requiring a minimum home size or construction material selection, and rigorous public input processes have long been stand-ins for preventing certain residents and businesses from accessing a neighborhood, community or city.
