The New Neighborhood

REALTORS® & Smart Growth

on common ground WINTER 2018

THE NEW NEIGHBORHOOD

Redeveloping Shopping Malls Accessory Dwelling Units Green Streets

Reimagining Our Communities The economic recovery, which began in 2009, is real.

Unemployment rates dropped to their lowest in 10 years.

The stock market is up, while wages continue to slowly rise. But the recovery has not been strong, and it has not been evenly distributed. The recovery of the housing and real estate development economy has been even more lukewarm and spotty, but the number of housing starts and building permits is higher than it was a year ago.

In this issue of On Common Ground, we are focusing on what form this recovery and new growth is taking. As the real estate development economy continues to awaken, we are seeing development take a different form than what we were seeing during the previous boom period. There is currently a big focus in both the private and public sectors on re-examining and re-doing existing buildings and communities. New shopping malls are not being built — but underperforming malls are being redeveloped into mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods. To meet the demand for affordable homes in existing neighborhoods, accessory dwelling units are being added into the mix of housing options. Cities are retrofitting their streets to meet growth by making them more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly and contributing to environmental sustainability. Old industrial buildings are being turned into economic boons, and vacant land in urban areas is being used to grow food.

Adults of all ages are seeking innovative ways for improved quality of life amid the changing demographics and growth.

Editor Joseph R. Molinaro Managing Director, Community and Political Affairs jmolinaro@realtors.org Assistant Editor Hugh Morris Manager, Smart Growth Program hmorris@realtors.orgg NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® 500 New Jersey Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20001 ©

2018 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®

www.buildinganadu.com

Seniors who want to stay in the homes and neighborhoods they love are banding together with volunteers to help each other remain mostly-independent, while developers are creating new “coliving” environments for those who wish to live in shared spaces.

The new neighborhood — whether a community newly constructed or an older place reimagined — will exhibit many of these traits: walkability, a mix of uses and housing types, resource conservation, repurposing of assets, and making room for everyone.

On Common Ground is published twice a year by the Community and Political Affairs division of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (NAR), and is distributed free of charge. The publication presents a wide range of views on smart growth issues, with the goal of encouraging a dialogue among REALTORS®, elected officials and other interested citizens. The opinions expressed in On Common Ground are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policy of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, its members or affiliate organizations.

Distribution To order additional copies of On Common Ground, please e-mail us at OCG@realtors.org or contact Laura Pedro at lpedro@realtors.org or 202-383-1108.

On Common Ground is available online at www.nar.realtor/publications/on-common-ground On Common Ground is also available in digital format optimized for tablets and smartphones at www.oncommonground-digital.org or download the free On Common Ground App for iPhone, Android, and other platforms:

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ON COMMON GROUND

WINTER 2018

On Common Ground

Winter 2018 2017 Community Preference Survey

4

by Brad Broberg

Mall Makeovers Turn the Corner

8

by G.M. Filisko

Accessory Dwelling Units

The granny flat is filling a need across the country 14

by Brian E. Clark

Greening for Growth

Complete Streets policies help with demands on infrastructure 20

by David Goldberg

REALTORS® Help Cities Plan for Walkability

26

by Tracey C. Velt

Brewing Up a New Use for Old Buildings

32

by Kurt Buss

Urban Agriculture Blossoming Around the Country

40

by Brian E. Clark

Rural Housing Initiatives

Affordable housing is not just an urban problem 48

by Bobby L. Hickman

Aging in Place

Seniors want to stay in their homes as they age 54

by Brad Broberg

Coliving

Dorms for Adults

by John Van Gieson

REALTORS Take Action

60

®

Making smart growth happen

66

On Common Ground thanks the following contributors and organizations for photographs, illustrations and artist renderings reprinted in this issue: Scott Beck, Beck Ventures; Doug Beiswenger, LBG Real Estate Companies, LLC; Jeorge Cymon, BerlinRosen; Meghan Davey, Ollie; John Fay, Laguna Beach Seniors; Brian Koles, Property Markets Group; Barbara Murphy, 7500 York Cooperative; Mickey Papillon, Federal Realty; Gwen Rocco, WeWork; Stephanie Troller, City of Westminster; and Cassie Zimmerman, Boise Regional REALTORS®.

Cover Photo: Courtesy of Forest City Washington

3

2017

COMMUNITY PREFERENCE

SURVEY

By Brad Broberg

T

hree responses jump out from the latest Community and Transportation Preferences Survey by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

• Six out of 10 people said they would spend more (17 percent “a lot more” and 43 percent “a little more”) to live in a community where they could walk to parks, shops and restaurants.

• More than half said they would prefer to live in a house with a small yard versus a similar house with a large yard if it enabled them to walk to more places.

• More than half also said they would prefer to live in an apartment or townhouse rather than a detached house if it meant an easy walk to places they need to go and a shorter commute to work.

While answers to most other questions showed little change from the 2015 survey, responses from the 2017 survey offer fresh insights into the increasing value people place on a walkable lifestyle.

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ON COMMON GROUND

WINTER 2018

“This is the first time that the majority of respondents indicated they would chose to live in a detached home with a smaller yard or in an apartment/townhouse if it was in a more walkable neighborhood,” said Hugh Morris, who leads the NAR’s smart growth community outreach programs.

The NAR conducts the survey every two years. It covers the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas of the country representing 57 percent of the population. The margin of error is plus or minus 1.8 percent.

In 2015, less than half (49 percent) of the 2,000 people who were polled online preferred a house with a small yard in an easily walkable neighborhood versus a house with a large yard in a more car-dependent neighborhood. In 2017, the number rose to 53 percent of the 3,000 people polled.

A similar uptick surfaced when people were asked to choose between an apartment or townhouse in a walkable neighborhood with a shorter commute to work versus a detached house where they would have to drive more and have a longer commute to work. The apartment/townhouse option was preferred by 45 percent in 2015, but was chosen by 51 percent in 2017.

The 2015 survey included 1,000 phone responses. The 2017 survey was entirely online. The comparisons above do not include 2015 phone responses in order to make an apples-to-apples comparison.

growth grants and other resources it offers to state and local REALTOR® associations to support walkability projects, Morris said.

The 2017 survey, conducted by American Strategies on behalf of NAR last September, was the first to ask people if they would be willing to spend more to live in a walkable neighborhood. Although there is no comparative data from 2015, the fact that 60 percent of respondents said they would pay at least a little more to live in a walkable neighborhood is significant, Morris said.

Smart growth has many characteristics, but walkability is the face of smart growth as far as most consumers are concerned. “People are not necessarily associating it with smart growth, it’s just how they want to live,” Morris said.

“REALTORS® are using smart growth grants not only to make their communities more walkable, but to make walking more interesting through placemaking activities such as creating pocket parks and community gardens.”

“I was surprised that the number was quite that high, but it’s all about lifestyle,” Morris said. “There’s a preference for a walkable lifestyle ... and everything that creates it or comes with it.”

REALTOR® Georgia Meachem, a broker from Boise, Idaho, who specializes in real estate education, said being able to walk to more places instead of having to drive is a pocketbook issue for many families.

Also worth noting, Morris said, was that out of the 40 percent of respondents who wouldn’t pay more, only half said it isn’t important to be within easy walking distance of places.

Transportation costs — primarily the cost to own and maintain cars — can account for more than 10 percent of an average family’s budget, she said. “As people look at their household budget for places they can cut, they see transportation [savings] as something they can use on other things,” she said.

Besides the appetite for walkability expressed in the survey, NAR is experiencing increased interest in smart

Smart Growth features are important factors in communities If you were deciding today where to live, how important are each of the following?

Important Being within an easy walk of other places and things in a community, such as shops and parks

Not Important 20%

80%

Sidewalks and places to take walks

86%

14%

74%

Being within a short commute to work Easy access to the highway

26%

80%

Having public transit nearby

20% 38%

62%

Bike lanes and paths nearby

Photo by Anne Chan 54%

Separated bike paths or trails

53% 0

20

46% 47% 40

60

80

100

5

Walkable communities are preferred What community would you like to live in?

53%

Houses with

small yards, and it is easy to walk to the places you need to go.

apartment or townhouse, and you have an easy walk to

53% shops and restaurants and have

OR Houses with

large yards and you have to drive to the places where you need to go.

49%

Own or rent a

detached, single-family house, and you have to drive to

47% shops and restaurants and have a longer commute to work.

49% Courtesy of La Citta Vita

People also are more aware of the social, emotional and physical benefits of walking thanks to a wave of recent studies by AARP, American Heart Association and others, said Meachem.

the highway (80 percent); short commute to work (74 percent); nearby public transit (62 percent); nearby bike lanes and paths (54 percent); separated bike paths or trails (53 percent).

Downtown Boise is experiencing the kind of preference for walkable living outlined in the NAR survey. “Ten years ago, people wouldn’t have traded a single-family house on a large lot to live downtown,” Meachem said, “but downtown has changed. It’s become very walkable and desirable” with the addition of stores, restaurants and other amenities.

In a question about daily travel preferences, four out of five respondents either strongly agreed (35 percent) or somewhat agreed (45 percent) they like walking. Almost as many (73 percent) agreed they like driving. Nearly six out of 10 people (59 percent) said they drive because they don’t have a lot of options.

The majority of 2017 survey respondents indicated they live in neighborhoods with various walkability characteristics led by sidewalks on most streets (76 percent). Other responses: nearby transit (71 percent); parks within walking distance (69 percent); numerous places near their home to walk to such as stores and restaurants (62 percent); nearby bike lanes and paths (62 percent).

Choosing from a list of six reasons to walk, the great majority cited exercise (89 percent) and enjoyment of the outdoors (86 percent). Other responses: to save money on transportation costs (49 percent); to reduce the impact on the environment (49 percent); to avoid having to park their car (39 percent); to save time (28 percent).

If they were deciding where to live today, sidewalks and places to take walks would be important to 86 percent (49 percent very important and 38 percent somewhat important). Four out of five said living within an easy walk to places would be very important (42 percent) or somewhat important (38 percent). Other responses: easy access to

6

51%

a shorter commute to work.

OR

47%

51% Own or rent an

ON COMMON GROUND

Choosing from a list of five kinds of walks they may have taken in the last month, more than half said they had walked for exercise (63 percent) and to run errands, shop or eat out (52 percent). Other responses: to or from public transit (27 percent); to or from work or school (23 percent); escorting children to or from school (15 percent).

Three-quarters (74 percent) said they would walk more if the places they need to go weren’t so far away. Other issues respondents said prevented them from walking were: needing a vehicle for work, school or other reason (62 percent); poor or unpredictable weather (43 percent); too few sidewalks or trails (32 percent); feeling unsafe because of traffic (32 percent); feeling unsafe because of crime (30 percent); health problems (28 percent).

Despite all the interest in walking, respondents showed strong support for the needs of drivers. Maintaining and repairing roads, highways, freeways and bridges was the number one transportation need facing government in the coming years, based on responses to a list of six issues.

A total of 74 percent said it was a high priority (39 percent extremely high/35 percent high).

Next came building more roads and expanding existing roads to help reduce traffic congestion with 54 percent of respondents calling it a high priority. Providing convenient alternatives to driving such as walking, biking

and public transportation and expanding public transportation were each considered a high priority by 45 percent of respondents.

Respondents were asked how they would replace gas tax revenues — the primary source of support for roads and transit — which are dwindling because cars use less and less gas. Given four choices, nearly half (49 percent) said they would not replace it at all, 21 percent would replace it with a tax based on miles driven, 17 percent would increase the gas tax and 13 percent would increase tolls or add more toll roads.

The vast majority of respondents reported that they are very satisfied (37 percent) or somewhat satisfied (45 percent) with the quality of life in their community. Onethird of respondents said they live in a city, a little more than half said they live in the suburbs and the remainder said they live in a small town or rural area. Nearly six out of 10 said they own their home (57 percent) and live in a detached single-family home (58 percent).

Transportation priorities within communities For each of these issues your community may be facing over the next few years, how much of a priority should it be for the government?

High Priority

Low Priority 74%

Maintaining and repairing roads, highways, freeways, and bridges

5% 45%

Providing convenient alternatives to driving such as walking, biking, and public transportation

21% 54%

Building more roads and expanding existing roads to help reduce traffic congestion

16%

Expanding public transportation, including trains and buses

45% 23%

Developing communities where more people do not have to drive long distances to work or shop

42% 21% 37%

Building more sidewalks

27% 25%

Building more bike lanes and paths

40% 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

WINTER 2018

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Courtesy of Beck Ventures

By G.M. Filisko

MALL MAKEOVERS TURN THE CORNER

T

oo many of the nation’s malls have been flailing for years, but there now appears to be consensus in the development sphere that the best way forward is to transform many of them into major mixed-use and walkable communities that will serve as a base camp for residents, businesses and visitors.

At least, that option is viable for some malls, says Doug Beiswenger, managing partner of LBG Real Estate Cos in Newport Beach, Calif. In July 2017, LBG purchased the Hilltop Mall in Richmond, Calif., for an undisclosed amount and has just launched its plan to redevelop the property.

E N T I R E LY N E W C O M M U N I T I E S A R E R I S I N G L I K E P H O E N I X E S F R O M T H E A S H E S O F D Y I N G M A L L S, B U T T H AT O P T I O N M AY N O T B E W O R K A B L E F O R A L L O F T O D AY ’ S D I S T R E S S E D C E N T E R S.

(Above) Dallas Midtown is being developed in the Valley View – Galleria area of Dallas. The new urban living and retail center will be bordered by 635 on its South, Spring Valley Road to its North, Dallas Tollway to its West and Preston Road to its East. The $4 billion renovation provides an urban atmosphere within the heart of the population of North Dallas.

8

ON COMMON GROUND

WINTER 2018

“I think it’s very location specific,” says Beiswenger. “We look at a lot of malls across the country, and there are a lot where there just may not be a market to develop a mixed-used community.”

The man spearheading the transformation of the former Valley View Mall into a new community called Dallas Midtown, Scott Beck, CEO of Beck Ventures, agrees that creating new communities out of whole cloth is the answer for many distressed malls — but not all. “To me, it really depends on where these malls are located,” he asserts. “To

The best way forward is to transform malls into major mixed-use and walkable communities.

Courtesy of LBG Real Estate Companies

Courtesy of LBG Real Estate Companies

Hilltop by the Bay redevelopment area

simply say, ‘This is a mall, so we can do a mixed-use redevelopment’ isn’t accurate.”

What’s making today’s mall turnaround projects work?

Much of it comes down to that old real estate adage location, location, location. But there’s more to consider, too.

What works now and where?

Beiswenger and Beck say the idea of mixed-use communities blossoming from underperforming malls is viable in locations where several factors have come together.

“My personal opinion is that there are a number of malls that are in a fairly in-between situation, where they just don’t make sense to create a mixed-use development of the property,” says Beiswenger. “You need a mall that’s gotten to a point that it’s time to do that, but you also need that population density and income to support that transformation.”

That’s what attracted Beiswenger’s company to the Hilltop Mall, which is currently performing anemically. It’s about 70 percent leased, and its maintenance and aesthetics have long been neglected. “The problem with this mall has been that the previous ownership, which was foreclosed on, hadn’t put any capital into it,” he explains.

“And malls are a capital-intensive endeavor.”

Despite that, this site is a beaut in the eyes of developers like Beiswenger. “We’re looking for properties like Hilltop that have that population and a certain level of average

The Hilltop property is very ideal for infill with an existing dense population with excellent income. household income of that general population,” he says.

“The Hilltop property is very ideal for infill with an existing dense population with excellent income.”

It’s also 20 miles from downtown San Francisco and 25 miles south of Napa. “The city of Richmond is about to open a ferry that will go from the port to the ferry building in downtown San Francisco in 26 minutes,” notes Beiswenger. “We also have a freeway on and off ramp on the I-80 that’s named after Hilltop. This is in the East Bay of California, and you simply can’t replicate this sort of opportunity.”

That may be why Beiswenger’s team is now inundated with interest. “Since we purchased the property, we’ve received a tremendous amount of press, and we have all types of uses coming at us — retail, residential, hotel, office, medical office,” he rattles off. “The longer-term plan is to revitalize the mall and make that an excellent operation and then to develop areas of the mall that are no longer needed for parking. The property is zoned for almost 10,000 housing units, and those would all be a medium- to higher-density product with a combination of rental units and ownership. We envision a dense, truly walkable mixed-use community.”

9

The answer is “eatertainment” About 1,700 miles away, Dallas Midtown meets Beck’s primary criteria for success — it’s in an urban area. The property sits in north Dallas about halfway between the city center and the Oklahoma border, and it’s flanked by 635 on the south and the Dallas tollway to the west.

“If a mall is in the center of an urbanized area, this type of redevelopment is very possible,” asserts Beck. “If the mall isn’t in the center of an urban core — maybe it’s in a tertiary market or off the beaten path — I think it becomes much more difficult to justify high-density, mixed-use development.

One factor that’s brought this issue to a head is that while mall owners have been slow to act, some now have no choice. “I don’t think the delay in redeveloping failing malls has to do with the fact that smart real estate people didn’t know what the answers were,” says Beck. “It’s been more about creating a situation whereby the capital or ownership group is forced to react.”

Beck’s company purchased Valley View out of bankruptcy in 2012, where it was encumbered by $250 million in mortgage-backed securities. “What forced the issue was that the mall had gotten to the point where it had lost so many tenants, and then the recession started,” Beck explains. “The former owners walked away. All of the sudden a new buyer like us enters, and we don’t have that debt anymore.”

Mall owners are also backed into a corner because brickand-mortar retail’s decline is accelerating, not slowing.

“The rate at which online sales are cannibalizing retail consumer goods is also forcing the issue,” adds Beck.

“Financial institutions and investors want to know from mall owners what their answer is to repositioning due to retail sales going down.”

Beck’s answer for Dallas Midtown is what he calls “eatertainment.” He’s referring to restaurants combined with more service-oriented and “activities” tenants as opposed to tenants with goods for consumers to buy.

The groundbreaking for the first phase at Dallas Midtown took place in June 2017, and it’s expected to be completed by 2020. The $4-billion project will include nearly 1,000 studio to three-bedroom apartments across three different buildings with rents from about $1,100$3,000. A 440-key high-rise hotel with 50,000 square feet of meeting space is planned, but Beck’s company is keeping the brand under wraps for now.

For the retail, the two main anchors are an athletic facility on one end of the street with a luxury, dine-in movie theater on the other end. The apartments, hotel and office space will be stacked on top of 200,000 square feet of eatertainment, which Beck says will be much less focused on

We envision a dense, truly walkable mixed-use community.

Dallas Midtown will include restaurants, shopping, housing and office space.

Courtesy of Beck Ventures

10 ON COMMON GROUND

retail and more on tenants like restaurants, bars, lounges, coffee shops, and service-oriented business like nail salons.

The plan also includes a 20-acre park billed as the equivalent to a Central Park in Dallas, a trolley to the Dallas Galleria, luxury condo units, and more.

Market dynamics will dictate each phase. For instance, Beck is like so many others today chasing after the Amazon HQ2 facility. If Dallas Midtown lands that behemoth tenant or a handful of smaller tenants with similar space needs, the second phase could be completed in six years.

If not, the project will likely evolve over 10-15 years. “It’s perpetual timing,” says Beck. “The timeline depends on market dynamics, as it does for all these projects.”

Small units in big demand Just outside the nation’s capitol in North Bethesda, Md., sits Pike & Rose, a former strip shopping center now in phase two of its transformation into a mixed-use community. In the Winter 2016 issue [https://www.nar.realtor/ on-common-ground/winter-2017-walkable-neighborhoods], On Common Ground reported on the first phase of the project.

“A lot happens in a year,” reports Mickey Papillon, CSM, the project’s vice president and general manager. Of six new buildings, or blocks, underway, three have tenants up and operating, and the other three will have tenants opening by January 2018. “There has been an unfolding of the neighborhood over the last year,” states Papillon.

If a mall is in the center of an urbanized area, high-density, mixed-use development is very possible.

“We opened up the streets in July, and that was followed up with the opening of our first retail.”

A year ago, the site included 493 completed residential units. Today, another 272 units are finished. “We’re about 80 percent leased on the rental unit side,” states Papillon. “Then we have 99 condos, and about one-third are under contract. We’ll be moving in our first owners in February 2018. But the real story with the 272 new rental units has been the demand. Before we moved a single person into a unit, we were 40 percent preleased.”

Papillon says the smaller rental units — efficiencies, studios, and junior one-bedrooms — have generated the most interest, which is something he didn’t expect for a suburban Maryland project. “We’ve been missing that younger renter, the one who’s fresh out of school who’s looking for a smaller, maybe less expensive unit but still values having retail around and a walkable experience,” he says. “That’s the newest building, the Henri, that we’re moving people into now.

“It has smaller units all the way down to a 350-squarefoot efficiency, and we offer a Murphy bed option,”

Courtesy of Beck Ventures

Courtesy of Beck Ventures

Courtesy of Beck Ventures

WINTER 2018 11

Pike & Rose in Bethesda, Md., was 40 percent preleased before a single person moved into a unit. adds Papillon. “We’ve got price points in the $1,400 range, which is the lowest we’ve ever had in the project.

That’s been absolutely the right strategy. We’ve seen a lot of interest.”

Planners are also now working on the next phase of office space. Papillon says Federal Realty will be moving its headquarters there if it can find another tenant to join it. “It’ll be 200,000 square feet of space, and we’ll take a quarter of it,” he says. “We want another tenant to take another quarter. Then we’ll feel like it’s time to build that office building.”

What’s new? Our downtown At the site of the former Westminster Mall near Denver, location is its sweet spot. It’s about 10 miles north of Denver, with its high population and low unemployment rate, according to Westminster Mayor Herb Atchison.

Just outside the nation’s capitol in North Bethesda, Md., sits Pike & Rose, a former strip shopping center now in phase two of its transformation into a mixed-use community.

12 ON COMMON GROUND

The answer to the repositioning question in Westminster involves keeping only one anchor from the original mall, tearing down nearly everything else, and building an entire city center.

But the decline of Westminster Mall and the plan to reshape it has been 16 long years in the making. Then, Atchison had just joined the city council, and the mall’s owner wasn’t investing in the six-anchor facility. The city allocated about $5 million for updates, but the owner still refused to do more.

The vision is to create a downtown.

Fast forward to 2010, when the city council authorized the purchase of the 105-acre mall, which at the time was more than 70 percent vacant, Atchison recalls. Over the next five years, the city went through three attempts to redevelop the mall using a master developer. But none could match the vision Atchison — who became mayor in 2013 — and the city’s 115,000 residents had for the site. “They wanted a one-story strip mall,” Atchison laments. “Our vision was a whole lot different. We’re creating a downtown.”

In 2015, the city finalized a 23-block plan that left J.C. Penney operating in a standalone facility but demolished every other vestige of Westminster Mall. The city reconditioned the site with a $70-million investment in new streets, water, sewer and telecom infrastructure. “In the last 26 months, we’ve signed contracts for projects with investments of more than $350 million,” boasts Atchison. “We’ve broken ground on the first projects, and we have five others breaking in the next six months.”

The site plan calls for more than 2,000 residential units, 28 percent of which will be workforce housing with rents targeted to those making 30-80 percent of the area’s average median income. The housing (which Atchison expects will also include townhomes in the future), nearly 400 units of retail, a theater restaurant, a hotel, and office space will all tie into a 1.2-acre plaza called Central Square, where the city will host up to 200 events per year, says Atchison.

Conceptual drawing of the downtown Westminster, Colo., redevelopment.

How in the world did Atchison and the city council convince residents to think big in 2010, while the nation was still a long way away recovering from the 2008 recession?

“This happened because of all the community outreach and meetings, and we engaged residents to help form the vision,” says Atchison. “We took collages from all around the country of what things could look like and actually voted on what was attractive and wasn’t. We then said to planners, ‘Here’s what our citizens are telling us; we’re trying to build the downtown we never had.’”

G.M. Filisko is an attorney and freelance writer who writes frequently on real estate, business and legal issues. Ms. Filisko served as an editor at NAR’s REALTOR© Magazine for 10 years.

WINTER 2018 13

www.accessorydwellings.org

ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS T H E G R A N N Y F LA T IS FILLING A NEED AC RO S S T H E CO U N T RY

By Brian E. Clark

W

hen Paulette and Jeff Rees-Denis began thinking about downsizing a few years ago, they knew they didn’t want to leave the northeast Portland, Ore., neighborhood where they’d lived in a 1924 Craftsman bungalow since 1992.

husband weren’t in need of that much space for the two of them.

“We love this area,” said Paulette, a life coach and dance instructor. “It’s quiet and close to restaurants, cafes and shopping. People stay here for a long time and we wanted to do the same.”

The couple worked with Propel Studio, which focuses on ADUs, and Paulette said the entire process consumed about 18 months from start to finish. Part of the reason it took so long was because her husband did much of the carpentry himself, while working on other jobs. They now live in the new dwelling and rent out their old house.

Thanks to a city ordinance that allowed them to build an 800-square-foot house — technically known as an “accessory dwelling unit” or ADU or granny flat — on their property, they didn’t have to move. ADUs can also be apartment additions to existing homes, house remodels or garage conversions.

The Portland couple is part of a growing trend around the country — Washington, D.C., eased regulations on ADUs in some neighborhoods last year — aimed in part at addressing the high cost of housing in many areas.

Though their original home wasn’t large by modern standards at 1,400 square feet, Paulette said she and her

14 ON COMMON GROUND

WINTER 2018

“To be honest, we didn’t think about building our little house for that long,” she said of the ADU, which they located toward the back of their large lot. “And part of our reason for downsizing was financial because we wanted to build an investment for the future.”

“It was a relatively easy process, though it took awhile to get the permit to cut down some trees,” she said. “But I’m happy with the result, and we got what we wanted, a two-bedroom home that is both rustic and modern, with a great room and a south wall that is all glass with sliding doors that open onto a large garden. I’d say it’s minimalist in a beautiful way.”

ADUs are a growing trend around the country.

www.buildinganadu.com

Many convert garages into apartments or demolish and start over.

“Many garages are old and not in good shape, and weren’t designed or built to residential standards, so we’d have to bring them up to today’s code regulations and make numerous changes. That can be more trouble than it is worth. Usually we recommend they build new.”

Gray said his company takes customers from A to Z on ADU projects, starting with examining a site, taking measurements and searching city records for what he called “weird easements” or restrictions to make sure a project is feasible.

“Next comes the schematic design, which I like to say is the fun part where we are developing the look and feel of the ADU, figuring out the floor plan, what materials will be used and how it will fit on the parcel in relation to the main house and other structures.”

Portland Promoting ADUs Lucas Gray, a designer at Propel Studio who worked with the couple, said his company has done 30 to 40 ADUs since 2012. Most have been in Portland, but a few others were in surrounding communities.

“Portland has been promoting them for the past six to eight years, though they’ve been allowed in the zoning code for longer than that,” he said of the ADUs. “There has been a push recently because of the lack of affordable housing in rapidly growing cities on the West Coast like Portland, where the price for a typical three-bedroom, two-bath home can be between $500,000 and $800,000.”

He said the city council in Portland created a financial incentive to get more ADUs built by waiving system development charges — the fees for parks, streets, sidewalks and water infrastructure improvements — on ADUs. Permitting costs for an ADU now are roughly $5,000, which can be a savings of $10,000 or more, he noted.

Gray said his firm has converted basements and attics, carved out parts of existing houses, built additions and constructed new cottages to create ADUs, which can be no larger than 800 square feet in Portland. Many people want to convert garages into apartments, but often find it’s less expensive to demolish and start over.

He then presents clients with several different options, depending on their needs. Most have open floor plans because of their small size. The cost for Propel’s services are 10 percent of the cost.

He said he’s found that people are doing ADUs for a variety of reasons, including downsizing as they age or after children have moved out.

“They might want to stay in their neighborhoods, but live in the ADU and rent out the main house,” he said.

“They could also want to create a space for an aging family member or want to create a short-term vacation rental like an Airbnb.”

Unlike in some cities, Portland owners are not required to live in one of the two units to build an ADU.

www.buildinganadu.com

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People are doing ADUs for a variety of reasons, including downsizing as they age.

Though Gray praised the city for waiving system development charges and creating rules that are relatively easy to follow, he said a lack of planning department staff has slowed the process. He said it can run two to three months for the design work, another two months for permitting and then four to six months for construction. So a typical ADU project might easily take a year from start to finish.

Santa Cruz overhauling regulations Seven hundred miles south in Santa Cruz County on the central California coast, planner Sarah Neuse said her department is working on an overhaul of regulations to encourage the production of ADUs. “The state recently simplified the laws to open things up a bit, so you can build on parcels of any size,” she said.

“Now, you pretty much only need a building permit, with not a lot of other approval that is needed in most circumstances. The primary regulations are that the property be owner-occupied and zoned residential to have an ADU. If the dwelling is a duplex, you can’t do an ADU. And investor owners can’t do them, either.”

She said the push to change ADU rules was a result of rising home prices, which has led to ADUs being built without permits.

“I’d say we have a large percent of those [un-permitted ADUs] in our county,” she mused, noting that one of the most common ways to add an ADU is by converting a

Photos courtesy of www.buildinganadu.com

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garage. “Garages are relatively easy because you already have an existing structure. You might also have plumbing if you have a laundry out there. And with a 220-volt outlet it’s pretty easy to put in a kitchen.

“We’ve seen garage conversions to full cottages being built for grandma in the backyard,” she said. To be legal, an ADU must meet code rules for sleeping, cooking and sanitation and be a completely separate dwelling unit with its own entrance and exit, firewall separation, noise attenuation and heat source.

She estimated the county has around 700 legal ADUs, with another 1,500 without permits. “We’re trying to bring folks into the fold, so they will have safe and fully habitable housing units,” she said. “That is our overarching goal. To do that, we have a limited immunity program for people who have put in an ADU without a permit.

“They can have a building inspector do a basic check for exposed wiring, toxic mold and things like that without exposing them to any legal liability. We’d also make sure the unit isn’t slipping down a hillside because we have a lot of steep slopes here.

“At the least, we want to make sure these dwellings are safe, especially if the owners are thinking about moving grandma in. Some of these ADUs may have been built 15 years ago and the property has changed ownership three times since then, so the current owner might not know.”

She said there has been little pushback from neighbors about ADUs, in large part because of the housing crunch in the area.

“People are aware of how tough things are and want to find ways to solve that while fitting in with our existing land-use patterns,” she said. “I think ADUs are a good solution for that.”

Neuse said ADUs in Santa Cruz County can be as large as 1,200 square feet if built in a rural area on a one-acre parcel. That could be a three-bedroom house.

For the past few years, the county has issued between 10 and 15 ADU permits annually, a figure that Neuse would like to see rise to 40.

“Our ADU program isn’t a success yet, but it has potential,” she said. “We still have some work to do to bring down costs and increase predictability for all our building permit processes.

“But construction is just expensive here. We are working on making some changes to our fee structure and the way we review ADU plans. We’ll see in another year or two if that has changed the level of production.”

Some firms are now starting to focus on ADUs as their specialty, helping clients prequalify and figure out where an ADU could go, how large it would be and what it might cost.

Photos courtesy of www.accessorydwellings.org

“I’m optimistic that as those businesses get more experience and word-of-mouth exposure, ADU production levels will increase to levels we’d like to see,” she added.

Tim Gordin, co-founder of Workbench, a concept-tocompletion construction company in Santa Cruz, said his firm has begun working on ADUs because it promotes infill and “is an area where if people try to do it on their own, they can have a lot of frustrations.

“Some folks may have started down the road and given up,” he said. “We can help them because we know the rules. One woman had spent thousands of dollars to have an architect draw up plans before she came to us. But we found out later she’d have to replace her septic system at great cost, so she ended up abandoning her plans and selling her property.”

The push to change ADU rules was a result of rising home prices.

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Photos courtesy of www.accessorydwellings.org

He said Workbench strives to help people understand ADU regulations so they can get started. His company is also working with planning departments to make the permitting process easier for consumers, he added.

“But it’s all worth the effort because our area needs affordable housing and we strongly believe ADUs can help with the shortage,” he said. “They are a good way to get small units built in an area where the average home costs $850,000.”

An East Coast town offering granny flat loans On the other side of the country on Cape Cod, 70 miles south of Boston, the Town of Barnstable is promoting ADUs for many of the same reasons as Portland and Santa Cruz County — the high cost of owning a home.

Arden Cadrin, housing coordinator of the town’s planning and development department, said Barnstable has two separate programs for second units. One is a traditional granny flat for a family member and has less restrictive rules, while the second is for a non-relative and has been dubbed the “accessible affordable apartment” program, under which owners are required to meet fair housing requirements.

To help homeowners pay for the conversions or additions, the town began offering deferred payment, zero-interest loans of up to $20,000 three years ago to create ADUs. The loans must be repaid if the property is sold, the unit is removed or the homeowner stops renting the ADU. “Initially, they were trying to find a way for those property owners to come forward and make their ADUs safe, so they were offered this amnesty,” she said. “We said we’ll give you a permit, but the building commissioner will need to review the site and you’ll need to make some health and safety upgrades. The ADUs must also be affordable to qualify for the program.”

Cadrin said the town has a cap on earnings of the tenants and the rents that can be charged, which is 80 percent of the median income for the area. Other requirements are that the homeowner must live on the property and that ADUs be rented on a year-round basis.

“The program is designed for low- and moderate-income households, typically the people who work in restaurants, hospitality or in the service industry,” she said. “We have a disconnect between incomes and housing costs here in Barnstable, mainly because of the seasonal and tourist nature of the community.”

She said the town’s regulations were changed in 2001 as part of an amnesty program for existing unpermitted units that officials knew were prolific in the community. (The Town of Barnstable is made up of seven villages, including the better-known Hyannis.)

In addition, many wealthy people have bought second homes on Cape Cod, which further limits the housing stock and drives up home prices. The town now has 160 permitted ADUs, a population of about 45,000 and 20,000 year-round housing units.

“A few years later, the ordinance that launched the program was amended to allow new units to be created, so if you had a walkout basement that was unfinished, for example, you could complete that and create a new accessory apartment, as long as it met all the requirements, she said.

Our area needs affordable housing and we strongly believe ADUs can help with the shortage.

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The town began offering loans of up to $20,000 to create ADUs. “People come and go from the program, and at one time we had more than 200,” she said. “Houses get sold and new owners might not want to participate because being a landlord isn’t as easy as it might seem.”

Cadrin said participants in the program have changed free-standing garages into apartments or simply added an apartment on top of a garage, converted walk-out basements or added separate units onto homes.

In the beginning, some neighbors objected because they were worried that multi-family housing was being added to a single-family zone. “So yes, sometimes there is pushback and nimbyism,” she said. “But in order to get approval, you have to go through a public permitting process with the zoning board of appeals, which means that abutters — anyone who lives within 300 feet of an affected parcel — are notified that you are going to be asking to create this apartment. So they get to say their piece.”

Though limited, the program is a success. “I think it helps create affordable rental housing that we desperately need on Cape Cod,” she said. “And in some cases, it helps the homeowner to be able to afford to stay in their homes.

“I sometimes see people getting close to retirement or people in retirement who are looking for another income source. We don’t have much remaining developable land here on Cape Cod and we’re not going to solve the housing problem by building large developments. I think we need to avail ourselves of many tools: Using existing homes for infill is a really good means to do that.”

Cadrin said she thinks more communities in her area will permit ADUs. In recent months, a local group called “Smarter Cape,” which is made of nonprofits, chambers of commerce and the homebuilders association, asked other towns on Cape Cod to adopt ordinances allowing ADUs. “It’s a trend that I think will pick up steam,” she said.

ADUs are just one way to create options for additional housing, and I’d highly encourage communities to look at them.”

Brian E. Clark is a Wisconsin-based journalist and a former staff writer on the business desk of The San Diego Union-Tribune. He is a contributor to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dallas Morning News and other publications.

Photos courtesy of www.accessorydwellings.org

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By David Goldberg

Courtesy of Visit Denver

Greening FOR Growth Complete Streets policies help to meet population demands on infrastructure

S

treets have always been the workhorses of the cityscape. No matter the era, they serve as the indispensable lifelines that allow people to move and commerce to function.

But ideas about how — and by whom — streets are designed and the priorities that shape them can change from generation to generation.

In the 1960s, as urban cores were decanting population to their suburbs, traffic engineers took the lead in redesigning city streets to be more like those of their car-oriented “competitors.”

Today, as many cities are scrambling to manage resurgent population growth and increasing density, urban streets are being overhauled in a radically different direction.

Much of the change is a response to the sheer volume of people and vehicles. To move more people, “many cities are trying to redesign streets overbuilt for cars to be safer for walking and biking and improve transit speed and reliability,” said Aaron Villere of the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).

Growing cities are finding that streets must not only serve as the urban circulatory system, but the same right-of-way also must act as the kidneys and lungs of the municipal organism — clearing waste from storm water, improving air quality and providing space for residents to breathe.

“With fast-growing places, each bit of green needs to be optimized for human benefit and ecological function,” said Dr. Kathleen Wolf, a researcher at the University of Washington who has spent years investigating the role of urban vegetation, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service. “And to the degree possible, each piece of right of way needs to be optimized for green.”

Road improvements on Denver streets

Some cities now are beginning to take steps to fuse several strains of fresh thinking that have emerged over

Trees and plants clean the air and add economic value to real estate.

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WINTER 2018

Complete streets policies convert streets to provide protected space for people on foot and bicycle

the last decade or so. “Complete streets” policies — adopted by more than 1,200 cities — aim to convert streets designed primarily for car traffic to also provide protected space for people on foot, bicycle or getting to transit. More than 30 U.S. cities, ranging in size from Macon, Ga., to New York City, are pursuing Vision Zero goals, trying with a combination of street design, education and enforcement to bring traffic deaths to zero in coming years. To meet requirements for water quality and grapple with intensifying rainfalls under climate change, many cities are supplementing concrete pipe systems with “green stormwater infrastructure” (GSI) that uses vegetated areas to collect and filter water. And with a growing body of research showing that the “urban forest” provides ecological, economic and even public health benefits, cities such as Seattle have created aggressive programs to preserve and expand tree canopy coverage.

How do these threads weave together? “Trees and other plants clean the air, add economic value to real estate and commercial sales and they make places where people want to be,” said John Massengale, author with Victor Dover of Street Design: the Secret to Great Cities and Towns.

“Perhaps most importantly, they slow cars down, which is critical to achieving Vision Zero. If we slow cars down to 20 mph or less, almost nobody will be killed whether pedestrian, cyclist or driver.”

Photo by Eric Fredericks Courtesy of SDOT

Courtesy of Visit Denver

The notion that street trees promote safety is heresy to a previous generation of traffic engineers, who worked to eliminate sturdy trunks that could be a hazard to motorists should they swerve off the road. But it’s true, said Wolf.

Her evaluation of years of research shows that, while trees might be a hazard in rural areas, it is just the opposite in cities, where speeds are slower and sharp curves rare.

“It’s not like trees jump into the lane,” she noted. Rather, research shows the presence of roadside vegetation creates a calming effect that slows speeds, and thereby reduces both the likelihood and damage from a collision.

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Green streets in “ultra-urban” areas: Denver steps out But where to find space for more of that vegetation? It turns out that some of the same techniques that can be used to calm traffic and create safe zones for people on foot or bicycle also offer opportunities to introduce more soothing vegetation and ecological functions. Many of those approaches, as well as case studies, are covered in a guide book from NACTO released in mid-2017.

Among the cities leading the way in putting all these elements together is Denver. The city began to rethink its approach to streets as long ago as a 2008 with an initiative that came to be known as Living Streets, said Crissy Fanganello, the city’s director of transportation and mobility. “Working with our advocacy community we began to think about streets as places and how to design for all users.” The city adopted a complete streets policy and began installing protected bike lanes and retrofitting larger streets to reduce speeding and provide refuges for people on foot.

But then came a post-recession development boom, with growing numbers of people walking and biking in the city’s denser neighborhoods. Even as the intensity of development increased, the city also was under the gun to stop dumping polluted runoff from “impervious surfaces” into

the South Platte River. Although agencies responsible for transportation, utilities and trees and open space tend to work in silos with their own funding streams, Denver officials realized that would no longer be good enough.

Over the last couple of years, experts from the various agencies formed a new joint initiative and with the city’s engineers developed a ground-breaking guide to retrofitting streets in “ultra-urban” areas.

“The pollution removal value of green infrastructure is well established,” Fanganello said. “We want to help prove nationally that it also can have a traffic calming and safety benefit on our streets.”

A series of path-setting new projects is now in play. As a showcase for what is possible, contractors in early 2019 will transform 3.5 acres at the intersection of 21st Street at Broadway, between Champa and Stout Streets, from an asphalted moonscape hazardous to people on foot and bike to a green plaza with protected bicycle and pedestrian ways. “Tree trenches” will shade the area while sucking up runoff and provide a calming green frame for what had been a six-lane speedway. A “green alley” of plants will separate the bike and pedestrian ways. A “water quality planter” will transform pavement into a lush garden spot worthy of lingering. “The project started as a traffic

Roadside vegetation creates a calming effect that slows speeds.

Courtesy of SDOT

22 ON COMMON GROUND

Courtesy of NYCDOT

signal and bike lane, but we worked together to make it something much more,” said Brian Wethington, water quality project manager at Denver Public Works.

Courtesy of SDOT

In the city’s River North arts district, known as RiNo, work already is under way along 15 blocks of Brighton Boulevard to convert a barren stretch of hardscape into an inviting place to walk, bike or wait for the bus. A first phase of the project is catching half the stormwater runoff, while a second will capture every drop.

Along the way, the boulevard will be lined with varying “amenity zones” that can include tree trenches, landscaped planting strips, benches for resting and art to contemplate. As with 21st Street, the trees provide shade for those on foot, while plantings will separate cars from bikes and bikes from pedestrians.

How to fund innovative street design? Seattle looks for a breakthrough Over in the Pacific time zone, Seattle has been an early adopter of ideas around green and complete streets. It was the first big city to adopt a complete streets ordinance, calling for all significant street maintenance and construction projects to improve safety for people on foot and bike. In 2015, it became one of the first American cities to adopt Vision Zero. In the mid2000s Seattle also was a pioneer in redesigning streets both for managing stormwater with nature and safer walking, remaking a 12-block grid with new sidewalks, landscaping to “enhance the pedestrian experience in the neighborhood,” all while benefiting wildlife habitat and improving water quality.

The challenge for Seattle has not been developing and demonstrating integrated thinking about streets, but overcoming the funding silos that make innovative projects so difficult. But with a nation-leading population influx and a forest of cranes looming overhead, Seattle has no choice but to overcome that obstacle if it hopes to keep people moving while meeting goals such as maintaining 30 percent tree canopy, said City Councilmember Rob Johnson.

The pollution removal value of green infrastructure is well established.

Courtesy of SDOT

Courtesy of SDOT

Courtesy of SDOT

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Green infrastructure and complete streets are inextricably related.

Courtesy of SDOT

“I see green infrastructure and complete streets as inextricably related,” said Johnson, who recently and successfully championed significant funding for green infrastructure in the street rights-of-way. “But it means changing longstanding habits of thinking about urban infrastructure, how we build and how we fund it.”

While the city always has more needs than money, the challenge has been more about agencies syncing up available dollars with each other’s plans. The city’s water utility, for example, has substantial funds dedicated to green infrastructure as part of its commitment in a 2015 consent decree to reduce untreated sewage and stormwater flowing into waterways. But that money can only be used in the limited areas where soils permit adequate drainage, said Mami Hara, general manager/CEO of Seattle Public Utilities (SPU).

“Regulatory compliance has been our driver,” Hara said.

“Flood prevention and other uses of green infrastructure are not part of that equation.” That’s why Hara, who was recruited from GSI pioneer Philadelphia, to expand its use in Seattle, was thrilled when City Council approved six years’ worth of funding to go “beyond compliance.”

“We now have two buckets of funds: one for compliance and the other that can address localized flooding, ameliorating impacts of densification to manage stormwater and surface pollution.”

Courtesy of SDOT

Photo by Eric Fredericks

24 ON COMMON GROUND

That frees the agency to partner more with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), which is undergoing an aggressive effort — funded in part by the city’s largest-ever transportation levy — to redesign and add sidewalks and bike ways on a multitude of streets in the face of rapidly escalating demand. The two agencies have tried to establish consistent lines of communication so that they partner on projects, regardless of who initiates them. So, for example, when SDOT has a project under its Safe Routes to School funding umbrella, planners can incorporate green features in the curb bulbs used to narrow street crossings around schools, or add swales and street trees, said Brian Dougherty, who oversees the program at SDOT. Likewise, SDOT works to put the “green” into neighborhood greenways, corridors that are designed to be safe for families and all ages to walk or bike. “We always try to add vegetation where we can, whether or not it serves a specific stormwater management function,” Dougherty said.

Green and complete streets provide public health and safety benefits to low-income neighborhoods.

The next big hurdle: Getting legal authority and policy direction to do joint projects with private developers and other entities. “We are not just looking at parsing out public money for projects here and there,” said Hara.

“We have to find ways to partner and leverage private investment as well.”

Working equity into the equation When city governments scan the landscape for areas with dangerous conditions for pedestrians, a propensity to flood or a lack of tree canopy and soothing vegetation, more often as not they find themselves in low-income neighborhoods of color, said Denver’s Fanganello.

“Equity is important to talk about,” she said. Here again, funding streams and regulatory habits can be an impediment. “Typically, when we have done landscape improvements along a roadway, the city would put in capital, but we would need an entity like a local improvement district to maintain it. The areas of the city that can do that usually are more affluent. This can mean that the very areas where more people are hurt or killed on the street are not seeing the amenities and benefits.” Denver has more recently established a policy of maintaining green and complete streets in low-income areas, she said.

Courtesy of NYCDOT

Seattle, too, is working to apply an equity lens in choosing projects. “Part of going ‘beyond compliance’ for us is to try to prioritize the vulnerable neighborhoods that have flooding problems and need green space,” said Shanti Colwell, GSI program manager at SPU. A growing body of research shows green and complete streets provide particular public health and safety benefits to low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, though the bonuses are not limited to that population, said Wolf. “Going to parks is great, but not as important as the connectivity through neighborhoods,” she said. “That’s why green streets are so important: They are good for children getting to school, people walking to work or transit, or to do errands. These environments encourage and even motivate people to go out and be active, and they reduce stress. They’re critical to a healthy, thriving city.”

David A. Goldberg is a nationally recognized journalist and founding communications director of two national nonprofits, Smart Growth America and Transportation for America. In 2002, Mr. Goldberg was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University, where he studied urban policy.

Courtesy of NYCDOT

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The Boise, Idaho, Walkshop with Dan Burden.

REALTORS® Help Cities

With grant support from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Plan for Walkability

partnered with their local governments to

OF REALTORS®, six local REALTOR® associations have sponsor “WalkShops.”

By Tracey C. Velt

W

Whether you live in the city or the suburbs, being able to walk to retail stores, restaurants and parks is a huge boon to living in those communities. So, it’s no wonder that walkable communities are good for real estate prices, according to the study “2016 Foot Traffic Ahead: Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros,” by The George Washington University School of Business. The study shows that walkable urban places (WalkUPs) in all 30 of the largest metros are gaining market share over their drivable suburban competition — and showing substantially higher rental premiums.

“Walkable, urban for-sale housing is by far the most expensive housing in the country. The range, depending on the market, is between 40 percent and 200 percent greater than drivable, suburban housing,” said George Washington University’s Chris Leinberger, author of the report. “Twenty-five years ago, that relationship didn’t exist because walkability was not valued.”

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WINTER 2018

Not only that, but according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® (NAR) 2017 National Community and Transportation Preference Survey, 53 percent would prefer a house with a small yard in a walkable neighborhood as compared to 47 percent who would choose a large yard in a neighborhood where you have to drive most places, and 80 percent believe it to be very or somewhat important in choosing a home, to be “within an easy walk of other places and things in the community.”

“There seems to be a perception out there that walkability is purely about personal [and] environmental health — which are both important — but Dan Burden [director of innovation and inspiration for Blue Zones LLC, a group that champions walkable communities] made it statistically clear that walkability has a direct link to

Walkable urban places are gaining market share over their drivable suburban competition.

increased property values, too,” according to Celeste Rueter, government affairs director for St. Louis Association of REALTORS®.

These facts are just a few of the reasons the NAR is taking a role in teaching leaders and citizens how to improve the walkability of their cities. To date, NAR has provided grants to six local associations through a pilot project that offers grants through NAR’s Smart Growth grant program. “The grants were offered to certain REALTOR® associations who already have a public commitment to make communities or neighborhoods more walkable,” says Holly Moskerintz, NAR’s community programs outreach manager.

Explaining a WalkShop The grant allowed the associations to sponsor WalkShops, two-day events in collaboration with Dan Burden of Blue Zones. According to Burden, “if we plan for cars and traffic, we get cars and traffic. If, instead, we plan for people and places, we get people and places.”

Blue Zones works with cities and, through policy and programs, aims to transform communities across the United

Walkability has a direct link to increased property values.

States into areas where the healthy choice is easy, and people live longer with a higher quality of life.

“Dan Burden is very well respected in helping communities become more walkable,” says Moskerintz. “He and Samantha Thomas, also of Blue Zones, were the consultants who conducted the WalkShops.”

Thomas notes that the purpose of the WalkShop is “to help empower and inspire local residents to design new ways to enhance the ability of people to walk or bike throughout the town. It also provides a social engagement where local citizens and community leaders are brought together to discuss the future of their community.”

The two-day event, presented to community stakeholders, such as city council members, local business owners, planning and transportation agencies and more, includes a presentation by Burden and a walk audit, where stakeholders take a deeper dive into the neighborhood by The Boise Regional REALTORS®, having the resources of NAR and expertise of Blue Zones’ consultants, was able to create an incredibly successful two-day WalkShop.

The WalkShop helps empower and inspire local residents to design new ways to enhance the ability of people to walk.

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The REALTOR® Association should be at the table for these conversations. walking a route to identify barriers and make recommendations for creating a more walkable and safe community.

That’s where Burden’s expertise comes in. “In almost all of our Blue Zones communities, we want to create complete streets. It’s a whole movement to take all streets and make them walkable or bikeable,” says Burden. “We look for ways we can improve streets through better sidewalks, narrower lanes, reducing traffic and slowing down traffic,” he says.

Those recommendations are then taken to city leaders and planners with the idea that they will be implemented.

The REALTOR® Association as Expert For the MIBOR REALTOR® Association in Indianapolis, Ind., the walkshop was not only helpful in bringing the REALTOR® to the center of the conversations about communities and neighborhoods, but it also helped to bring all key players together rather than piece out the conversations over a series of meetings.

The two-day event kicked off with a walk audit along a mile stretch of US 31 in Franklin, Ind. The Mayor of Franklin, Steve Barnett; City of Franklin planners; Indiana Department of Transportation officials; and representatives from the Johnson County Chamber of Commerce and Johnson County Development Corporation, joined local REALTORS® to participate in the audit.

“We cover 12 counties and many municipalities,” says Zach Churney, economic and community development liaison for MIBOR. “We chose Franklin because that community is doing a lot right now in redeveloping the town and updating the comprehensive plan,” he says.

The key, according to Lacey Everett, government and community relations strategist for MIBOR, was to “get the most out of it. Every one of the planners from across the region took back findings from this process so they could implement or take a look at the challenges in their area.”

At press time, MIBOR association leaders met with Franklin’s mayor, and Churney says, “they are moving forward by adding sidewalks, looking at street buffers and lane widths to make the downtown area more walkable.”

The association plans to continue to “educate and be an advocate at the table for upcoming developments,” says Everett.

The MIBOR REALTOR® Association in Indianapolis, Ind., hosted a walkshop with the help of an NAR Smart Growth Grant.

Courtesy of Michigan Municipal League

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6 ASSOCIATIONS THAT HELD WALK SHOPS

• Coastal Carolinas Association of REALTORS®, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

• Southeast Minnesota Association of REALTORS® (SEMAR), Rochester, Minnesota

• Metropolitan Indiana Board of REALTORS® (MIBOR), Franklin, Indiana

• St. Paul Association of REALTORS®, St. Paul, Minnesota

• Greater Lakes Association of REALTORS®, Crosslake, Minnesota

• Boise REALTORS®, Boise, Idaho

Churney agrees. “The REALTOR® Association should be at the table for these conversations. Walkable communities are in demand [by homebuyers], but the supply is limited.

We can serve as the catalyst for getting local leaders thinking about ways to improve supply,” he says.

“Neighborhoods decline when the people who live there lose their connection and no longer feel part of their community,” said Burden. “Recapturing that sense of belonging and pride of place can be as simple as planting a civic garden or placing some benches in a park.”

Convincing Business Owners

Courtesy of Michigan Municipal League

Another Association that was part of the pilot project was Boise Regional REALTORS®, which had some unique challenges in their area.

“We were on NAR’s radar because we are a progressive city looking for these types of opportunities,” says Georgia Meacham, 2017 NAR Smart Growth vice chair and educator with Georgia Meacham & Company in Boise, Idaho.

“The city took the lead in our project, and we involved the Idaho Department of Transportation; Ada County Highway District; neighborhood associations; local business owners; the Boise City Council President; and a member of the state legislature.”

A challenge unique to Idaho is that the Ada County Highway District controls the roads in the city. “Having the resources of NAR and expertise of Blue Zones’ consultants, we were able to create an incredibly successful two-day WalkShop,” says Soren Dorius, Director of Government Affairs for Boise Regional REALTORS®.

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Courtesy of Michigan Municipal League

The Association and city chose to focus on Orchard Street, a main thoroughfare that gets about 20,000 cars a day, and the few existing sidewalks and crosswalks are dangerous for pedestrians, bicycles and those in wheelchairs.

The area also has much retail that can benefit from better access to parking and more walkability.

“The whole experience was eye-opening and allowed us to start an important conversation about the future of Orchard Street and the many ways we can improve it, short- and long-term,” says Dorius.

From the WalkShop, the group created an action plan of the findings. “The plan is in place and moving forward,” says Meacham.

Although not without some hiccups. Two of the plan recommendations were to change traffic patterns and lower the speed limits. “Many of the local businesses were afraid proposed changes would restrict access to their storefronts,” says Meacham. The conversation helped business owners see that slower traffic, more parking, sidewalks, and safer crosswalks would actually increase business traffic.

“This is a wonderful example of public-private collaboration for a goal to make a community a more vibrant, sustainable place to live,” she says.

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This public-private collaboration makes a community a more vibrant, sustainable place to live.

Dorius felt similarly. “The enthusiasm from all who participated was contagious, and it’s clear that we’ve started a powerful movement among these new collaborative partners. We have our work cut out for us, and look forward to future opportunities to engage our community with these amazing REALTOR® Party tools and resources.”

Part of that work is getting buy-in from the Ada County Highway District, which adds an additional layer to an already complicated process. Meacham has an optimistic outlook regarding the future of the project, adding, “I’m sure we can show community support and get buy-in.”

Challenges While there are challenges to creating or redeveloping communities to make them walkable, such as funding and a willingness to change city plans, one thing is certain. The demand for walkable communities is rising. According to the study Foot Traffic Ahead, walkable urban development appears to be a rising, or even a dominant, factor in

real estate development. In the most highly ranked walkable urban metros, 81 percent of 2010-2015 office and rental multi-family absorption by square footage is now walkable urban.

That same study says that properties located in convenient, amenity-rich communities are commanding increases in the per-foot price of both commercial and residential spaces compared to those in neighborhoods where residents do not have amenities within walking distance.

Walkable urban products in WalkUPs generate substantial rental premiums, suggesting pent-up demand for more walkable urban development.

TO WATCH A WALKSHOP IN ACTION VISIT:

This alone makes it vital for REALTORS® to continue to be a voice in their communities to facilitate change.

Tracey C. Velt is an Orlando-based freelance writer specializing in real estate and business.

MIBOR REALTOR® Association: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Lht6AJYBbNU

Coastal Carolinas Association of REALTORS®: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Lht6AJYBbNU

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Photo by Nick Amoscato

By Kurt Buss

T E S U W E N A P U G BREWIN BUILDINGS D L O R O F

Courtesy of Hand of Fate Brewing Company

Courtesy of Hand of Fate Brewing Company

he domestic beer industry is booming, but not just to the benefit of the large corporations that produce the vast majority of beer in the United States. The craft brewing trade has changed the status quo, and the financial benefits are trickling out, not down. It’s spurring the rejuvenation of neighborhoods often in decay, or at least decline. A microbrewery with a taproom, or a smaller brewing operation in a brewpub can quickly become the community center for revitalized urban infill, as well as bringing small towns back to life.

Colliers International did a recent Spotlight Report to “better gauge the impact the craft beer industry has been having on commercial real estate in recent years.” They took a deep look at 29 markets scattered across the United States and measured the square footage of growth. In South Carolina, they reported in 2016, “33.6 percent of the total square footage currently occupied by breweries and brewpubs has opened since 2013.” Many more are in the planning stages.

The microbrewing movement began in the U.K. during the 1970s. It migrated to the United States in the 80s, and originally designated as breweries producing less than 15,000 barrels of beer annually. The craft beer industry started in basements and garages, but grew with the emerging demand for European old-style beers with an emphasis on quality, not quantity. The Brewers Association, a nonprofit U.S. trade group with over 9,300 members, describes craft breweries as “small, independent and traditional.” Beer just began to taste a whole lot better.

In 1810, there were 120 breweries in the United States (according to BeerInfo.com). In 1873, the first year of records kept by the Brewers Association, there were 4,131, largely in cities and towns throughout the eastern and midwestern parts of the country. These were mostly small

Photo by verndogs

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A microbrewery can become the community center for revitalized urban infill.

The craft brewing industry is having a rippling impact on local economies. breweries that would have supplied the taverns and beer halls in their community. There was no practical means of refrigerating the beer for extended transportation. As production efficiencies improved, and railroad ice cars increased distribution ranges, fewer breweries could make more beer.

By 1910, the number of breweries dropped to 1,568.

Courtesy of Hand of Fate Brewing Company

And then, Prohibition. From 1920 to 1932 the number of breweries operating in the United States was zero. When Prohibition (finally!) ended, only a fraction of the breweries survived. In 1933, the number was 331. That number distilled further, to 124 in 1986. Enter, the microbreweries and brewpubs, and the number jumps to 1,149 in 1996, growing to 1,460 in 2006.

Then craft brewers did the hitherto unthinkable, and started selling their beer in cans. Now anyone can take their favorite beer in a backpack, and outdoor enthusiasts helped fuel the industry to 5,301 total breweries in the United States in 2016, broken down as: 3,123 microbreweries; 1,916 brewpubs; 186 regional craft breweries; 51 large non-craft; and 16 “other” non-craft breweries.

The craft beer industry has grown to 12.3 percent of total production by volume, but has garnered 21.9 percent of sales. By contrast, in 1983 America’s top six breweries controlled 92 percent of beer production.

In 2016, the craft brewing industry contributed $67.8 billion to the economy and created over 456,000 jobs. Now, the craft brewing industry is having a rippling impact on local economies, as it finds its niche in abandoned neighborhoods and struggling towns from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., — and many places in between.

“Blood, Sweat & Beer” is a 2015 feature documentary by Chip Hiden and Alexis Irvin which examines the explosive growth of the craft beer industry and focuses on two craft breweries and how they impact their communities.

After two years of traveling throughout the United States visiting existing and start-up craft breweries, Hiden told All About Beer Magazine, “A brewery can inspire a real sense of community in a place that otherwise might not have it. People like to have them in their town; they like to spend that beer money with people they know.”

Courtesy of Hand of Fate Brewing Company

One of the breweries in the documentary is a start-up in an old steel mill town in Allegheny County, Pa., called Braddock. Andrew Carnegie built his first mill there in 1890, and the town quickly grew to over 20,000. Today, after the collapse of the steel industry in the 1970s, Braddock has a population of 2,153. Two 24-year-old locals, Asa Foster and Matt Katase, had just graduated from nearby Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, but came back to Braddock with a plan for revitalizing the largely boarded up and abandoned town.

“The perception for a long time was that if I go to Braddock, I’m going to get shot,” Foster says. “What we’re

33

Photo by Henry Zbyszynski

Photo by Christopher Lehault

A brewery can inspire a real sense of community. trying to do is make the most welcoming experience possible and have people come here and feel good about Braddock.” With over 12,000 people following their Facebook page, they seem to have accomplished their mission.

And if the craft beer industry can turn around a rust-belt town, it can have an impact anywhere.

Large cities have had neighborhoods that were trending downward in many quality of life aspects, but brewpubs and taprooms have reversed the fortunes of many communities. Three college buddies with a passion for good beer after traveling in Europe were disappointed when they returned to their local pubs in Boston. They formed the Harpoon Brewery in 1986 in Boston, and found an empty warehouse on the waterfront to begin brewing beer. The craft beer industry was in its infancy then, but Harpoon nurtured its products and developed a strong following, and in 2000 bought the former Catamount Brewery in Windsor, Vt. By 2013, Harpoon had become the twelfth-largest craft brewery in the United States, and 19th-largest overall. In 2014, the company offered a stock ownership program and became employee owned. Their events and festivals have become legendary.

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Photo by Dave Levy

Photo by Aimee Custis

Similar stories have taken place in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section, where Brooklyn Brewery operates out of an old matzo factory. Los Angeles has the Angel City Brewery in its downtown Arts District that used to be a warehouse for a New Jersey cable manufacturer, which provided the cables for the Brooklyn and Golden Gate bridges, as well as the Vincent Thomas Bridge which spans Los Angeles harbor. Kansas City had its brewing history rekindled when Boulevard Brewing Company started making beer in an old laundry building for the Santé Fe Railroad. And Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood benefitted tremendously when Great Lakes Brewing Company renovated several Victorian era buildings that had housed hotels, a burlesque house, a seed company, a livery stable and the Market Tavern, where Elliot Ness of “The Untouchables” fame purportedly left some bullet holes in the wall.

Craft breweries don’t need a big city to prosper, but they do need a pretty good-sized building to brew. The processing equipment, ingredients and product storage, packaging lines, all require significant space; and old abandoned warehouses and factories fit the need well.

The Wedge Brewery has a facility in Asheville, N.C., that used to be the largest tannery in the country. When Magnolia Brewing outgrew its basement brewery in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, it opened a second brewery and BBQ restaurant called the Smokestack in the post-industrial neighborhood of Dogpatch. The building

Craft breweries need good-sized buildings to brew. was originally a factory of the American Can Company, which produced the first beer can, and became one of the largest can manufacturing facilities in the county. The 1930s-style renovation is a work of artisans.

“A brewery can bring new life to a vacant industrial building or retail shopping center and can help boost leasing demand,” Colliers reports. “Locate a brewery in a walkable neighborhood, and it can become an instant draw for existing and potential residents. Landlords are taking note of craft beer as a growth industry, which will create an increased demand for their properties.” The report lists several reasons for repurposing antiquated buildings in industrial areas and small towns, such as purchase price and availability, necessary infrastructure, brand development, and the possibility of tax incentives from revitalization programs.

There’s even a brewery that’s been restored after being dormant from 1972 to 1995. The Potosi Brewery (Potosi, Wis.) was built in 1852 and became a regional brand, but couldn’t compete with the mega-brewers. The craft beer craze made the building worth restoring. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and now serves as the site of the National Brewery Museum and the Potosi Brewing Company Transportation Museum, which make this southwestern Wisconsin farm town (population 688) a tourist destination.

Photo by Tech.Co

Photo by Jeff Stvan

Photo by Tech.Co

Mark Garthwaite, executive director of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild, sees the economic impact throughout the state. “There are numerous examples where areas in dire need of economic development have been given a boost by the presence of a brewery. They draw people and then new businesses start popping up in the area as well. It’s remarkable to see how rapidly it occurs and in communities both large and small all across Wisconsin.”

Brewpubs tend to require less space than microbreweries with taprooms (smaller production and no can or bottle lines), so they can be fitted in a greater variety of smaller buildings. Some of the buildings have been restored to nothing short of gob smacking. The Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh arguably tops the list. Drinking great beer while looking through stained glass windows under a

Photo by Nick Amoscato

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Areas in dire need of economic development have been given a boost by a brewery. cathedral ceiling makes one think of the saying “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Photo by Tom Bastin

Atwater Brewery has a similar brewpub in an old church in Grosse Point Park, Mich. Across the state is the Brewery Vivant, in a 1915 funeral home in Grand Rapids, which was the first LEED certified microbrewery.

Government buildings have also become stunning brewpubs, with firehouses in Rapid City, S.D., and Tacoma, Wash., a jailhouse in Hampton, Ga., as well as a post office in Willimantic, Conn. There’s a taproom in an old bank in Hendricks, Minn., a brewpub in one of the original service stations for Highway 66 in Albuquerque, N.M., the list goes on and on…

Photo by Daniel Lobo

Photo by Kearnj

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Photo by Lucius Kwok

But the craft beer industry has done more than repurpose old buildings; it has revitalized communities, sometimes bringing back districts in urban rust-belts, and other times giving new life to small towns. Downtown areas are witnessing the gentrification of neighborhoods built by masons, long before the advent of suburbs and strip malls. Microbreweries and brewpubs often serve as hubs for community gathering in distressed areas, as the peripheral effects are felt in retail, service and housing demand.

Jobs are created for brewers, packagers, drivers, beer tenders, cooks, wait staff and all the cleaning and service contractors required to keep the casks and taps flowing.

The surrounding houses get fixed up and the vacancies go down. New lights appear.

New Belgium Brewing moved out of a couple’s basement and into an abandoned railroad freight warehouse in the Old Town neighborhood of Fort Collins, Colo., in 1992.

They became the anchor for the neighborhood’s revitalization; and with Fat Tire as their flagship beer have grown to

the next generation of craft brewers. They’ve built a state of the art, employee-owned brewery complex outside of Fort Collins, and have expanded into San Francisco and Asheville, N.C., both regional hubs for craft breweries.

They now have over 800 employees (owners) and will invest $175 million into their facility on a brownfield in Asheville’s River Arts District.

“At New Belgium, we built both our breweries on brownfields so we first had to rehabilitate the space,” said New Belgium Brewing’s communications director, Bryan Simpson. “In Fort Collins, we’re north of our vibrant Old Town by about a half mile on what used to be sugar beet production fields. There is a pretty rough patch between New Belgium and Old Town, but it is now seeing a great revitalization as the River District. We’ve got mixed-use development coming in; a book press, high-end pie shop and distillery have popped up, and we’re now connected with Old Town in a much more meaningful way. This part of town is having a renaissance in part due to New Belgium’s presence out this way.”

According to Bart Watson, chief economist with the Brewers Association, “With 80 percent of 21-plus adults living within 10 miles of a brewery, we’ve certainly seen many of the more than 5,800 breweries in the United States play a role in their neighborhood or town’s economy. One of the best parts of breweries as manufacturing businesses is that they can go into spaces that are zoned for industry and yet still bring foot traffic to those areas, playing a role in revitalization.”

Photo by Bill Rand

Courtesy of ctj71081

Colliers agrees with the rosy forecast. “The craft beer industry will continue to be a growth industry both in market share and within the commercial real estate arena as a result of its engaged and growing consumer base.”

Think about that. Local is becoming the new micro-global.

Kurt Buss is a freelance writer who lives in Loveland, Colorado, with over 25 years of experience managing recycling programs along Colorado’s Front Range. He writes about resource conservation, being a Baby Boomer, and enjoying the Rocky Mountains. You can visit his website at www.kurtbusscoloradofreelancewriter.com

Photo by yOhimba

WINTER 2018 37

Photo by MKErailscenes

ALL ABOARD FOR A BEER!

S

ome of the most historically significant, and biggest draws, have been the brewpubs located in old train stations. John Harvard’s in Providence, R.I.; McMenamins in Roseburg, Ore., and Titletown in Green Bay, Wis.; are a few of the most popular destinations.

The Chicago and Northwestern Railway (C&NW) was one of the nation’s largest and most profitable railroad companies during the heyday of passenger rail service, operating primarily in the Midwest. Green Bay was the headquarters of the Lake Shore Division, which connected Chicago with the cities and towns along Lake Michigan’s western shore with Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP).

In 1897, C&NW purchased a large tract of land for a freight yard on the edge of Green Bay that had been the Fort Howard Military Reservation. They hired a Chicago architect, Charles S Frost, to design the depot, as he had for C&NW’s other principal depots.

He designed a towering beauty, with separate waiting rooms for men and women, ticket offices and a lunchroom on the first floor, and agent offices and an employee clubroom on the second floor. A huge clock tower loomed overhead. Iron ore cars came down from the UP, and the passenger lines connecting Green Bay with Milwaukee and Chicago were so

38 ON COMMON GROUND

busy that oftentimes a second locomotive would have to be attached as additional cars were added. And the big, sleek diesel locomotives were a sight to see.

Before the interstate highway system was built, passenger trains were a primary mode of travel, and the depot in Green Bay saw an awful lot of activity. It was literally the hub of the town. But the town grew outward and passenger trains grew obsolete. The last scheduled passenger service ended in 1971, although the yard would still be an active freight hub for many years. In 1994 the depot finally went vacant. The following year C&NW was purchased by Union Pacific and ceased to exist. The depot sat silent for the first time in its existence … And then came craft beer.

A group of local investors got together, bought and renovated the building, and Titletown Brewing Company was formed in 1996. The depot became a draw for lunch crowds in the surrounding industrial park and residential neighborhoods. The unique interior architecture stood out with fresh paint. Pictures of the station’s history and famous people who passed through adorned the walls: Nat King Cole, Buddy Holly, and Presidents Taft, Franklin Roosevelt and Eisenhower among them. Parts of the building were set up as event rooms, and businesses began to utilize these unique spaces. The outdoor patio is dog friendly.

“Before Titletown moved in and renovated the old train depot, the neighborhood was somewhat under neglect,” says Stacy Born, a longtime resident of the area who now enjoys the festive atmosphere of the area, which has become a major destination area for locals and visitors alike.

Photo by MKErailscenes

The brewery began making root beer based on an original recipe from a drive-in chain that was popular in the area called Sno-Cap. Grandma Glady’s owned one of the stores in Green Bay in the 1960s, and some of her descendants became founders of Titletown Brewery.

They were able to revive the recipe with her guidance.

Sno-Cap root beer became trademarked; and Titletown Brewery became more of a family-friendly attraction.

The brewpub’s popularity grew, and so did demand for its beer. A warehouse built by the Larsen Canning Company in the 1920s sat empty across the street, after the company had been bought out in 1986 and the building became less and less used, until eventually becoming completely unoccupied. Walmart was eyeing the property for a supercenter. Titletown Brewing Company had other ideas. They bought the building and put in a modern, high-capacity brewing system and tap room on the ground floor. The Cannery public market is on the second floor and is described as a “rustic-chic venue with a bar, deli & eatery using locally-sourced ingredients, plus grocery items.” The third floor houses the William Larsen Event Hall which seats 200 guests and is popular for weddings and reunions.

But the overwhelming draw for this location is the rooftop (outdoor) patio and (indoor) taproom. The fourth-floor views embrace the city’s working-class hustle, with barge activity going up and down the Fox River on the other side of the depot. Bridge traffic and city lights brighten the nightscape. Lambeau Field is visible in the distance.

It’s reportedly a great place to watch snowstorms. There’s no other place like it in Green Bay. It opened in 2016, the 20th anniversary for Titletown Brewing.

Courtesy of Hand of Fate Brewing Company

Courtesy of Hand of Fate Brewing Company

“Taking a building that was abandoned for 12 years and making it into a destination on a weekend where thousands of people are coming through is pretty cool for the community. It’s good for downtown. It’s just good for Green Bay,” Jim Kratowicz, Titletown Brewing’s COO told the Green-Bay Press Gazette. “This is a vibe you really don’t get in a lot of cities.”

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Courtesy of Chesapeake Bay Program

Urban agriculture

blossoming around the country

By Brian E. Clark

N

ot far from the sparkling new, $1.5-billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta’s low-income Vine City neighborhood, Rosario Hernandez is in charge of a two-lot garden with raised beds that produced tomatoes, green beans and peppers this past summer and fall.

The Vine City effort, dubbed “Hope With Gardens,” is just one small part of the burgeoning urban agriculture movement that is gaining strength around the country, experts say, encompassing everything from small plots in impoverished neighborhoods, to high-tech greenhouses on city rooftops, to new developments that include community gardens and small farms.

“People going to Falcons’ football games can’t see what we’re doing, but folks in Vine City are happy that we cleaned up those lots and are growing things,” said the retired elementary school teacher. “Why, we even have a pollinator garden that was filled with butterflies flitting from flower to flower during the growing season.”

Victory gardens were big during World War II in the United States when the government rationed sugar, butter, milk, cheese, eggs, coffee, meat and canned goods,

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Urban agriculture is gaining strength around the country.

said Anne Palmer with the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

A generation later, gardening got a boost in the 1970s, she said, and it’s blossoming again in the 21st Century “under the umbrella term of urban agriculture that’s hitting a couple of different notes than it did in previous times,” she said.

“For Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit and other cities, urban agriculture is being used as a mechanism to address a lot of unused urban land and shrinking populations,” she said.

“Cities officials are looking around and asking what do we do with all this unused property? They don’t want it to just grow weeds and be blighted. They want to use that space for growing food and recreation and contributing to a sense of community.”

A number of cities have passed regulations to promote gardening and even farming on a small scale, sometimes with mixed results. “But it’s a movement that’s going to continue and new growers will come on when others drop out,” she said.

In addition to providing fresh produce for people who live in so-called “food deserts” — where grocery stores

Cities want to use unused property for growing food.

are often few and far between — schools and teachers are using gardens as a learning platform to get kids interested in growing food, creating good eating habits and learning about environmental health.

“They aren’t about making money per se, more about building community, providing nutritious food, job training and things like that, which is why they often need city support and soft funding from grants.

“Gardens can have other benefits, too, because they often encourage landlords to fix up their properties,” Hernandez added. “Green spaces in general are associated with lower crime rates and increased home values and community gardens are a part of that. REALTORS® will point to them as an asset because they build what we call ‘social capital.’ And these gardens aren’t just for poor areas, either, because developers have jumped on the community garden bandwagon, too.”

Ag in Atlanta raises communities In Vine City, Hernandez said the Historic Westside Gardens (HWG) group negotiated with the elderly lady who owned the lots to start the gardens five years ago. She joined HWG three years ago and trained with Truly Living Well, an organization that runs a successful community garden in the Asheville Heights neighborhood of Atlanta. She also has a large garden in her backyard, where her grandchildren come to pick fresh vegetables in season.

Courtesy of UGA

Courtesy of UGA

41

Courtesy of UGA

Courtesy of UGA

REALTORS® point to community gardens as an asset.

Hernandez said she hopes to start a community garden in the English Avenue neighborhood where she lives and where she estimates 70 percent of the buildings are boarded up. It, too, is close to the new stadium.

“I think gardens could help turn things around,” she said.

“The city says affordable housing is coming, but it takes time. I’m hoping we can work with Habitat for Humanity or some group like that to get lots and take it from there.”

Mario Cambardella, who was hired as Atlanta’s first director of urban agriculture in 2015, credits Mayor Kasim Reed for the community gardening push. Cambardella, who studied landscape architecture at the University of Georgia, said Reed wanted to put the city on a track to eliminate 75 percent of the city’s food deserts by 2020.

These deserts, defined as low-income neighborhoods with low access to markets with fresh food, had dropped from 56 percent in 2010 to 36 percent in 2017, according to some estimates. That was thanks, in part, to the increase

Courtesy of UGA

42 ON COMMON GROUND

in community gardens and the opening of new farmers’ markets, including four at Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) train stations in the city.

Cambardella’s department coordinates a variety of programs, including six urban garden sites in low-income neighborhoods that are about a quarter-acre each. The sites came from surplus city land and the city worked out five-year agreements with community groups to “farm” the properties.

“We have a lot of surplus land in parts of Atlanta, but few that are suitable for growing because of our tree canopy,” Cambardella said. “We’re known as the ‘City in the Forest’ for good reason. We love our trees, but they can make it hard to garden.”

Cambardella, who grew up in Atlanta, cited the Collegetown community garden on a former public housing site as a success story. It has programs that teach residents how to grow their own vegetables using raised beds, prepare

Courtesy of UGA

Photo by Jeff Wright

Photo by Derek Severson

and store produce and how to manage hoop houses for growing fruits and vegetables hydroponically from the spring into the fall.

The city also has secured easements under Georgia Power lines that are larger — ranging from a half-acre to a full-acre — where urban farmers can grow crops for sale, he said.

“In Atlanta, urban agriculture serves four core values,” he said. “They are ecological literacy, cultural relevancy, health and nutrition and economic development.

Seattle’s growing opportunties

“One house there tells a poignant story about economic gain. When the garden opened 18 months ago, a home across from the garden entry was selling for $18,000. Six months ago, an investor bought it, fixed it up and it’s now on the market for $200,000. So these gardens are not only lighthouses for nutrition and community, but they can have a major impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.”

Next up is a 7.1-acre “food forest” park in the southeast Atlanta neighborhood of Browns Mill, which is being developed by the city in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and other partners.

“Seattle has an edible urban forest garden on Beacon Hill that we’ve visited, but their’s is only 7 acres,” he quipped.

“And I’m mighty proud of our additional .1 acre.”

Seattle’s permaculture food forest dates to 2009, but its community gardening programs go back more than four decades to 1973, when the city acquired the Picardo Farms property in northeast Seattle and launched what came to be called the “P-Patch” program.

It began when a student said a community garden on a portion of the land would be a good way of teaching children about food and how to grow it, said Richard Fink II, who runs the Community Assets Division for the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.

The city now has 90 P-Patch gardens in every corner and nook and cranny of the city, he said, noting the original patch is still being worked. It now covers nearly 100,000 square feet with more than 250 individual plots. The wait time to get a plot is six to 12 months, according to a city website.

The number of food desserts has dropped due to the increase in community gardens.

Photo by Jeff Wright

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Seattle’s P-Patches provide a gathering place for the community to share ideas.

“Each P-Patch is different and reflects the interests and geography of the neighborhoods,” Fink said. Some are owned by the parks department and other agencies, while others are on private land.

Photo by K. Shuyler

“It varies from plot to plot,” he said. “Some are under power lines, others are built up on the sides of roads.

Others in the middle of neighborhoods, while others are inside of parks.”

More than 3,100 people from all walks of life participated in the program this past summer. “With each garden, it’s primarily people from that geographic area with the gardens reflecting the demographic makeup of the neighborhood,” he explained.

Some, for example, would include families, with plots now being gardened by the children or grandchildren of those who started in the 1970s. Others, near a college, would have more students and faculty maintaining plots.

“At other P-Patches, we have community groups run by people with the intention of giving what’s grown in those plots to food banks located near the patch,” he said.

The program has 32 acres in cultivation, mainly growing organic produce, though there are also some fruit trees.

“We absolutely consider it a success,” he said. “It is one of the largest and oldest community gardening programs in the entire country.

Photo by Jeff Wright

“Our overarching goals, in addition to raising vegetables and fruits, is for these patches to provide a gathering place for the community to share ideas, as well as to boost residents’ pride in where they live. It certainly contributes to a healthier urban environment here in Seattle. It’s a lot about camaraderie.”

Because the P-Patches are well known in their neighborhoods, Seattle recently designated all of them as emergency gathering places. In the event of any kind of disaster like an earthquake or fire, he said people know they can congregate there to share information and resources. “That’s just a natural extension of the community gardening program,” he said.

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The Denver Plots In Denver, Fatuma Emmad is the director of Urban Farms for the nonprofit group known as Groundwork and supervises three acres of gardens in low-income neighborhoods across Denver and runs “pay-what-youcan” farmsteads.

The largest plot of land she oversees is called the “Sisters Garden,” which covers one acre, has a greenhouse and is next to Regis University in the Aria neighborhood in northwest Denver.

Photo by David Lobo

Located in what Emmad calls a food desert, the garden is a collaboration between the university and Groundwork and is part of the school’s “Cultivate Health Project,” aimed at promoting healthy living in the area.

“When the nuns sold the land where the garden is located, which includes a former apple orchard and a nunnery that is now cooperative housing, they required the developers to have a farm and mixed-income housing,” she said of the neighborhood, which is close to downtown and on the edge of an area that is rapidly being gentrified.

Photo by Noya Fields

Photo by Noya Fields

“We are lucky to have this, because land is at such a premium here in Denver,” added Emmad, a native of Ethiopia who grew up in Denver and ran her own urban agriculture company before joining Groundwork.

“I like growing things and helping bring people together,” she said. “We have classes on canning, improving the soil, salad-making and even free yoga in the Sisters Garden.

We try to be sustaining, too, by selling high-quality produce to restaurants, but our scope is broader than that.”

Vertical Farming Near the Big Apple Nearly 2,000 miles away in Brooklyn, New York, Henry Gordon-Smith has turned his blog into a business called Agritecture, which offers hydroponic and soil greenhouse — both rooftop and ground-based — “vertical” farming and other urban agriculture consulting services to clients around the globe.

Courtesy of UGA

A community garden is a good way of teaching children about food and how to grow it.

WINTER 2018 45

Photo by Blaine O’Neill

Photo by Blaine O’Neill

A native of Hong Kong who spent his early years there and in Tokyo, Gordon-Smith said he developed a “thing for parks in Asia and how they use space.”

time, became a go-to guy for people who had a building, wanted to start a farm and wanted advice on what they could grow.”

“But I didn’t grow up with a green thumb,” said GordonSmith. “And it wasn’t until I got to New York City five years ago that I started to get hands-on experience by volunteering at urban farms.”

He recruited an interdisciplinary team with engineers, growers and plant scientists who helped him develop what he calls “a methodology around feasibility studies for urban agriculture.” Most of his clients have been in the Northeast, but Agritecture has consulted on projects in Europe, Mexico and as far away as Shanghai, China.

Before that, he said potential clients said they liked his ideas, but were reluctant to hire him because he had little experience getting his hands in the dirt (or water) and had not actually grown fruits or vegetables.

Gordon-Smith, 31, said he caught the urban agriculture bug when he was a student in Vancouver, British Columbia studying political science. He met and wrote about people who were farming backyards in his Agritecture blog “because I thought their ideas about food and water security were very interesting.

“Initially, I thought I’d enter the foreign service, but I had an itch to scratch and thought urban gardening was something worth exploring. Most of all, I really like designing systems visually, figuring out how things relate and coming up with a business model to make it all work.”

At first, he created what he calls “a digital space to talk about how urban agriculture can play a role in cities of the future and juxtaposed that with what was happening in the industry at the time.” He adds, “I became an industry commentator, began to speak at events and over

A three-story parking garage was converted into a vertical farm.

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Gordon-Smith has developed a niche in vertical farming — the practice of growing food in vertically stacked layers or inclined surfaces in controlled settings — and co-founded the Association of Vertical Farming.

One of the largest hydroponic vertical farms in the country is located in Newark, N.J., where a company called Aerofarms produces leafy greens in a 69,000-squarefoot greenhouse.

They come in smaller sizes, too, he noted. The ski town of Jackson, Wyo., where snow is often on the ground eight months a year, is home to a 4,500-square-foot vertical greenhouse that turns out upwards of 100,000 pounds of fresh produce annually, most of which is snapped up by local restaurants, or sold in a retail market in the greenhouse.

But growing vegetables isn’t the only reason for the indoor hanging garden’s existence. More than a dozen people who have disabilities such as spina bifida, autism, Down syndrome or have seizure disorders work at the garden, a public-private partnership.

“They took the facade of a three-story parking garage and converted it into a vertical farm,” Gordon-Smith said.

“That’s pretty creative. But really, it’s like a rooftop that

I like growing things and helping bring people together. is vertical. Just imagine a south-facing building with a six-to-10-foot deep skin where you grow vegetables and also generate solar heat.”

Gordon-Smith said his company looks at the “full spectrum of urban agriculture in the context of real estate and urban planning.

“All along the way, there are aesthetic, ecological and economic impacts and tradeoffs. It’s really about identifying the right solutions for each area. But as consultants, we get more requests on the high-tech side because the capital costs are higher, it’s an area where a lot of mistakes have been made, and where there is a lot of hype and excitement at the moment.”

Courtesy of Inhabitat

He said his vision for urban agriculture is ambitious.

“We’re demonstrating the positive impacts of these kinds of farms across the spectrum, in such a way that cities will see the benefits of incentivizing them and that large corporations will understand the value of integrating them into what they do.

“I want cities to be more productive and I think agriculture is a way to do that. Rainwater harvesting and energy production is part of that, but I want cities everywhere to be more than places that consume energy and then generate waste, but have positive outputs.

“Rooftops alone have a huge amount of potential.

Another one is basements. I’ve been lobbying New York to allow people to grow food there,” said Gordon-Smith.

“If you look at housing projects, they have enormous basements. The technology of growing food indoors has gotten much more affordable and viable, but the building codes have not kept up with the technology.

I think cities need to find a way to let people make use of all kinds of usable space for growing food.”

Brian E. Clark is a Wisconsin-based journalist and a former staff writer on the business desk of The San Diego Union-Tribune. He is a contributor to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Dallas Morning News and other publications.

Courtesy of US Dept. of Ag

Courtesy of Horticulture Group

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Rural

Housing

initiativeS

Affordable housing is not just an urban problem

By Bobby L. Hickman

Discussions around safe, affordable housing issues often focus on helping low-income residents in large urban areas.

But rural areas are also experiencing housing challenges that require creative solutions.

Some 20 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural America. They share some of the same obstacles as other citizens seeking adequate housing at prices they can afford. Rural communities across the country also face lower incomes, aging housing, older populations, and slower economic growth. However, a number of rural housing initiatives are underway, including campaigns in Nebraska and Virginia where REALTORS® are playing a lead role in bringing about positive change.

“A lot of rural communities that were hit hard by the recession haven’t come back very well,” said Bob Rapoza, manager of the National Rural Housing Coalition (NRHC). “Rural areas have higher poverty rates and higher

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unemployment rates than metropolitan areas. The recovery in housing prices for rural communities has also been far less.”

Rapoza listed several reasons why rural housing issues draw less attention than urban concerns. One factor is the nature of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). “Their focus and their constituency are mayors and people who use the FHA program,” he said.

As a result, HUD emphasizes city and suburban needs over rural Americans.

Developing rural housing is primarily addressed through U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs.

However, Rapoza said, regardless of which political party controls the White House, “Housing is not the first thing

A number of rural housing initiatives are underway.

Financial support for rural housing has declined. the secretary of agriculture thinks about when his feet hit the floor every morning.”

Courtesy of USDA

Rural citizens also have less political pull in Congress.

The percentage of Congressional members representing rural areas has declined as more people move to cities and suburbs. How the government finances community development initiatives has also changed. “We’ve gone from grants to guaranteed loans to direct loans to tax credits,” Rapoza said. “The more complex the financing tool, the more difficult it is for smaller projects to use them.”

Financial support for rural housing and related programs has also fallen off. Rapoza said almost half a billion dollars was available in the early 1980s, and 31 percent of funds went to small communities. Today, there is less funding and rural areas get about 12 percent.

NRCH continues to support the USDA’s Rural Housing Service and its programs (such as Section 515 for rural rental properties, and Section 502 direct and guaranteed loans to families). “The programs are certainly not what they used to be,” Rapoza said, “but they remain important to members of the coalition.”

Photo by Anne Chan Courtesy of USDA

One example is NRCH member Southern Tier Housing (STHC), which has worked with Kentucky Highlands Investment to replace manufactured homes with low-cost housing. Some of that was done through Section 502 direct loans. Over the past two years, STHC has obtained $5.8 million in funding to help 38 households. It expects to construct at least 21 more dwellings over the next two years through the USDA’s Mutual Self-Help grant program (which helps fund “sweat equity” projects where six to eight families join forces to build each other’s homes).

The national coalition is particularly interested in finding ways to preserve the USDA’s rural housing portfolio, Rapoza said. Section 515 financed half a million housing units during its existence, and some 400,000 remain in its portfolio. “However, most of them have not been touched for rehabilitation, and the average age is 30 years,” Rapoza added. “So we’ve been working to include USDA funds to finance repair and rehabilitation of Section 515 housing.”

Courtesy of USDA

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Nebraska REALTORS® Push Workforce Housing Initiative One indicator of the problems small communities have faced since the Great Recession is a shortage of workforce housing in some states (particularly in the Midwest and the Plains). “In the Dakotas and Kansas, some coalition members have told us the biggest obstacle to economic growth is some people have to drive three to four hours to work, because there is no housing in the areas where the jobs are,” Rapoza said. “We had a group in Dodge City, Kan., join the coalition specifically because of the housing shortage and its obstacle to economic growth.”

Courtesy of USDA

In early 2017, Nebraska addressed the issue by passing the Workforce Housing Initiative. Backed by the Nebraska REALTORS® Association (NRA) and the Nebraska Association of Bankers, the legislation allocates $7.3 million for grants to build workforce housing in rural communities.

“We want to have people gainfully employed in jobs they like, in communities they want to live in, at a rate they can afford,” said Kent Thompson, NRA’s immediate past president. “That’s why this is a REALTOR® issue. If we don’t have inventory, we don’t have a market.”

Courtesy of USDA

Thompson, who testified at legislative hearings on the bill, said Nebraska REALTORS® have pursued workforce and low-incoming housing initiatives for many years. “Across the country, the shortage of middle income housing is rampant,” Thompson said. “But the shortage is direr in our smaller cities and towns, from 1,500 to 20,000 residents.”

The housing shortage has hampered Nebraska efforts to attract new industry. “If a company doesn’t have the staffing it needs to be successful, they won’t come — and housing is a major part of that.” Thompson explained.

“After prospects ask about the costs and the employment base, they ask what the housing stock is like: Where are our managers and our support staff going to live? Is it affordable and available, or can it be constructed quickly?”

Courtesy of USDA

Both of those questions can be problematic in rural communities. “We kept hearing this over and over across the state: either the housing stock is really nice (maybe belonging to a company president), or there are older homes

Across the country, the shortage for middle income housing is rampant.

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Courtesy of USDA

Courtesy of USDA

Courtesy of USDA

Workers who can build modern homes may not be available in a rural setting. built 40, 50, or 100 years ago,” Thompson added. Infrastructure can also be outdated.

Building new homes can present challenges. Workers who can build modern homes may not be available in a rural setting, and have to be brought in from larger cities.

Also, a manager may build a new home for $250,000 and later be transferred to another plant. They may find “it’s only worth $125,000 on the open market, and it may take a long time to sell,” Thompson said. That market further discourages new construction and new industries.

In Nebraska, Thompson said, “We have a lot of people here who could be qualified employees for these companies, but we also need to help supply housing for middle managers. We’re looking for effective tools to make that happen.”

On the workforce housing legislation, the Nebraska Bankers Association initiated the bill and NRA quickly joined in the effort. Thompson said. “As REALTORS®, we feel this is an issue we should own.” While bankers

addressed rural financing, he continued, “That’s only part of the issue. Financing is difficult but we can get there.

The bigger issue is that you’ve got to have a ready market for the housing.” Economic development and community leaders across Nebraska also backed the effort.

State Sen. Matt Williams, who introduced the bill (LB518), said Nebraska REALTORS® were involved throughout the legislative process. “We have many good jobs available across Nebraska,” Williams said. “The largest obstacle to filling these positions is the lack of available workforce housing. This is especially evident in our rural areas. The primary goal of LB518 is to create a mechanism that encourages communities to engage in workforce strategies.”

With LB518 signed into law in May 2017, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development is currently writing rules to implement the initiative, Williams said. The first grants to nonprofit development organizations are expected to be awarded in early 2018.

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Courtesy of USDA

Virginia Forums Tackle Rural Housing While leaders of the Virginia Association of REALTORS® (VAR) agree that workforce housing is an important consideration, they feel their state must first address more immediate needs: an aging rural population, and inadequate housing for people currently living in those areas.

Most of Virginia’s population density lies in the “Urban Crescent” stretching from the Washington, D.C., suburbs through Richmond and south to Hampton Roads.

The state also has some extremely rural areas, such as the Shenandoah Valley and the mountains to the west. VAR leaders realized not enough attention has been paid to housing trends in rural areas.

The demographics in rural Virginia (and most parts of the country) are changing as more young people flock to urban areas. Rural housing stock often does not meet the needs of millennials. At the same time, the senior population is growing. A greying rural demographic brings such challenges as providing health care and maintaining adequate housing stock — replenishing existing homes as well as building new residences.

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Courtesy of USDA

A greying rural demographic brings challenges like providing health care and maintaining adequate housing stock.

The idea to examine rural housing began with Housing Virginia, a statewide affordable housing advocacy group which VAR helped found more than a decade ago. (The current chair of Housing Virginia is a VAR member, as are several board members.)

Housing Virginia launched its Rural Housing Initiative in the fall of 2015, backed by research grants from USDA Rural Development. To gather local input, VAR helped local REALTOR® associations apply for Housing Opportunity Grants from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® The grants supported five regional housing forums conducted in 2016, and results were presented at the Governor’s Housing Conference.

By 2020, young adults will account for less than 15 percent of the population in many rural counties.

Forum feedback was also incorporated into Housing Virginia’s November 2016 report on rural housing. Between 2010 and 2015, Virginia’s population grew by 4.8 percent, but its rural population grew by only 3.3 percent, the report noted. “By 2020, young adults will account for less than 15 percent of the population in many rural counties,” the report continued, while seniors will make up more than 20 percent. Other trends included underperforming rural economies; lower wages and housing prices; higher unemployment and poverty rates; lower quality of housing; fewer home sales; and more difficulty selling homes. The report added, “Across all rural areas, the average (home sale) price was $282,000 — nearly $50,000 less than the statewide average.”

gathered by Housing Virginia and the local forums. Participants ranged from regional groups like the Eastern Shore of Virginia Housing Alliance to local chapters of Habitat for Humanity to Bay Aging, which develops and manages complexes for seniors.

In the fall of 2017, Virginia service providers held their own rural housing summit, based on the information

Bobby L. Hickman is a freelance business journalist based in Atlanta.

The next step will be another set of forums that will build on the previous activities to explore practical applications addressing the challenges and concerns individual communities will have. As the project moves forward, VAR officials expect participating communities will be able to better serve the senior populations, improve the quality of life for rural residents, and, eventually, be able to attract younger people to those areas.

Courtesy of USDA

Courtesy of USDA

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AGING IN PLACE M A N Y S E N I O R S W A N T T O S TAY I N THEIR HOMES AS THEY AGE … AND W I T H J U S T A L I T T L E H E L P, A R E A B L E T O D O S O.

By Brad Broberg

S

nuggled between blue ocean and sage hills, Laguna Beach, Calif., spoils its 25,000 residents. The balmy climate, sandy beaches and sense of community — rooted in surfing and the arts — make it hard to leave the captivating coastal town.

Nobody — not the people who must move or the community they leave behind — wins in that scenario. “We lose people who actually made this town the place we want to live in,” said Chris Quilter, a retiree who has lived in Laguna Beach for more than 30 years. “We need to come up with some creative solutions to help people age in place.”

But it can also be hard to stay for growing numbers of aging residents who find it difficult to live safely and happily in their longtime homes. Laguna Beach has many charms, but there is a woeful lack of housing options for seniors who are aging out of their homes, but want to remain in the community where they have deep roots.

Aging in place — in the same home or at least in the same community — is the goal of older people everywhere.

Nearly 90 percent of seniors want to remain in their home as they age, according to AARP. “If you have a home you love, you want to stay there forever,” Quilter said.

Other communities might be able to build their way out of the problem, but Laguna Beach lacks developable land to add senior housing because of its steep hills, strong environmental regulations and an expensive real estate market. Laguna Beach seniors essentially have only one option if living in their home becomes too challenging: move to another community.

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Making that possible is a challenge throughout the country as the massive baby boom generation — people born between 1946 and 1964 — ages.

We need to come up with some creative solutions to help people age in place.

If you have a home you love, you want to stay there forever.

The number of people 65 and over will increase by nearly 18 million between 2020 and 2030 when the last boomers celebrate their 65th birthday, according to the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. By 2060, the total number of older Americans will reach nearly 100 million — a quarter of the population.

LifeLong Laguna is patterned after a model developed by the Village to Village Network, a nonprofit organization based in St. Louis, Mo. The idea is to form virtual villages to coordinate access to affordable senior services and provide volunteer assistance — everything from a ride to the store to minor home repairs/improvements — that help seniors age safely and comfortably in their own homes.

“We’re getting older as a country and we’re not ready in a whole bunch of ways,” Quilter said.

“I’m 74 and I don’t want to start getting on step ladders, so the idea that somebody would come over and change a light bulb is kind of appealing,” Quilter said.

Laguna Beach, where the median age is 50, is working to change that. After a senior housing task force found a strong desire in the community for aging in place services and support, the city council approved a recommendation to create Lifelong Laguna, an aging in place coalition administered by Laguna Beach Seniors, the nonprofit agency that runs the city’s senior center.

The thought that anyone living in Laguna Beach — where the median home price hovers around $2.5 million — would need a helping hand sounds strange, but many longtime residents moved there before home prices skyrocketed. They are house rich, but comparatively cash poor unless they sell their home and move away.

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The Laguna Board of REALTORS® received a Housing Opportunity grant from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® to help Lifelong Laguna conduct focus groups to better understand the senior housing landscape in Laguna Beach.

“Those are our friends and neighbors. I don’t feel sorry for them. I want them to stay in town,” said Quilter, who is president of the senior center board.

Isolation is one of the biggest threats to the wellbeing of seniors aging in their own home. Outreach by Lifeline Laguna volunteers will maintain their connection to the community and ensure critical needs are met.

“They go off the radar and can be hard to find,” said Lauriann Meyer, executive vice president of the Laguna Board of REALTORS®. “They age and age and they should not be alone in houses that are not designed for elderly individuals. If they’re lucky, they have a family member or two to help them, but many don’t.”

The Laguna Board of REALTORS® received a Housing Opportunity grant from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® to help Lifelong Laguna conduct focus groups to better understand the senior housing landscape in Laguna Beach.

Lifelong Laguna is now in the early stages of recruiting and training volunteers and connecting them with seniors. In addition, the coalition used remaining NAR grant funds to hold a workshop to educate city residents about changes in state law that potentially make it easier for homeowners to add accessory dwelling units.

We’re getting older as a country and we’re not ready.

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Creating more accessory dwelling units — a.k.a. granny flats — would provide a housing option for aging Laguna Beach seniors who are ready to sell their house but want to remain in the community they love. “There are a lot of people who may want to add onto their home and rent to seniors,” Meyer said.

Augusta, Maine, is a long way from Laguna Beach, but the city of 18,000 — which is the state capital — is equally concerned about helping older residents age in place in their home and/or community. Augusta is among 189 cities and counting from across the country — including a nation-leading 40 in Maine — to join the Network of Age-Friendly Communities.

Managed by AARP as part of a World Health Organization global initiative, the network provides tools, conducts webinars, shares best practices and supplies resources to help communities develop an age-friendly action plan tailored to their needs.

“We probably have 15 initiatives here in the city of Augusta to make it a more livable city, not just for old folks like me, but for everybody,” said retiree Bob McDougall, who chairs the committee that guides Augusta Age Friendly.

McDougall, 68, and his wife, Carol, 70, led a grassroots charge for the city of Augusta to join the age-friendly network, form the committee and develop an action plan.

McDougall has since joined the city’s comprehensive plan committee to bring an age-friendly perspective to the long-range planning process.

Augusta Age Friendly has teamed up with other agencies, organizations and businesses to: • Publish an age-friendly resource guide to help seniors find services and support.

• Arrange for free delivery of sand buckets to seniors so they can sand their sidewalks during winter without having to go get the sand themselves.

• Organized a crosswalk safety demonstration to familiarize residents of a senior housing complex with the crossing signals near their complex so they can navigate the crossing safely.

• Enlist local high school students to provide smart phone training to seniors as a community service project.

Courtesy of City of Albany, Oregon

• Install benches outside two grocery stores to provide a place for seniors to sit while awaiting a ride.

• Develop a program with the local Masonic Lodge to provide volunteer home repairs and maintenance.

“I live in a house that’s a mile [off the road] and I would love to live here until I’m 80, but I don’t think I can without help from the community, so we’re building that help,” McDougall said.

Isolation is one of the biggest threats to the wellbeing of seniors aging in their own home.

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(Above) The 7500 York Cooperative

Not every senior wants to live in their home that long, but they may want their next stop to be a place where they can live comfortably through all of the stages of life to come — 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s. Some find exactly what they’re looking for through senior cooperative housing.

“These are fundamentally buildings where people age in place,” said Dennis Johnson, president of the Senior Cooperative Foundation, a Sharpeville, Minn., organization that supports development of senior co-op housing. “The oldest resident I know of is 104 and living independently.”

The co-ops are owned by the residents, who manage them through a board of directors and various committees.

Although co-ops do not provide assisted living services such as meals and health care, the units are basically maintenance free. Residents, who typically come from surrounding neighborhoods, are responsible for their belongings, but virtually everything else inside and out — from appliances to flooring to windows — is the responsibility of the co-op to maintain and replace, John said.

Residents buy a share in the co-op when they move in — which usually runs between $100,000 and $150,000

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Seniors want a place where they can live comfortably through all of the stages of life.

— and make monthly payments of around $1 to $1.30 per square foot for their chosen unit, Johnson said. When a unit is vacated, the co-op buys back the share for the price the resident paid — plus 2 percent or so annual interest. The share is then resold.

Retirees Dean and Barb Larson, 77 and 75, moved into a 1,300-square-foot unit in the 7500 York Cooperative just outside Minneapolis seven years ago. “If something happened to one of us, we wanted to be in a community,” Barb said. “You don’t get that in a condo or a townhouse.”

The nine-story building, which includes a ground-floor restaurant and convenience store, contains 337 units and is home to 420 people, who form close social bonds through dozens of clubs and committees. “We’re like a small town with a roof on it,” said Barb Murphy, who manages the building for the co-op.

With only 114 senior housing co-ops nationwide — the vast majority in Iowa and Minnesota where people are familiar with co-ops through utility and agricultural co-ops — senior cooperative housing has room to grow, Johnson said. The biggest hurdles for developers are that HUD will only back loans for projects that are 70 percent presold and that there is no ongoing revenue stream for developers once the building is turned over to the co-op.

United Properties, a Minneapolis developer, just completed its 12th senior co-op in and around that city, where it has established a track record that makes marketing easier than it might be in a city or state where people aren’t familiar with the co-op concept.

“It’s not the path of least resistance if you’re a developer looking at what are my various options, but we as a company are committed to being in senior housing and we look at cooperatives as one of an array of opportunities there,” said Mark Nelson, senior executive vice president.

Brad Broberg is a Seattle-based freelance writer specializing in business and development issues.

His work appears regularly in the Puget Sound Business Journal and the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.

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Coliving Dorms for Adults

Courtesy of Common

By John Van Gieson

One way of looking at the coliving trend, which is providing inclusive housing for younger people launching their careers in big and exciting — but expensive — cities, is “adult dorms,” a grownup version of upscale college dorms.

The basic concepts are the same, private bedrooms and bathrooms and communal dining, work and play areas, but the coliving facilities proliferating in the magnet cities are like college dorms gone to graduate school.

“We’re elevating lifestyles through what we think of as the three Cs: convenience, comfort, and community,” said Chris Bledsoe, co-founder of the coliving company Ollie — which is a word play on “all inclusive.”

Coliving is based on renting a bedroom in an apartment and sharing cool amenities with other, like-minded residents, all at below-market rates. The concept appeals to younger people, including recent college graduates, who want to live and work in magnet cities like New York and San Francisco.

Coliving is based on renting a bedroom in an apartment and sharing amenities.

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The tech, finance and other sectors offer good jobs paying well in the most desirable cities, but the cost of housing is a huge issue. Demand for housing is outstripping the supply and rents are soaring, forcing many residents in the early stages of their careers to share small, rundown apartments.

Coliving, also spelled co-living, takes the sharing experience to a much higher level than living in an overpriced dump with a couple of strangers. Coliving spaces provide residents with designer furniture, linens, Wifi, large screen TVs, fully equipped communal kitchens, work spaces, a host of fun activities and compatible roommates for less than it costs to rent comparable apartments in the same city. Some feature dog runs, allowing residents to pamper their pooches.

The term coliving is generally used to describe this new perspective on urban living, but leaders of some companies in the field prefer to call what they’re doing “community living” or “social living.”

Ollie at Carmel Place, a coliving community in the Kips Bay neighborhood on the East Side of Manhattan, tells prospective renters they can save $575 a month on a $2,775 micro studio. The cost of amenities such as

Coliving provides social connections for young adults. furniture, weekly housekeeping, premium TV programming, Wifi, community events, social club and utilities is included in the rent. Those would be add-ons in conventional apartments.

“We aim to be about 20 percent below luxury new construction,” said Brian Koles, brand and experience director of X Social Communities — X for short. “On top of that, we think we’re delivering a 30 percent better value or more because of the amenities. For example, you don’t need to join a gym because our gym is amazing. In addition to the rent being less, you’re getting a lot more for your lifestyle.”

X, a subsidiary of the major New York-based developer Property Markets Group, has a 120-unit coliving building called X Logan Square in Chicago, and is rapidly expanding into Brooklyn, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Denver.

“We prefer to think of it as social living,” Koles said, “meaning you have your own private space, but you live here because you want to live most of your life in common areas with your neighbors, having fun or doing work, and just generally doing well together.”

Coliving is nothing new. There is a long history of people living in sharing communities like those fancy college dorms. Israeli settlers living in kibbutzes made the desert bloom, communes in the late 60s and early 70s housed hippies sharing similar values, and around the 1840s, utopian communities flourished in the United States. But, those didn’t last long.

When Mark Zuckerberg was developing Facebook in Silicon Valley, he lived in a “hacker house,” an early term for coliving, with several employees.

Photos courtesy of Property Markets Group, developer of X Social Communities.

The term “coliving” popped up in the San Francisco Bay area about five years ago as young entrepreneurs opened reconfigured houses featuring private bedrooms and communal spaces shared by all the residents.

Founders Ben Provan and Jay Standish launched their coliving company, called OpenDoor, when they opened The Farmhouse in Berkeley, Calif., in 2014. The building, a converted Victorian mansion, includes 16 bedrooms, a communal kitchen, vegetable garden, chickens, and jam sessions around a fire pit.

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OpenDoor has opened two more coliving houses in the Bay Area and plans a total of 1,000 bedrooms by the end of 2018.

Common, based in New York, has opened 14 coliving houses with a total of 400 residents in Brooklyn, Queens, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Common plans to expand to 1,600 residents by the end of 2018.

Courtesy of Property Markets Group

Coliving startups typically convert old buildings, such as Brooklyn brownstones, to apartments that feature furnished bedrooms, private bathrooms, communal kitchens, lounges, smart TVs, Wifi, laundry rooms, cleaning services and other amenities. Common even has an arrangement with a resort in the Berkshires where residents can escape Brooklyn in the heat of summer.

The coliving model changed as the concept took off.

Instead of startups opening adaptive reuse buildings, larger, well-capitalized companies like X are creating coliving subsidiaries and partnering with developers to construct new buildings, frequently high rises, with hundreds of bedrooms.

Courtesy of Property Markets Group

“Now we’re working with some huge developers,” said Sterling Jawitz, head of real estate partnerships at Common. “Upcoming buildings will be between 200 and 2,000 apartments.”

Common is reaching out to real estate companies. “Our partners are reviving urban neighborhoods around the country,” its website says. “Together, our ideas, projects, and events are helping build stronger, safer, and more vibrant communities.”

When entrepreneurs Chris Bledsoe and his brother Andrew decided to launch the coliving startup now called Ollie it took them three years to raise the capital they needed to make the business work.

Courtesy of Common

“It was just a very emotional process,” Chris said. “We literally had 400 meetings over the course of a threeyear period from 2011 when we left our jobs to 2014 when we got our first yes. The answer that we were getting wasn’t no.

You have your own private space, but you live here because you want to live most of your life in common areas with your neighbors.

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Courtesy of Ollie

A recent baking class held by Ollie’s social club, Ollie Social.

Together, our ideas, projects, and events are helping build stronger, safer, and more vibrant communities.

Nobody wanted to go first. Nobody wanted to be the guinea pig.”

Ollie’s first project, Ollie at Carmel Place, was an immediate success, and investors flocked to the company, fueling ambitious expansion plans. Bledsoe said Ollie is talking to about 50 developers about building as many as 35 new coliving projects.

“They feel like we’ve got the right product for the demographic that’s driving the urbanization trend,” he said.

Developers are building two Ollie high-rise coliving projects that will bookend Manhattan, a 15-story tower across the Hudson River in Jersey City, and a 43-story tower across the East River in Long Island City. The Long Island City building, seven minutes by subway from Midtown Manhattan, will house 426 residents in two- and threebedroom suites.

Given the popularity of coworking facilities in the big cities, it was inevitable that coworking companies would

get into coliving. WeWork, the world’s largest provider of coworking spaces, has created a subsidiary, WeLive, that is developing combined work and living projects.

WeLive has opened two all-inclusive buildings, each housing 200 residents in studios to four-bedroom suites: WeLive Wall Street in the heart of New York’s financial district and WeLive Crystal City in Arlington, Va. WeWork and a developer are building a 36-story mixeduse building in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. WeLive will operate coliving suites on 23 floors, and most of the rest of the building will be dedicated to WeWork coworking spaces. Other coliving companies are following suit.

“At X, we’ll double down on coworking space because we think probably about 20 percent of our residents will be working from home,” Koles said.

“WeLive members run the gamut from young people moving to a new city, to parents with small children, to commuters who want to cut down on their daily travel

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Courtesy of OpenDoor

Coliving startups typically convert old buildings to apartments. time, to retirees and empty nesters, and everything in between,” the company said in a statement.

Jawitz said 70 percent of Common’s residents are New York newcomers and 70 percent renew their leases.

James Jackson, 29, who moved to New York from Raleigh, N.C., lives at Common Herkimer in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

Courtesy of WeLive/WeWork

Courtesy of WeLive/WeWork

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“Since becoming a part of Common, I, along with others, have thought more about how physical space affects the ways we interact with each other,” Jackson said. “In a community like ours, it facilitates interaction. The people and the ability to move in with only three bags and have everything else provided is why I live here.”

Services offered to residents by some coliving companies include butlers to run errands, on-site social concierges and community managers. The butlers run errands once a week such as picking up laundry or prescriptions, the social concierges schedule events that appeal to members, and the community managers live in the building and keep things running smoothly, Bledsoe said.

In a community like ours, it facilitates interaction.

A concern for some people considering coliving is whether they will get along with other residents of the spaces they will share. The coliving companies use questionnaires and interviews to screen prospective residents and attract people with similar interests. Ollie has created an app called Bedvetter to refine the selection process.

“Bedvetter’s users can either search for compatible roommates, pooling their purchasing power to expand their list of available housing options, or they can first search for a place that interests them and then find other roommate candidates who have also expressed an interest in that same unit,” Bledsoe said.

Courtesy of Common

As coliving companies develop high rises to house their residents, they are planning to put small businesses on the ground floor to serve both residents and neighbors, Koles said. X plans to contract with local businesses to operate coffee shops, bars, and cafes or food markets in the lobby.

Koles said X is planning to install swimming pools at warm weather sites such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The company bought, installed and refurbished an old railroad car in the courtyard of X Logan Square in Chicago.

Courtesy of Common

“It serves as a gazebo and a center of social life outside the building,” Koles said. “We try to do something that is unique and appropriate to the location.”

X also reaches out to man’s best friend, putting in dog runs at its buildings. “Dog runs are a great place for our residents to socialize while they walk their dogs,” Koles said.

Coliving is obviously getting bigger and better, offering more and more to residents, but where does the phenomenon go from here?

“We think the scale of this is pretty endless,” Koles said. “We don’t see it as a trend. We’re building buildings to be around for hundreds of years, and we plan to hold them.”

John Van Gieson is a freelance writer based in Tallahassee, Fla. He owns and runs Van Gieson Media Relations, Inc.

James Jackson, who lives in Common Herkimer in Crown Heights in Brooklyn. Originally James was living in Common Havemeyer in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but he was able to take advantage of the flexibility that Common membership provides to explore living in different neighborhoods within Brooklyn.

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REALTORS Take Action ®

Making Smart Growth Happen

Collaboration spurs affordable housing in San Diego Glorious sunshine, beautiful beaches, stunning coastline, exciting arts and culture, family-friendly attractions, diverse neighborhoods — there is a reason why San Diego is known as America’s Finest City. Living in San Diego sits at the top of many people’s wish list. U.S. News & World Report looked at metropolitan areas around the country and in 2017 ranked San Diego as the nation’s 22nd best place to live. When it comes to desirability, San Diego ranks 10 out of 10. But when it comes to value, the score drops a bit.

That’s because San Diego can be an expensive place to live and finding affordable housing can be a real challenge. U.S. News & World Report’s statistics show a sharp divide between residents’ average annual salary of just over $54,000 and the median home price of more than $480,000. The Pacific Southwest Association of REALTORS® (PSAR) reports that from 2002 to 2016, the median rent in San Diego increased 32 percent while median income increased only 2 percent. With an average median rent currently at $1,800 a month, the reality is that many residents can’t afford to live where they work.

“The high rents are really squeezing a lot of renters out of the market,” explains Tracy Morgan Hollingworth, government affairs director at PSAR. She goes on to explain that when renters have to move out of the city, the results often mean longer commutes and increased traffic congestion; and that can threaten growth.

City leaders needed to figure out a way to increase affordable housing and PSAR was there to help by engaging in a collaborative process that is helping pave the way for more units to be built more quickly. PSAR used

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an NAR Smart Growth Action Grant to partner with Circulate San Diego, a regional grassroots organization that focuses on housing supply, transit-oriented development and land use that promotes sustainable growth.

The REALTORS® also helped bring other stakeholders to the table. Together they created a set of recommendations to revise the city’s existing Bonus Density Program.

“Circulate San Diego is relevant because they are willing to work with others. Our members wanted to make sure the building industry was also on board and when we determined they were, it was easier to come and work together,” Morgan Hollingworth explains. “The City Council was relieved that the REALTORS® and builders were embracing this. There were lots of sit downs.

Sure there were some conflicts, but we worked through it. It was a really good process.”

San Diego REALTOR® Rafael Perez with Axia Real Estate Group Inc. agrees that collaboration helped create meaningful results. “It allowed us to help alleviate the housing supply issue in a proactive way. This was alongside a broad coalition of groups that don’t work together very often across the political spectrum.”

The City Council approved the proposed recommendations and the Affordable Homes Bonus Program (AHBP) was launched. The AHBP increases capacity for developers if they include deed-restricted affordable homes, includes concessions from development standards that streamline the process and encourages affordable homes near transit.

“This was the first big step in addressing housing affordability in San Diego,” explains Colin Parent, policy counsel and interim executive director at Circulate San Diego.

“It won’t solve the housing crisis in San Diego alone, but that’s how you make progress. Little steps on one policy and little ones on another and eventually you make significant progress.”

“It gave us a seat at the table with local movers, shakers and elected officials,” Perez explains. “We were able to testify in support of this to city council and be there to celebrate as things progressed.”

“There are aggressive incentives for affordable units,” Morgan Hollingworth says. “The adjustments make the program more useful for all parties. There is hopefulness because units are in the pipeline.”

A recent Circulate San Diego study looking at the first eight months of AHBP has reported significant results. Because the revisions are so new, the report could only compare program applications with actual developments built during the 12 years of the original Density Bonus Program.

But those comparisons show that the AHBP is moving affordable housing in the right direction. From August 27, 2016, to March 2017, 18 market-rate developers had submitted applications for AHBP. That compares to 36

developments that received benefits under the entire length of the original program — a potential increase of 900 percent. If development stays on track, AHBP will outproduce the entire 12-year history of the former Density Bonus Program in just three years.

“This also paved the road for work we are doing on other projects related to smart growth,” says Perez.

Morgan Hollingworth says PSAR will likely apply for another Smart Growth Action Grant to help train city staff so they can more effectively implement the city’s transit-oriented plan. It’s likely that the successful collaboration with Circulate San Diego will continue as they look for ways to work together and achieve measurable results.

“It’s been a really great partnership because we want the same thing,” Parent says.

Morgan Hollingworth agrees. “Once you work with someone side by side, the results are the best.”

Photo by Nathan Rupertll

Photo by Nathan Rupertll

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