MINNEAPOLIS (Taiwan News) — Minneapolis 2040 is a comprehensive urban plan that aims to make Minneapolis, Minnesota more climate change-resistant, sustainable, and prosperous.
This plan has been receiving nationwide attention because it will end the Midwestern city’s decades-long single-family zoning policy.
American suburbs are typified by rows of single-family houses and their trimmed, tidy front yards. Neighborhoods like these were endorsed by 1926 Supreme Court ruling: Only detached single-family houses can be built in designated areas to the exclusion of all other types of housing.
In the ruling, the judges reckoned that zoning increased the safety of neighborhoods and prevented street accidents, while apartment houses "interfered by their height and bulk with the free circulation of air and monopolize the rays of the sun which otherwise would fall upon the smaller homes."
Single-family houses in a suburb of Minneapolis. (Chris Chang/Taiwan News photo)
Nevertheless, as urbanization has intensified, the zoning policy has contributed to a shortage of affordable housing as well as traffic jams and increased auto emissions as more residents had to commute from areas where they could afford to live.
This phenomenon pushed Minneapolis to abolish its single-family house zoning rule this October and allowed duplexes and triplexes to be built across the city to address the housing demand.
“Generally where there is increasing demand to live in the place, it generally will become more expensive, but from the citywide perspective, there is a lot of evidence that simply not allowing new construction has a negative effect in terms of housing affordability,” said Jason Wittenberg, manager of the City’s Code Development Division.
The city is also combating soaring house rents. According to a local report, despite the fact that the city has added 7,000 units in the last two years, rents have increased by 15 percent.
Before more houses could be built, the city decided to achieve affordable housing with the existing properties first. Its 4d Affordable Housing Incentive Program provides tax rate reductions of up to 40 percent for property owners that agree to keep 20 percent or more of their rental units affordable for households making less than 60 percent of area median income (AMI).
In 2019, the maximum rent of a qualified one-bedroom unit in Minneapolis is US$1,125 for a one-person household earning $42,000 or less per year.
The program aims to standardize affordable rents at less than 30 percent of monthly income. In addition, owners of qualified units also have access to multiple funds reserved for renovation for energy efficiency and safety.
Apartments are in demand in Minneapolis. (Chris Chang/Taiwan News photo)
Taipei, with its skyrocketing housing prices, has been trying to realize housing justice through its luxury tax and vacant property tax in the past years. However, the affordability of its housing still hangs above the global average.
This October, the city proposed a new adjustment to the existing house hoarding tax, intending to further cool down the housing market and normalize housing prices. Experts doubted the effectiveness of such a move, however, and the central government finally rejected the proposal.
In the latest Property Prices Index from NUMBO, Taipei ranked No.11 in the world. The data indicates it takes 29 years for a family with a median disposable income to buy a house in the city.
