Creating the city we want through ‘incentive zoning’ 

A beautiful mature tree adorns the steep front yard of a historic home in the southwest Atlanta Pittsburgh community. The home represents so much of what we want as a city. Historic preservation. Affordability. Tree conservation. Density. Sustainable development.

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and the Atlanta Land Trust held an open house on June 3 so people could tour the 650-square-foot home on a fourteenth of an acre. The home is under contract for $150,000.

This is our challenge. How can we replicate the Pittsburgh model throughout Atlanta? 

How can we save our tree canopy, preserve our historic buildings and offer affordable housing while creating a more sustainable city?

The topic at the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum’s quarterly meeting on May 31 at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church was “Can Zoning Reform Improve Access to Affordable Housing?”

I would like to expand upon that title. How can zoning reform promote affordability, tree conservation and historic preservation?

Few issues are more complex than our city’s zoning code. That is obvious when wading through the City of Atlanta’s public workshops on the rewriting of our zoning ordinance. 

Keyetta Holmes, who is leading the rezoning project for the City of Atlanta, and consultant Caleb Racicot have diligently reviewed the existing zoning ordinance. They also offered some preliminary recommendations that build upon the Atlanta City Design’s framework of defining the city in terms of “Growth areas” – described as commercial corridors where density already exists and “conservation areas” – primarily residential areas that can be urban, suburban or rural.

By their very nature, zoning regulations are complicated and multifaceted – especially when tasked with making the city more equitable. 

So let me try to keep this column as simple as I can.

Let’s rewrite our zoning ordinance so it includes incentives or bonuses for people who protect legacy trees, provide affordable housing and preserve our historic buildings and communities.

For example, if someone wants to develop a piece of property, let’s provide built-in flexibility to allow someone to save trees on the land. That could include reducing setback requirements to save trees. 

If someone wants to offer affordable housing as part of a development, there could be a density bonus to reward the creation of mixed-income communities. 

If someone wants to build a development near a transit station, there could be a reduction in required parking.

“We are trying to create a code that is more nimble,” Holmes said at the May 31 Housing Forum.

The Urban Land Institute released a major analysis in December called “Reshaping the City: Zoning for a More Equitable, Resilient and Sustainable Future.” 

Matt Norris, a Washington-based ULI senior director who worked on the report spoke at the Housing Forum about the findings.

“There’s a wave of zoning reform across the United States,” Norris said. When asked about incentive zoning, Norris said cities across the country are using that tool to preserve housing, trees, walkability, transit-oriented development and even inclusionary zoning, which mandates a minimum of affordable housing within a development. Norris actually prefers the term “attainable housing” rather than affordable housing.

Norris said some cities are providing zoning incentives or bonuses by having overlay zones that can be broadly applied to reward developers for building quality developments that protect our tree canopy, offer various housing types and preserve history. 

Currently, the City of Atlanta is tackling zoning reform without incorporating a new tree ordinance that hopefully would strengthen the city’s ability to save our amazing green canopy. Because most of our tree canopy is on privately-held land in residential communities, it makes sense to create incentives for homeowners, developers and landowners to save our trees – as called for in the Atlanta City Design.

Elizabeth Ward, an urban designer with Kronberg Urbanists + Architects, wrote an insightful report with the theme “more housing, more trees” showing how the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We can create greater density and protect our tree canopy if we are thoughtful in how we manage development through zoning and other tools.

In fact, the Kronberg team has given multiple presentations on novel ways we can use zoning and land use to create the kind of place envisioned by the Atlanta City Design concept. 

At the forum, Will Johnston, founder of the MicroLife Institute, highlighted a pilot development in Clarkston where eight single-family homes – each about 500-square feet – were built on .57 of an acre with a common courtyard.

“It’s so much more sustainable,” said Johnston of the “tiny homes” development. “It’s one tool in the toolbox.”

That brings us back to the Pittsburgh home at 785 Coleman St. SW, the third property rehabilitated and sold through the Georgia Trust’s West Atlanta Preservation Initiative. 

The model partnership between the Georgia Trust and the Atlanta Land Trust provides permanent affordability because the Land Trust keeps the title to the land.

Amanda Rhein, executive director of the Atlanta Land Trust, said the property with the historic – but dilapidated – home was donated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Georgia Trust financed and completed the renovation for $150,000 – the sales price of the home.

“You cannot do affordable housing without subsidies,” said Mark McDonald, CEO of the Georgia Trust, which owns the preservation easement on the home.

Rhein, who used to head MARTA’s transit-oriented-development program, agreed, saying she supports efforts that would make it easier to build more density.

When it comes to rewriting our zoning ordinance, Rhein said the question must be “what are the strategic objectives we have as a city?”

Rhein then answered her own question by saying the Atlanta City Design – adopted in 2017 – is the vision. “Then we have to figure out how we can use zoning to achieve our strategic objectives,” she said.

Sounds like incentive zoning to me.