Top Down or Bottom Up? Trying to reform zoning in a small town in the Cascades
Mia Bretz is a land-use planner who tried to diversify the kinds of housing available in her small town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. She says she failed. The reasons she cites are revealing.
Here’s what happened.
Mia was recruited to run for the city council in Leavenworth, Washington—a town of about 2,000 modeled on a Bavarian village—because of her passion for land use. In 2016, she won a seat on the seven-person body. She told me she was the only council member pushing for changes to promote more reasonably priced housing. The other six were willing to go along—but only to a point.
Mia’s town put together a task force of local stakeholders interested in housing. They got a grant for a consultant to put together a needs assessment and an action plan. The council signed off, and the planning commission went to work reviewing it and prioritizing items for implementation.
The first two items were pretty basic:
To increase the density of dwellings permitted per acre from four to five in some parts of town. (“A really, really, really small change,” she said.)
To permit duplexes by right. (The town sort of did this already anyway, since accessory dwelling units—a.k.a. ADUs, granny flats, or garage apartments—had already been legalized.)
Low-hanging fruit, Mia thought.
But when the vote was taken at the council meeting shortly before the end of Mia’s term, only one colleague joined her in voting for the density change. For the duplex change, hers was the only vote in favor. All the other council members voted no.
It was a bad way to go out.
Why Did Zoning Reform Stall in Leavenworth?
What happened in Leavenworth? Why wouldn’t Mia’s colleagues support the changes recommended by the task force on housing?
Leavenworth’s housing survey had shown that most residents supported the proposed changes. But those supporters did not come to the meetings. They did not contact their representatives.
In other words, although many local residents supported zoning changes to promote affordability in housing, no grassroots organizations pushed for changes. The effort had been top down rather than bottom up.
“I feel I failed in activating our community properly to make sure our council saw why these actions [were] critical,” Mia told me.
It didn’t help that several powerful landowners made their objections loud and clear. “Theirs were the only voices the council was listening to,” Mia said. But the outcome might have been different if the broader community had mobilized in favor of the plan.
A Bottom-Up Movement in Swarthmore
Mia was curious about our affordability project in Swarthmore. I told her how a few acquaintances had come together last summer because of a shared concerned about rapidly rising housing costs. How our conversations had led to a petition drive asking our borough council to authorize a task force to study the problem of the disappearance of reasonably priced housing. How we assembled readings and held three online reading groups. How we were planning to organize public forums and presentations to community groups.
Mia was impressed. “You have an advantage,” she said.
As we talked more, I saw that Mia had been modest about her accomplishments. During her time on the council, accessory dwelling units were added to the zoning code, short-term rentals were regulated through a bed-and-breakfast permitting process (breakfast not actually required), and a new, zero-lot-line ordinance allowed for townhouses and other kinds of gentle density. Still, she felt, given the seriousness of the problem, that was far too little.
I’m impressed by the work Mia has done, and I’m confident there will be more changes in Leavenworth.
But what struck me most about our conversation was her excitement that the people working to promote reasonably priced housing in Swarthmore are neither professional planners nor government officials, but just ordinary citizens.
