Livable Places

Would you like to look at examples of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU)? Visit https://www.BuildingAnADU.com to see pictures of ADUs in various stages of construction and examine creative design elements. The photos are arranged by category including construction, conversion, interior, exteriors, and much more.

ATTAINABLE HOUSING

The Urban Land Institute's report entitled Attainable Housing: Challenges, Perceptions, and Solutions(External link), highlights best practices and ideas on developing attainable housing. Attainable housing is defined as for-sale housing serving moderate-income working families. Units are affordable to households with incomes between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income (AMI) without subsidy.

Houston's Housing and Community Development Department identified the 2020 AMI(External link) for a family of four as $63,050 and $94,550, respectively.

Read the study to learn more about what has influenced the change in demand developers and builders are seeing "as a result of the rise of the small household, which has implications for denser, smaller homes at attainable price points."

For more information, visit ULI's Attainable Housing(External link) website.

FAMILY RENTER HOUSING

Declining homeowner rates, rising housing costs, the expected increase in millennials starting families and an increase in multigenerational households are spurring a need for "new and interesting forms of rental housing that target a broader range of households, including many families." The new family-oriented rental housing is discussed in ULI's report, Family Renter Housing: A Response to the Changing Growth Dynamics of the Next Decade(External link). What is family-oriented rental housing? It is defined as housing of any density with two or three bedrooms.

For more information, visit ULI's Family Rental Housing(External link) website.

The Missing Middle concept describes various housing types that provide an opportunity for Houston to grow in a way that can "provide more housing and more housing choices in sustainable, walkable places."

“Missing Middle Housing” was coined by Opticos Design founder Daniel Parolek in 2010 to define a range of multi-unit or clustered housing types — compatible in scale with detached single-family homes — that help meet the growing demand for walkable urban living.

Building types include styles that have been built in previous years. They include "duplexes, four-plexes, cottage courts, and courtyard buildings," and "provide diverse housing options and support locally-serving retail and public transportation options."

1. To read more about the Missing Middle, visit their website.

2. Comment and tell us your thoughts about "The Missing Middle" below.

"Americans are changing — and so are their housing needs. Unprecedented shifts in demographics are redefining who we are and how we live. If we simply ask ourselves different questions about how we want to live, we might discover better answers."

AARP asks questions about the changing demographics that transform the country's housing stock and how to "feature a menu of housing options that better serve people of all ages and the needs of a changing America."

Visit AARP.org/MakingRoom to access ideas, demographics, infographics, floor plans, solutions and join the discussion. The free Making Room: Housing for a Changing America publication downloadable from the site highlights varied housing choices.

The following articles are provided for discussion purposes relating to the residential buffering ordinance proposed amendments.

• Developers already eyeing commercial-to-resi conversions

April 16, 2021 09:30 AM

https://therealdeal.com/

• What Will Happen to All the Empty Office Buildings and Hotels?

by C. J. Hughes

April 16, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/

Exterior lighting provides visibility, improved safety and can enhance the aesthetics of a building’s architecture. However, exterior lighting on buildings, in parking garages and parking lots can produce unintentional results like spillover glare and light trespassing into adjacent residential developments. Glare refers to the light that may enter the eye directly or indirectly from reflective surfaces. Glare from car headlights inside a garage, pole mounted lights or lights affixed to buildings can reduce visibility or cause visual discomfort.

The Livable Places Action Committee is discussing standards for how to reduce the unintended impacts of outdoor lighting without decreasing safety, utility, security or productivity. For example, discussions will include fixtures and screening materials. Lighting fixtures that utilize cut off angles direct lights toward the ground where it is needed and prevents light from being emitted above the horizontal plane. Bob Crelin provides an easy to read graphic of lighting fixtures that use cut off angles (click on the image to the right). Installing screening materials on the side of garages reduce automobile light glare.

Attend the Livable Places Action Committee Meetings to follow the discussions.

For more information on cut off angles, fixture specs, and energy design guides, visit these sites. All sites listed below are independent of the City of Houston.

• Outdoor Lighting Basics (https://www.darksky.org/our-work/lighting/lighting-for-citizens/lighting-basics/)
• Blanco County Friends of the Night Sky (https://www.blancocountynightsky.org/guideliness.php)
• Advanced Energy Design Guides (https://www.energy.gov/eere/buildings/advanced-energy-design-guides)

Photo by LINK HoustonRead recommendations that came out of the report developed by the Kinder Institute in partnership with LINK Houston. The report analyzed where affordable housing and high-quality, affordable transportation presently co-exist. It also lays out steps to align housing and transportation development.

Read the article.

AARP has a free webinar related to its publications about accessory dwelling units. The webinar discusses how backyard cottages, basement or garage apartments, and other small residences are housing solutions that homeowners can create for themselves or a loved one, or for renting to a tenant. Register here.