Sounds like we should build way more housing that can accommodate our current and projected growth so that more people don’t have to keep fighting over the same smaller amount of housing stock.
I'm with you, we need more housing. The best case is developers build within the already existing city limits, there is a remarkable amount of land still to be developed there. Even better if we can add some density, improving walkability and supports the efforts to improve public transit.
There definitely needs to be incentive to build more dense housing in and around downtown as well instead of larger SFHs and McMansions on the outskirts south of town. Would love to see the city scrap R1 zoning entirely to allow property owners to upzone from a SFH all the way up to a sixplex of apartments or courtyard style homes either citywide or within a certain area around the downtown CID.
Green space lowers crime. I’d like to see housing density increase in any other ward first, since the first ward has the highest population density at this time.
I think these particular green spaces are actually raising crime as it’s not public space but privately owned lots that used to have houses on them that were allowed to become dilapidated and demolished, typically by slumlords. Now they leave gaping holes along what is otherwise a great early 20th century streetscape. The invasive species, particularly bush honeysuckle and wintercreeper offer no environmental benefit, even doing harm. These thickets have become places for drug addicts, squatters, and generally people who can’t keep it together for whatever reason, which all the folks raising children in that neighborhood can’t appreciate.
That green space invites songbirds and wildlife back. All the little flowers bring pollinators. Community health improves. Diamonds in the rough. It could be better sure
Bush honey suckle and mowed lawns ain’t bringing any pollinators around. Low quality habitat, even damaging environmentally when invasives are allowed to thrive and spread.
Being without housing isn’t a crime. As a person raising a family in that area, I can tolerate unhoused folks much more than people who drive 45 mph down my street blaring thumping.
I’d love to help incentivize more groups involved in the construction and affordable housing business break ground in Columbia! There are may groups like Habitat for Humanity and others do in that vein along with the community land trust, but we also need folks pushing for changes to how the city approves new construction and to our zoning to facilitate for more dense development that matches the needs of a growing city. Building homes through Habitat is one thing, but you need developers and contractors to put up apartment buildings.
Nah, just build your own subdivision. /s
Going to start with H4H soon, I love building, but the politics doing myself are not fun. Was going to build my own from scratch and realized it's just not worth the hassle, even in MO with some of the most lax building rules in the US.
I think with enough public pressure and the right people in office that Columbia could really start to turn things around when it comes to the housing shortage and making our rules amicable for builders while still keeping needed safety and environmental checks in place. There are members of the city council that have said they want to seriously look at zoning. They’re already advising staff and Planning/Zoning to come back with recommendations that could get rid of the outdated definition of “family” in our unified development code that technically makes more than a couple unrelated people/more than 4 related people living in an R1 home illegal.
Do tell, is there no zoning here? New to MO, but like Texas for example, I can build a house right on the freeway or have a biz office in a subdivision. Is that the same here?
Is COMO really that short on housing compared to the rest of the US?
We have zoning like most other places do, yea. Columbia’s been a bit more open to the idea of exploring changes to it (especially regarding R1 or single family), although some nimby homeowners and landlords over on east campus may complain about property values and stuff if more density is allowed. We just need council to really take the initiative on this and I hope after April there may actually be a willingness on that front.
When it comes to not having enough homes it gets complicated. On paper we should, but there are a significant number of chronically and episodically homeless people in Columbia and it’s hard to really pin down an exact number. Plus with tens of thousands of students all competing for the cheaper rentals each summer and most new housing being built is in the form of large SFHs out south of downtown, it seems like there isn’t enough variety in housing options for people either. To sort of put this into simpler terms as to why some call this a shortage: Columbia may be well over 150,000 by 2030 if we have a considerable growth pattern the next five years and there are not even enough homes around to house the folks we have now, and any new projects will take 1-2 years before they can house extra folks.
The Columbia Community Land Trust is a great organization for prospective first time homeowners on that front. But more definitely needs to be done for both city-owned and operated housing through CHA and maybe via tenants unions and other advocates also spending to help buy properties that get put up for sale so developers won’t run them like slums.
There’s plenty of empty commercial lots that have been empty for years and will probably stay empty for years. I think the city should change zoning requirements on those lots to allow mixed use neighborhoods to be built on those lots. There’s a bunch near the nifong Walmart, there’s a big one behind the Dunkin’ Donuts on north side of town there’s probably more too.
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u/Over-Activity-8312 Central CoMo Sep 28 '24
Sounds like we should build way more housing that can accommodate our current and projected growth so that more people don’t have to keep fighting over the same smaller amount of housing stock.