Attainable Housing Strategies initiative

Middle” refers to homes on the spectrum between single-family houses and mid-rise or larger apartment buildings; it’s considered “missing” is because this type of housing is both scarce and rarely built in new construction, including in Montgomery County. Types of middle housing can range from just two units to four or more, in different configurations.

• Small scale: includes house-scale duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, courtyard apartments, bungalow courts, and accessory dwelling units.
• Medium scale: stacked flats apartment buildings (three stories), townhouses
• Large scale: Mixed-use live/work buildings, stacked flats apartment buildings (four stories)

Due to their smaller size and the impact size has on affordability, these housing types are more attainable for our county’s increasingly diverse population of downsizing seniors, professionals without children, middle-income and millennial families, and newcomers to the region who don’t need or can’t afford a large single-family home.

Attainable housing is not income-restricted nor part of an affordable housing program—it’s offered at market rate—but because of its “middle” status and location, it tends to be attainable for middle-income households due to their smaller size. It also tends to blend in with common single-family homes.

Proposals and initiatives to expand attainable housing are underway in many cities and states across the country, from New England to the Bay Area; however, most implemented measures are simply too new to have had measurable impacts yet—and many also change zoning regulations without including the additional measures required for them to thrive.

• Arlington County, Virginia passed reforms in 2023 to allow more diverse types of housing. Arlington County residential lots will be allowed to accommodate duplexes, three townhouses, or multiplexes with up to six units, depending on lot size and proximity to transit. In general, missing middle buildings can be as large, and as tall as what’s currently allowed for single-family homes, plus a 5% bonus.
• Other reforms in the region include the 2023 approval of Zoning for Housing/Housing for All initiatives in Alexandria, Virginia. One part of the suite of reforms included allowing up duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes on all land currently zoned for single-family housing. The city also reduced parking requirements for homes within a half-mile of designated transit areas.
• Minneapolis, Minnesota, eliminated single-family zoning with a 2019 update to their comprehensive plan that allows for duplexes and triplexes on all residential lots. However, the update did not affect height restrictions, setback requirements, footprint limitations, or other building regulations—and, as a result, the city has seen only modest increases in the development of such housing. Another part of the comprehensive plan update included the creation of new zoning districts that allow 10-to-30-story buildings near transit and commercial corridors. This has resulted in significant growth in housing types of this scale.  In response to larger statewide reforms passed in 2021, Sacramento, California, was the first jurisdiction in the country to completely remove restrictions on number of units that can be built in single-family zones. The city eliminated the single-family zone designation and replaced it with a “Neighborhood” designation. The neighborhood zone is guided by a sliding floor area ratio scale where additional building area is increased proportionally to the number of units proposed on a lot. The highest maximum floor area ratios exist closest to transit and the city center.
• In December 2020, the State of Oregon passed a measure requiring that large cities (>25,000 residents) amend land use regulations by 2022 to allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, cottage clusters, and townhouses in residential zones with much higher frequency—and to reduce local parking mandates. Medium-sized cities (10,000–25,000 residents) were similarly required to allow duplexes on properties currently zoned for single-family detached homes by 2021. Both jurisdiction sizes must also allow for lot divisions for the development of these new housing types.
• Portland, Oregon, approved the landmark “Resident Infill Project” in August 2020, a series of reforms that included the elimination of parking minimums, allowing up to six homes on lots provided half are offered at affordable below-market rates, and allowing extra square footage for multi-unit buildings such as duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. In 2022, reforms were expanded because of the larger statewide mandate – additional reforms included extending requirements to additional low-density parts of the city and allowing for townhouses and cottage clusters throughout all neighborhoods.
• Other housing initiatives passed across the nation in places like Charlotte, NC, Austin, TX, Maine, and Boise, ID, among others, include innovative approaches unique to each place, all with the goal of expanding housing options. Even still, more jurisdictions continue to pursue measures to expand housing, including Milwaukee, WI, New York City, NY, and Columbus, OH.

Zoning changes can come in the form of a map amendment, which changes the designation of land from one zone and set of uses to another, or a zoning text amendment, which changes how a zone is defined, the uses allowed in a zone, or how development standards and zoning in general are applied. Any Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) resulting from the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative would entail at least two public hearings (one held by the Planning Board and one held by the Montgomery County District Council), as well as worksessions before any changes are made. Learn more about the Zoning Text Amendment Process.

If a ZTA is adopted by the District Council, it would not require any landowner to change how their property is used. It would only allow landowners to build different types of units on their properties—but there is no obligation to do so.

The Planning Board’s Affordable Housing Strategies recommendations do not eliminate the requirement for new developments to provide a set number of off-street parking spots. AHS does recommend reducing parking-space requirements by half if you’re in the Priority Housing District or have on-street parking and allows further reductions of parking-space requirements in the Priority Housing District where there is already on-street parking available. A property is in the Priority Housing District if it is one mile from Metrorail’s Red Line, the Purple Line light rail, or MARC rail stations, or if it is within 500 feet from a Thrive Montgomery 2050-identified Growth Corridor.

In a letter received by the Planning Department from Maryland’s State Department of Assessment and Taxation (SDAT), SDAT writes: “If a property were to be redeveloped or subdivide lots or were to change in use to create a multi-family unit on the parcel, the immediate change would only directly impact that particular parcel. However, if properties are acquired at lower or higher purchase prices over time and the comparable sales warrant a decrease or increase in the assessed value of those similar properties upon the next reassessment cycle, it may indirectly impact the assessments for similar properties in that market rate area.” See Appendix E in the Attainable Housing Strategies Report for the full letter.

The Attainable Housing Optional Method (AHOM) is a new optional method of development, that provides opportunities to construct medium scale attainable housing which includes stacked flats, small apartment buildings, and townhouses. The AHOM would apply to certain properties in the R-90 and R-60 zones.  Properties zoned R-90 or R-60 that are within 500 feet of an identified Growth Corridor in Thrive Montgomery 2050, properties recommended for AHOM in a master plan, or properties recommended for a Residential Floating Zone through a Master Plan are eligible for the AHOM.