The Big Zoning Battle of Berkeley

This is very important, readers.

This pre-WWII fourplex is illegal to build in Berkeley. On Tuesday, this type of housing will be allowed in every neighborhood once again after 50 years of prohibition. It’s two-stories or 28 feet, roughly the height standard the new proposal mandates.

I’m postponing this week’s Substack for a major alert about perhaps the most important housing meeting in California this century. It may not appear to be a big deal on its surface, but the broader ramifications are huge.

Berkeley, California will vote on Tuesday, 7/23, to replace single-family zoning (and other low density zoning codes) with “Missing Middle” housing, that will allow multifamily homes in all residential neighborhoods. Here’s the details which was also excellently written about in KQED this morning.

• All 1, 2, 3, and 4 unit zones will be replaced with a new code that has no density restrictions whatsoever. There will no longer be a limit on the number of households or housing units that can live on or be built on a lot.

• However, all new housing must have a height average of 28 ft or two stories, with a maximum of 3 stories in the front. There’s a height maximum of 22 ft within the rear of the home, which must be within 15 ft of the adjacent property. This is to prevent the shadowing of neighboring backyards.

• 60% of a lot may be built on, previously it was 40%.

• In general, housing must be set back 15 feet from the street (which is rather huge, considering this is normally done in anticipation of street widening). The back of the building must be set back 4 feet from the adjacent lot (this is already the standard with ADUs) although its limited to 22 feet in height within 15 feet of the adjacent property. In the sloping hills it’s a 20 feet setback.

• 150 square feet of open space for every 1,000 square feet of floor area. Note, a typical apartment is about 1,000 SF. This will functionally require new homes to have backyards and front yard lawns or gardens.

• In practice this will yield multi-family homes of 2 to 12 units, but it also does not foreclose 1 unit homes or single-family.

• Any projects over 5 units must legally restrict 20% of their units for low income households.

• A citywide census will be conducted of all buildings to be protected from demolition for historical protection rather than on a project-by-project basis.

This is a pretty reasonable “upzoning” that re-legalizes the kind of the small, pre-World War 2 apartment buildings and condos that were made illegal all over the U.S. during the suburban craze of the mid-20th Century. Its a good model for American cities.

Single-family zoning is an American-only concept. Most of the world doesn’t have it, except Canada, because it doesn’t make sense to limit populations to one family within cities and suburbs. But 96% of California’s residential area is now zoned only for single-family homes, prohibiting multi-family housing.

Even highly-educated Americans in Berkeley, California are so culturally addicted to suburban living that going back to the normal ways of housing density appears extremely radical to them. So those who want to keep the status-quo are making their voices heard right now, bombarding city council with requests to delay the vote. It’s imperative that pro-housing voices support the city council’s decision to end this zoning once and for all.

We’ve had plenty of debate. The truth is the city council has been debating this since 2018, when former councilmember Lori Droste first proposed eliminating exclusionary zoning. In 2021, the city council unanimously voted to abolish single-family zoning, and to institute a new zoning system that rectified the segregation of the past while encouraging more housing. In every single contested city council election since 2018, every candidate that ran on supporting “Missing Middle” housing won their races decisively, including the recent District 4 election. The voters have spoken.

We have held 40 meetings on this issue and the Planning Commission created the proposal before us now. By European and Asian standards, this isn’t much but by American standards, it’s perhaps the most major universal re-zoning in recent history. And though that KQED article entertains the idea that new housing is only for the rich by the opponents of the rezoning (and I do question their sincerity in this claim, when the city is full of $2 million houses), we know from Census microdata that this isn’t true. Single-family zoning mandates housing exclusively for the rich, while even new multi-family housing in Berkeley is inhabited by middle and lower-middle class households.

And we also know from a recent landlord newsletter in the city that the new supply in housing is forcing them to drop rents. Data which is confirmed by our rental registry, showing real rents have dropped in older apartments since the supply boom of 2018.

But put all that aside: here’s why it’s so important that you make your voices heard, readers.

If Berkeley can prove that un-banning small, multi-family homes will not destroy neighborhoods and enhance the city, it will lead to a wave of similar reforms throughout the country. Usually, what Berkeley does trickles down throughout the nation (for whatever weird reason, this town has a high, outsized influence). We invented single-family zoning and it’s conquered every city in America.

If the city that banned multi-family homes legalizes them in all their neighborhoods, it’ll lead to a national wave to reform our suburban and inefficient way of life. By the same token, if the vote fails on Tuesday and Berkeley City Council postpones the decision, it’ll send a signal to every city in the country that even a city as educated and intellectual as Berkeley, cannot shake it’s love of exclusionary, suburban landuse.

That’s why I’m calling on my readers, especially if you live or work in Berkeley, to email the city council immediately with the following: Tell the city council in very simple language to approve the “Missing Middle” plan, as written by the Planning Commission, without additional edits or changes for the Tuesday City Council meeting.

Email your statement to council@cityofberkeley.info with the subject “Approve the Missing Middle Plan : 7/23”.

I don’t expect a wave of new housing to be built in Berkeley of this type. The bulk of our homes will still come from the density downtown. But this reform will help multi-generational households and eliminate household overcrowding. It’ll help renters access high opportunity neighborhoods with many parks and clean air. The secret duplex my parents built so that we could move in with my grandmother will no longer be illegal. Above all, it’ll slowly eat away at the segregation by income that dictates the American city of today.

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The opinions in this article represent myself alone, and not my employer.