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River Falls points to ADUs, multifamily rules and 'missing‑middle' to expand housing
Summary
City staff said zoning changes and regulatory tools (ADUs, multifamily performance standards, mixed‑income resources) are being used to add housing, including a 50‑unit income‑based component at Valley View; staff said more than 1,000 units have been constructed, approved or are under construction since 2023 (counting methodology clarified in Q&A).
City staff told the Plan Commission that recent zoning and code changes are intended to increase housing options inside the city footprint and close workforce housing gaps. Emily Shively said the city amended its zoning to support 'missing‑middle' housing types—townhomes, duplexes and fourplexes—and adopted rules to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on single‑family lots.
“We also allowed anywhere where there's a single family home, you could have an accessory dwelling unit,” Shively said, explaining that ADUs were part of this year’s housing ordinance package. She described multifamily performance standards to address open space, amenities and parking and said the city is developing tools to encourage mixed‑income housing.
Shively cited Valley View as an example: she said the Mann Valley planned unit development includes a Valley View component of about 50 income‑based units. She also told commissioners that, by the city’s accounting, “over 1,000 housing units either constructed, under construction, or approved since 2023,” and later clarified that the figure represents a straightforward total count that does not subtract units lost to demolition.
Commissioners asked for clarification about whether counts were net additions; staff said different tracking methods exist (building permits, certificates of occupancy) and that figures reported in the presentation used a simple aggregation of units by project.
