Get email alerts on the Housing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commissioners press on housing affordability and 'missing middle' options
Summary
Staff highlighted housing affordability concerns and 'missing middle' housing types (duplexes, fourplexes, cottage courts); commissioners discussed income groups, market examples on Zillow, and asked staff to analyze how proposed categories support varied housing types.
Planning staff framed housing as central to neighborhood stability and presented sample income groups and local housing costs to illustrate affordability gaps. Mr. Bartley displayed sample housing listings and discussed the affordability spectrum from emergency shelters through subsidized housing to market-rate ownership, and identified 'missing middle' housing types as options to increase diversity of housing forms.
Mr. Bartley said he pulled a sample from online listings to show costs and asked commissioners to assess whether current stock meets resident income ranges. He also noted that many 'missing middle' types exist in East Lansing but are older and uncommon in new construction because zoning has made such forms difficult to build.
Commissioners asked staff to return with mapped examples showing where 'mixed density residential' might apply and how zoning or form-based code changes could enable more duplexes, fourplexes and cottage courts. The commission did not adopt any housing-specific policy at the meeting but requested more data and comparative mapping for the next packet.
AI generated
The text on this page is AI generated. Summaries, highlights, analysis, and video transcripts are all produced from the original source material.
AI can make mistakes, so if you spot one, and we will fix it for everyone.
Note: the source content is unaltered by us. Any content source we link to, be it a video, an audio recording, or a document, is presented exactly as its publisher released it. That publisher is usually a government body, sometimes an individual official or another organisation.
