[Durham INC] another SCAD article

[Elizabeth Conroy]

Thanks, Tom.  What are the plans for opposing SCAD at this point?  Do you
want neighbors to email City Council members again?  Is there a chance that
any one of the four City Council members who have been voting in favor of
every development can be persuaded to oppose this or a chance the Planning
Dept. will help?

On Sunday, August 13, 2023, tom miller <miller.tom2022 at gmail.com> wrote:

> There are more coming
>
>
>
> *About SCAD** – Small Lots, Small Houses, and Accelerated Gentrification*
>
>
>
> This is the second of a number of short pieces pointing out problems with
> SCAD.  This one will be devoted to SCAD’s proposed changes to the rules for
> the “Small Lot Option” adopted in 2019 as part of the Expanding Housing
> Choices initiative.  The EHC changes allowed developers to subdivide a
> standard residential lot into two, three, or maybe four small lots with new
> small houses.  This called the small lot option.  Generally, SCAD would
> allow developers to build much larger houses on small lots – increasing
> their profitability, but defeating any arguable affordability benefit
> attendant to this housing type.
>
>
>
> What is SCAD?  It is a developer-proposed re-write of Durham’s zoning code
> called the Uniform Development Ordinance or “UDO.”  The SCAD acronym was
> coined by the developers to stand for “Simplified Codes for Affordable
> Development.”  Of course, this naming is strategic because it is meant to
> make us think SCAD is about affordable housing.  While there are a couple
> of things in SCAD that are directed to affordability, the vast majority of
> SCAD’s provisions have nothing to do with housing affordability.  Instead,
> they are designed to make redevelopment of Durham more profitable for the
> development community – usually at the expense of Durham’s existing
> residential communities.
>
>
>
> SCAD is extremely complex.  Not only are hundreds of individual changes
> proposed, the changes often work together to compound impacts.  This
> happens in SCAD’s treatment of the Small Lot Option.
>
>
>
> Small Lots and Small Houses – The 2019 EHC rule changes allow a developer
> to cut an existing lot up into smaller lots as long as the resulting lots
> are no more than 2,000 sf in area and are not narrower than 25 feet.  The
> house built on such a lot cannot be larger than 1,200 sf.  The virtue of
> the small lot rules is that they incentivize the creation of small,
> market-entry housing and we need more of this housing in our inventory.
> Under North Carolina law, we cannot fix the price of homes, but we can
> regulate home sizes.  As the planning staff frequently said in support of
> the EHC, small houses are generally less expensive than larger houses.  The
> 1,200 sf limit in the current rules arguably lowers the bottom rung on the
> wealth ladder to the point where some people might reach it.  Property
> developed under the EHC has produced little in the way of truly affordable
> housing, but the small lot rules have sparked considerable developer
> interest and have resulted in quite a number of small houses across town.
>
>
>
> The downside of small lots and small houses has been accelerated
> gentrification in lower- wealth, formerly redlined neighborhoods where
> existing housing is the most affordable.  Development is a capitalist
> venture.  Developers target the least expensive existing, “naturally
> occurring”  housing for redevelopment.  The existing house is demolished to
> make way for two or more 1,200 sf houses.  These newer homes are often
> priced out of reach for the people who live in the neighborhoods where they
> are being built.
>
>
>
> SCAD will make the problem worse by allowing developers to build much
> bigger, more expensive houses on the small lots.  Under the current rules,
> a small house can have a garage, but its area must count as part of the
> 1,200 sf maximum.  Consequently, no garages have been built.  But under the
> proposed SCAD rules, garages would not be included in the 1,200 sf.  Nor
> would heated square footage that is “below grade.”  Under the guidelines
> adopted by the State of North Carolina for measuring residential square
> footage, “below grade” means any area that has a portion of its floor level
> below the ground level outside.  The effect of the proposed SCAD changes,
> then, will be that the house which today must be relatively small will grow
> to 2,000 sf and have a garage.  Additionally, the height limit for a small
> house will go from 25 feet to two stories or 32 feet. This means that the
> “below grade” living area can be mostly above ground. The lot will be
> small, but the house on it can no longer pretend to be a market-entry
> home.  In a stroke, SCAD will move the bottom rung of the wealth ladder up
> beyond the reach of market entry purchasers and renters.  The larger houses
> will be more expensive and more profitable.  They will be a more powerful
> engine for gentrification and displacement in neighborhoods where existing
> homes are the least expensive.  This will be a boon to the development
> industry, but no consolation to most people in Durham. – certainly not to
> the people in the neighborhoods targeted for this type of housing.
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Liz Conroy, Ed.D.
919-493-1238 (H) 919-564-6179 (C)
conroyliz at gmail.com
2811 Welcome Dr.
Durham, NC 27705
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