The Champaign City Council held a Regular Study Session on Tuesday, where the Incremental Development Council presented an update on its current goals.
The council’s two main goals are to develop “missing middle housing” and to eliminate the minimum parking requirement for new developments.
“Missing middle housing” is a term used for housing structures that are neither detached single-family homes nor midrise apartment buildings. Some examples include duplexes, townhomes or cottage courts. These types of “middle housing” increase a community’s walkability and give homeowners more diversity to choose from.
Eliminating the minimum parking requirement also aims to increase a city’s walkability.
Without the minimum requirement, most new developments still include parking, but they do not need to come up with designs such as some of the buildings in Campustown, which are built on stilts to include the required parking.
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After the presentation, the council heard opinions from community members who attended the meeting. The opinions were generally in favor of the presentation’s goals, with many feeling that the city is in a housing crisis due to the lack of affordable housing in the city.
While developing more middle housing and eliminating minimum parking requirements does not automatically mean the creation of more affordable housing, it can help, said Councilmember Alicia Beck.
“Let’s not confuse the creation of housing options with the creation of affordable housing,” Beck said. “Those two are not the same.”
“How do we encourage developers to create affordable housing?” said Councilmember Kathy Shannon. “Ways of doing that are making more spaces available within the same amount of land.”
