Lawrenceville has become the first neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh to have an Inclusionary Zoning Overlay District (IZOD) – one that requires new residential developments with 20 or more units to ensure that at least 10% of those units will be affordable to households making 50% of area median income.
This protection is particularly important in a hot real estate market where rents and property values are skyrocketing, and lower-income renters and homeowners are being displaced.
Sounds like something Oakland should have too, right?
If Oakland had had an IZOD in place five years ago, this kind of requirement could have produced over 80 new units of affordable rental. Instead, the 915+ new market-rate units constructed recently in Oakland go for $1,100 - $1,800/bed.
There are other tools to leverage new development to support community goals of equitable development such as affordable housing. Some of these tools are zoning restrictions, and others include programs that structure development financing and the additional taxes generated through a development project. We refer to this as “value capture,” and it can provide support for a variety of neighborhood-serving activities and programs.
Oakland is currently engaged in a comprehensive neighborhood planning process (and there are opportunities here to share your opinions about Oakland’s future), and now is the time to speak up for affordable housing and neighborhood-serving programs in each of Oakland’s neighborhoods.
Over the next year, we will have extensive discussions about zoning and equitable development strategies as the Oakland Plan process concludes. OPDC hosts a monthly meeting to discuss issues of concern to the neighborhood, “Let’s Talk.” The next Let’s Talk meeting topic is zoning and equitable development, and we hope you will join us to let us know what you think about it. Until the planning process is completed, a permanent zoning change in Oakland is not likely to gain much support. We will discuss the kind of process residents can expect in terms of the changes that lie ahead.
Please reach out to Andrea Boykowycz at aboykowycz@opdc.org with any questions, and please feel free to share your thoughts and questions below.