The Missing Middle in Housing – Joseph Tovar, American Planning Association – #153

Nerd Farmer Podcast

Joseph Tovar helped draft Washington State’s growth management act and has served as lead planner for cities across Western Washington. He has a theory: we’ve gotten good at building condos, we’ve always been good at building detached single-family housing, but to meet the coming population growth in the region we need to build what he calls “middle housing.” Middle housing includes duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. These homes put more people on a smaller footprint and will help us increase density, reduce road miles, and help create more housing in cities across Puget Sound.

Housing is a deeply important issue and one we’ve returned and returned to repeatedly on this show:

• Will James – on the Merkle Hotel – #150
• The Pod Auntie – Fighting displacement in gentrifying markets – #117
• Jasmyn Jefferson – the Housing Market in Tacoma – #107
• Rebecca Parson – Ending Homelessness in Tacoma – #113

This episode is brought to you by the generous support of Microsoft and their campaign to support civic conversations in Washington and Libro FM.

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