Letters

The “First Four Actions” to take on our East End housing crisis:

1. Create workforce housing zoning districts in each village and hamlet within the five East End townships to allow for “as of right” community housing developments of between 20 and 100 dwellings, where appropriate.

2. Create multifamily zoning districts in each village and hamlet to allow for two-family homes, duplexes, accessory dwelling units and small apartment buildings, up to 20 units, to be placed on any property in those districts. The best-case scenario would be to eliminate single-family zoning in all townships and villages, just as many municipalities around the USA are doing today.

3. All properties legally identified for affordable housing in the villages and townships to be handed over to local township or village housing authorities with “as of right” authority to build as they see fit.

4. The fourth and final step for calendar year 2022 is to make all village- and township-owned residential property available on a land lease basis to developers and private owners to build “as of right” housing that is affordable.

Bottom line: Until exclusionary zoning is eliminated in each township, village and hamlet, even locally controlled funds for community housing, will only be marginally effective, benefiting only a few on the long lists of those seeking affordable community housing.

These crucial steps will take courage and decisiveness on our part. However, actions like these are currently happening across our country in big cities, small towns and even statewide.

We, at East End YIMBY, are standing by to support this courageous action. We are “on call” and will be attending village and township meetings to speak publicly on this crisis for as long as it takes to result in significant progress.

In this current crisis, incremental progress is not nearly enough. It’s time for exponential progress. We strongly encourage public officials to leave a legacy of having done something about this community housing crisis to strengthen our community.

Michael Daly

East End YIMBY