Who is going to build the finer-grained Missing Middle housing, the small workspaces, the two and three story mixed use buildings that municipalities and neighborhoods are looking for?  Will it be  the large development outfits who see a 10,000 SF single story commercial building or 100 apartment units as a “small deal”?  Doubtful.  Very doubtful, for the simple reason that large scale developers need large scale deals to support their operations.  They can’t execute small deals effectively and they see a lot of opportunity cost in small deals.  “Why would I take on a 4 unit project when I can build 40 units or maybe even 400 units with about the same amount of brain damage?”  Big outfits are constrained by having to achieve economies of scale to get a decent return on their efforts.  Small developers live with the constraint of economy of means.  Small deals, small amounts of capital, small crews, services from small architecture and engineering shops, small sites that make a difference in the neighborhood.

Dallas developer Monte Anderson keeps hearing from folks who want him to move to their town and develop there.  To his credit, Monte is determined to focus on the communities in the Southern Dallas Metro that he knows and cares about.  His advice for the people that want him to come to their town is that they need to find someone who is committed to their town and help that person develop in the place they care about —OR BECOME A DEVELOPER THEMSELVES.

This is actually very pragmatic advice, because the big outfits are NOT COMING to your town or neighborhood to fine-grained projects.  Monte Anderson is a great guy, but he’s not coming to your town either.  Who does that leave?  YOU (or someone a lot like you). Start small.  Learn the business.  Build a reliable team who care about the place like you do.  There is a growing network of support for small developers, some of them are just a few years ahead of you on the learning curve, but they will do whatever it takes to help you avoid repeating their mistakes.

Consider what a small enterprise could accomplish in your town, not just the buildings you might renovate or build, but the local wealth you could create that will stay in your neighborhood.  Think about the jobs that you could create in the trades, and in property management.  Think of the other folks in your neighborhood you could mentor, paying it forward once you have learned the business.  Real capacity for local and lasting economic development is hard to come by, but building the everyday buildings that people need, in a place that you care about will raise up more than walls and a roof.

If you present information on the nuts and bolts of what it take to develop smaller-scale, incremental projects and the audience includes elected officials, municipal staffers, and local activists, they will ask you "What can our town do to encourage building differently?"  It is not so much what a municipality can do, but what the individual leaders in a town are willing to do.  Here is my list for those leaders.

1. Stop trying to guess how much parking is needed. Eliminate off-street parking minimums from your regulations.

2. Manage the supply of public parking with rational pricing. Convenient on-street parking should cost more than a space on the top floor of a parking deck two blocks away.

3. Get serious about streets as public spaces. Narrow lanes to 10 feet. Convert dumb Stroads to boulevards. Put on-street parking everywhere. Install better bike infrastructure like buffered bike lanes. Replace unwarranted traffic signals with stop signs.  Don't wait for your Public Works Director to lead this effort.  (Believe me, he's had plenty of time).

4. Stop letting your fire marshal design the town. Direct the Fire Department to figure out how to provide good emergency services on a network of connected low speed streets.

5. Overhaul your zoning. Get rid of minimum lot area and minimum lot width. Dump the silly maximum lot coverage percentage. The best incentives for incremental development support a clear vision and a reasonable process.  Your Comprehensive Plan may contain something resembling a clear vision, but do your zoning reg's and development standards screw up your chances for getting it delivered?

6. Think Small and Think Local. Encourage the small operators you have in your town and don't worry about convincing large developers to come from out of the area to fix your town.  They are probably not coming.  If they do, agree to come and build in your town, the results are rarely what you had in mind.

7. Dig deep. Cowboy up. Find some allies.  Making any of these thing a reality in your town will stir up some shit.  Ask yourself if how much political risk or career risk you are willing to take to make a difference.  Figure out what your Plan B is in case you lose the election, get demoted, or get fired.  Once you have your downside covered, find some serious people to work with and make some changes.

  Louisville, Kentucky has a lot of excellent smaller scale buildings.  My favorites are the great 3 bay mixed use buildings like the one above.  They are all over the place at 2, 3, and sometime 4 stories. Attached in the more urban parts of town, and typically freestanding out in the neighborhoods.  These are very flexible buildings "just right" for their settings.  Very cool.