Kalamazoo is a few thousand residents smaller than it was a quarter-century ago. Despite that, the city has a housing shortage. That’s because household size is shrinking. More people are living alone. There are more empty-nesters in the homes once filled with children. With fewer people under each roof, the city needs about 2,300 more housing units by 2030 to accommodate future growth, based on a 2022 Kalamazoo County housing study by the Upjohn Institute. To get there, Kalamazoo officials have spent recent years taking a hard look at its zoning codes, so that zoning is part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Developer Matt Watts went to Comstock Township last year with a proposal to help address the shortage of affordable homes. His specific ask: Change the township laws to allow for smaller houses on smaller lots. Watts offered compelling arguments for the zoning change. Most importantly, it would lower the costs of new construction, he pointed out. Land is typically 15 to 25% of new construction, and smaller houses are cheaper to build. Plus, there’s a growing market for smaller homes: More households today have only one or two members. Yet another benefit: More homes on the same amount of land increases property tax revenue for the township. Still, Watts faced plenty of resistance. People worried the increased housing density would hurt both nearby home values and the community’s character.

Portage has long had the hallmarks of a post-World War II suburb, with residential neighborhoods separated and distinct from the city’s commercial strips. Now city officials are looking to shake that up by creating “walkable villages” and mixed-use neighborhoods that should provide Portage residents with a new kind of housing option and simultaneously address the city’s shortage of affordable homes.