Getting to Affordable Infill Development

Eric Kronberg, of Kronberg Urbanists + Architects, is a wealth of knowledge for people wanting to truly understand the realities of new construction in cities. First off, it’s Kronberg with a long o, not as I initially pronounced it. Apologies to Eric.

Eric and I talk about his work in missing middle housing, working in development in Atlanta, and the opportunities and perils of doing infill new housing. TLDR: it ain’t easy, but there are solutions.

A couple of great takeaways I had from this episode are that the most cost effective way to build is a 3 story walk-up and the typical current strategy of upzoning commercial corridors and protecting single-family neighborhoods does not get us to an affordable place. In fact, it’s encouraging the most expensive forms of housing, and discouraging the least expensive.

I highly recommend checking out Eric’s site for more. Here’s a few links:

Power Plexes

La France Walk

Inc Codes

ATL ADU Co

Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.

Intro: “Why Be Friends”

Outro: “Fairweather Friend”