Soon, the city of St. Paul will be getting rid of single-family-only zoning, opting for the possibility of more dense, multifamily units. This decision was not one the City Council took lightly, with a lot of study going into the ordinance before its passage in a 4-3 vote. The ordinance was passed last month and takes effect Nov. 26.

St. Paul Planning Director Luis Pereira was one of the people who worked behind the scenes to make sure the city passed the best version of the ordinance that it could, spending over three years helping the city study methods for creating additional housing.

In an interview, Pereira discusses the years leading up to the St. Paul Council passing the ordinance and what it means for those stooped in the industry. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: For someone who was not watching the City Council closely, could you give us a brief explanation of the ordinance that was passed recently?

A:  So ordinance 2343 allows for additional homes on properties in zoning districts that were previously only allowed for single family homes.

These zoning districts are updated, and they allow for real diversity of housing types. Everything from additional accessory dwelling units (ADUs) beside or behind a house, a single-family house, two twin homes, townhomes, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes. And even in sort of a cluster development, so that’s oftentimes homes that are grouped around a common courtyard or a green space, in addition to multiple single-family homes on site.

Depending on the zoning district, lot specifics, and the plans for this or that site, you could have anywhere between two and five units allowed on many lots that were previously zoned only for one single unit. That was sort of the crux of what we studied for several years and developed two phases of proposals and brought it through the process. That culminated with the council’s decision recently and the mayor’s signature on the ordinance.

Q: Take me back to when you and the planning office first started examining this issue for the city. What year did you start doing so and what were you looking at?

A: You could argue it began in 2016, when the city adopted its first accessory dwelling unit ordinance. Basically [this] allowed for ADUs, what sometimes are called carriage houses or granny flats. It allowed them in certain neighborhoods along the city’s green line, light rail corridor along University Avenue.

Then, later on in 2018, it expanded to allow them city wide, and that was around the time that I came in as director of planning, actually. Also in 2018, the City Council passed a resolution that was very broad. It was about housing, about housing choices, you know, just recognizing the need to create and preserve additional housing, especially affordable housing, talked about addressing disparities in housing, as well as creating infrastructure to stabilize housing in St. Paul. So it called for a lot of different things. From housing finance to zoning and planning. One of the initiatives specifically called for in that resolution was for planning staff and the planning commission to study the potential for allowing three- and four-unit dwellings in currently single-family zoning districts.

In addition to the 2018 Council resolution, in 2020, the city adopted its 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which is consistent with the Metropolitan Council regional plan, Thrive 2040. And that plan, the comprehensive plan of the city is kind of our holy book of planning, if you will. That plan called for environmentally and economically efficient, resilient land use development offering opportunities for existing density, existing development along existing and planned transit lines, as well as increasing housing choices for residents of all income levels.

Q: For any homeowners who are in St. Paul — maybe they’re afraid the government is going to come knocking and saying that they’re going to ditch their single home in favor of a duplex. What would you say to them?

A: We believe that given the market dynamic, that actual development of these types of homes is going to proceed slowly. One thing to point to is, we have allowed for accessory dwelling units on essentially most if not all, single family zone lots, but we haven’t had a ton of production of that in our city, even allowing for it. I think if our market was such where there was just a huge demand for that, we would have seen more of that happening. So that’s one thing that I think suggests that development will proceed slowly.

Another thing is — redevelopment is very expensive. New construction is very expensive. The actual change in what’s allowed under the current zoning, a single unit with an ADU, versus the new zoning, which is in many cases, a duplex, maybe a triplex if your lot is big enough, is not a huge jump.

Another piece of evidence that we look at is our experience across the river in Minneapolis. Minneapolis since 2020, has allowed for essentially two and three units on many lots that were just previously allowed for one, and their production has been slow as well. It’s been modest. I will say they’ve seen just a few. They’ve seen essentially, I believe it’s 34 units per year — 25 duplexes and nine triplexes per year. So that’s a total of 50 units and duplexes and 27 units and triplexes per year from 2020, since this has been allowed. So, again, it’s not going to be the majority of the housing growth in the city.

Q: What do you think that the St. Paul housing market, and I guess housing situation in general, will look like five years from now? Do you think that we’ll see an increase in these land uses and an increase in duplexes and triplexes? Or do you think that it’s going to remain largely the same?

A: I think there’s going to be something in between, I think we’re going to see a continuing demand for single-family homes. We don’t have enough supply of single-family homes in the market between one- and two-months’ supply for many years at this point. And they say in a healthier housing market, you’re supposed to have five to six months of supply.

That’s been our majority type for ownership housing, single-family homes. But I also think that over time, you’re going to see new ownership types, such as twin homes, townhomes, whether we’re going to get back to kind of condo buildings are the question. The attached side-by-side housing type is one that we could see more of now that the zoning will allow for it. I think there’s going to be continuing demand for single-family. Now you might have creative stuff, where you have a lot, we’ve got two single-family homes detached on the same lot, sharing a green space, again, that would be allowed now where you never could do that before, unless you had a double lot. I think it’s going to be slow. It’s going to be incremental.

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