Twp. is 'on track' to meet 2030 housing demand, study finds

HOLLAND TWP. — Holland Township is growing, and with it is growing housing demand.

But a study of township housing needs, paid for by the township government, showed the pace of housing development is on track, and slightly ahead, of projected demand for the next 20 years.

Township officials used the results of this study Thursday to vote to keep in place a moratorium on zoning changes for housing developments in the township. The moratorium lasts until August 2022.

Last summer the township board, concerned with the volume and pace of housing developments being proposed and approved in the township, imposed the moratorium to make time for the housing study and gather data about the housing needs of the township.

The moratorium blocks any new housing developments in areas that are not already planned for residential development in the township's Comprehensive Plan.

Twp. is growing fast, but so is demand for housing

The study confirmed the township has seen rapid growth in the past several years, building an average of 309 new housing units per year from 2019 to 2022 and 1,237 total units either built or approved to be built in the past four years. According to the study, performed by planning consultant McKenna, that represents the fastest growth period in the township since the 1990s.

That yearly growth is slightly ahead of the projected demand for housing in Holland Township — 2,644 new housing units by 2030.

Housing demand was determined by demographic trends, including the ages of heads of household in the township and how those households will age over the next two decades, and desired living situation of those households.

The report also identified single-family homes, especially those affordable to first-time homebuyers, as a gap in the market where there is growing demand but not enough being built.

The township's housing stock is 57.8 percent single-family homes, 13.1 percent townhouses/duplexes, 14.4 percent small multi-family buildings, 6.7 percent large multi-family and 8 percent manufactured housing. Compared to the rest of the greater Holland-Zeeland area, which is 68 percent single-family homes, a smaller proportion of the township's housing stock is single-family homes.

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The study found the township does not have enough stock of owner-occupied housing, estimating there is a demand for 10,358 units with only 9,704 units available (either already owned and occupied or marketed to homeowners), while there is an oversupply of rental housing compared to demand, with a demand of 4,155 rental units and 4,693 units for rent.

However, in the Holland area as a whole, there is more demand for rental housing than there is supply, with a 528-unit shortfall, according to McKenna's calculations.

Projections for housing demand in the future show a need for 2,075 owner-occupied units and 569 rental units by 2030, and another 1,369 owner-occupied units and 209 rental units by 2040.

In the Holland area as a whole, the study estimated the market demand will grow by 4,968 owner occupied units and 1,443 rental units by 2030 and 2,907 owner-occupied units and 874 rental units by 2040.

The study also pointed to a lack of single-family and small multi-family construction and suggested the township could try to encourage greater variety in housing types.

Even though there's more demand in the township for owner-occupied homes than there is for rentals, only 25 percent of recent housing construction is single-family homes — the most common type of owner-occupied housing.

The growth in demand slows in the 2030s, according to the study, as the Baby Boomer generation starts to age out of homeownership and moves into senior living facilities or moves in with younger family members, and smaller generations age into homeownership years.

Is enough land available for housing?

The study looked at whether the township has adequate land planned for housing in the Comprehensive Plan and concluded it does.

McKenna modeled what would happen if developers built enough housing to meet demand through 2040, and found it would only use 75 percent of the township's land set aside for housing in the plan.

The township has capacity for more than 25,000 housing units (including existing housing), if new housing was built to the planned maximum density as set out in the Comprehensive Plan. Meanwhile, market demand calls for a total of slightly less than 19,000 housing units in the township by 2040.

That means the township might have the extra room to build some of the housing needed by the whole Holland region, the analysis said, but also that the township does not need to "max out" on density to squeeze in enough housing for its population.

Township board members pointed to this conclusion as a reason to keep the moratorium in place through August, disallowing any zoning amendments to build housing outside of areas already planned for housing.

"The folks in the last two years, (planning commissioner) Norm (Nykamp) and (development director) Corey (Broersma) that built the Comprehensive Plan did a heck of a job, I think that's the first takeaway," said Doug Becker, township trustee. "Two, we have built into that Comprehensive Plan enough space dedicated out there to meet the housing needs through 2040. That's a heck of a takeaway. That was not an answer we knew."

Becker said the study gives the township board and planning commission a foundation to make decisions about future housing projects.

"We have a heck of a lot more data than we did before we started the study, and I think that data shows that the Comprehensive Plan is good," Becker told the township board.

Broersma said the moratorium also acts as a messaging tool for the township, telling developers if their project does not match the land-use plan it's not likely to get anywhere.

— Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland Twp. is 'on track' to meet 2030 housing demand, study finds