After a refresh, Knoxville expands its proposed missing middle housing plan

After a two-month deferral, the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission will look at an updated missing middle housing proposal from Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon on Dec. 14.

The new version of the plan would allow developers to build specific kinds of multifamily housing in more areas and overall give builders fewer restrictions. Missing middle housing is a key part of the city's effort to increase housing supply and improve affordability.

These types of structures – townhomes, duplexes and triplexes, for example – would be built on single-family home lots, adding density without more land required.

A poll released Dec. 11 from East Tennessee Realtors found 64% of 404 respondents approved of Kincannon's missing middle housing proposal. The poll sought the opinion of Knoxville residents Sept. 18-22.

During its Oct. 5 meeting, the planning commission delayed its vote on the proposal by 60 days, asking the mayor to look at expanding the plan’s reach and to get more community input.

"Most of the edits and changes that you'll see from the previous version are just to provide additional clarity on a couple of the items," Knoxville Chief Policy Officer Cheryl Ball told Knox News.

The city hosted two open house events that drew over 170 attendees and held 23 meetings with neighborhood associations and nonprofits, according to a memo from Ball to the planning commission. It also held 45 one-on-one meetings with neighborhood leaders, residents of Traditional Residential Neighborhoods and developers.

Through those input sessions, Ball said, the city learned the public was mostly concerned with the plan's parking restrictions and wanted some housing types, specifically fourplexes, to be allowed on smaller lots.

Most of the attendees were developers or individuals already familiar with zoning codes and the mayor's plan, Ball said.

Both versions of Kincannon’s plan would allow missing middle housing to be built in the Traditional Residential Neighborhood zones, which are only found inside the Interstate 640 loop.

Recently, some University of Tennessee at Knoxville architecture students showed off their creative missing middle housing designs, providing a glimpse into the possible future of what multifamily homes could look like in these historic Knoxville neighborhoods.

Duplexes can be built on more lots

The city made three big changes to the plan.

The first, and potentially most impactful, change was adding RN-1 as a zone where missing middle housing could be built. However, only duplexes (either built stacked or side-by-side) would be allowed in those zones.

“We did some looking at RN-1 lots in the (Traditional Residential Neighborhood zones) and it turns out that most of those lots are just not significantly larger than the lots that are zoned RN-2," Ball said.

There are about 51 vacant RN-1 lots in the Traditional Residential Neighborhood area, but Ball said the impact extends to houses on RN-1 lots that could be redeveloped. There are 767 RN-1 lots in the Traditional Residential Neighborhood, about 4.8% of the area's total lots.

Duplexes are already allowed to be built in RN-1 zones, but the change would allow missing middle housing to be built on lots that are smaller in width.

Smaller lot width requirements for fourplexes

The second change was reducing the minimum lot width for fourplexes by about 10 feet, which would allow smaller lots to have higher density structures.

In the mayor's previous draft plan, developers would need an RN-2, 3 or 4 lot that had a minimum width of 55 feet with an alley, or 60 without an alley, to build a fourplex. The new proposed minimums are set at 45 and 50 feet respectively, the same minimums for duplexes and triplexes.

Ball said the reduction made sense, since a fourplex generally has the same width as a duplex, just with two more units stacked on top.

Fewer restrictions on parking space requirements

The third change was an update to parking requirements.

A city code allows developers to reduce parking minimums by 30% for residences if they are within a quarter-mile of public transit. The first draft of Kincannon's proposal specifically said this code would not apply to missing middle housing.

The plan states that developers must provide at least one parking space per unit for missing middle developments.

Under the new plan, if a developer were building a fourplex within a quarter-mile of a bus stop, they could use the 30% reduction to have only three parking spaces rather than four.

What’s next for the plan?

The planning commission is set to consider the mayor’s plan during its 1:30 p.m. Dec. 14 meeting in the City County Building.

If it approves the plan, Knoxville-Knox County Planning will bring it to the Knoxville city council for the first of two votes required to implement the new code structure, Ball said.

The first hearing of the plan most likely would be during the Jan. 9 council meeting, and the second on Jan. 23.

Silas Sloan is the growth and development reporter. Email silas.sloan@knoxnews.com. Twitter @silasloan. Instagram @knox.growth.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville housing proposal from Indya Kincannon gets update