What Happened When Minneapolis Ended Single-Family Zoning
The city’s path-breaking shift has brought a lot of national attention and, so far, fewer than 100 new housing units. Still, it’s a step.
A new duplex in Minneapolis.
Photographer: Justin Fox/Bloomberg
In December 2018, the Minneapolis City Council approved a new long-term housing plan, dubbed Minneapolis 2040, that spelled the end of single-family zoning in the city, among other things. That is, on the roughly 70% of the city’s land where only detached single-family houses had been allowed, property owners would as of January 2020 be able to build duplexes or triplexes or reconfigure and expand existing houses to add one or two dwelling units.
This change, and subsequent similar moves — and failed attempts — in other cities, counties and states, received a lot of attention. Some hailed it as a landmark step toward making housing more affordable and ending residential segregation. Others decried it as the end of the American way.