Intelligent way to lower American rents, house prices: building houses like Paris

Cambridge, Massachusetts, may seem an unlikely site for a Yimby revolution.

The historic suburbs of Boston is home to both Harvard University and a multitude of wealthy owners opposed to any new development. The city even appears in good place in the book “Neighbourhood Defenders”, a founding work on anti-construction, not behind my backs. Despite all this, the city recently adopted a series of laws that could open the way to a cascade of new housing constructions.

Cambridge could certainly use the new units. Zillow data show that the city’s average rent is $ 3,400 per month – slightly higher than the estimated average rent in San Francisco of $ 3,200. The homeless in Cambridge is also increasing, especially from the pandemic. In an attempt to relieve this pressure, pro -logging groups that fall under the aegis of Yimby (abbreviation of “yes in my backyard”) – in particular the local group a Better Cambridge and the organization of the abundant state Housing Massachusetts – have tried to have more houses in Cambridge for years.

In recent years, this work has started to bear fruit: the city has promulgated a superposition of 100% affordable housing in 2020, which allows developers of complexes of apartments at the lower rate of the building market more densely than what would not be authorized by basic zoning. Three years later, Cambridge rezoned its central square district, allowing the apartment buildings to go up to 18 floors.

But the last measure may be the most radical and the most promising. A measure adopted in February will legalize the production of four -storey apartments throughout the city, with larger zone lots up to six floors. Of course, these newly possible buildings are not as dramatic as an 18 -storey tower, but this last change is by far the most ambitious in Cambridge. Unlike the rise in the central square geographically confined, the new pro-logging order has the potential to redo the whole city. The city’s planning staff believe that the new law could increase the development capacity of Cambridge housing over the next 15 years of 350 units to 3,590 – an increase of more than ten times.

The probability that certain districts become densest caused the usual opposition of local owners. But given from another angle, this densification could make the city a more dynamic place and more beautiful to live. There is a reason why the member of the Cambridge Municipal Council, Burhan Azeem, called the new plan of the city “Paris style zoning”. It turns out that Paris is a good model to follow for medium -sized American cities. By allowing more European style construction, places like Cambridge can both reduce housing costs and look good by doing so.

Alongside the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, one of the most emblematic architectural characteristics of Paris can be the most omnipresent: the Haussmann style building. Georges-Eugène Haussmann (better known as Baron Haussmann) was the famous urban planner who, under the Emperor Napoleon III, redesigned the center of Paris in the middle of the 19th century. Paris has become a city of wide boulevards and complexes of apartments in Midrise with distinct limestone facades – the aforementioned Haussmann buildings. Thanks largely to the prevalence of these structures, Paris has reached a higher density than any other big city in Europe or in the United States – although the city of Lights still has trouble meeting the demand for housing.

While Haussmann’s buildings are specific to the center of Paris, many other European cities have equivalent structures: apartment buildings of four to six floors without buffer zone between the front door and the sidewalk. Unlike the American building with a square and cheap aspect five to an apartment that has dominated a large part of our development – and that many people consider a horror – Euro -style apartments generally contribute to the beauty and charm of dense and accessible tourist destinations like Stockholm and Rome. In addition, they are more effective: thanks to European building codes and zoning rules, European -style apartments can be built for less, on smaller lots and with more family apartments inside.

“Of course,” you could say, “but what is good for Paris, Stockholm and Rome will not work in an American context.” It is a common refrain of skeptics – citing cultural differences, the need for abundant parking lot or their own intestinal instincts – when the Yimbys propose to allow more European zoning in the United States. But these hypotheses are incorrect for two reasons.

First, uponnant cities like Cambridge are not the same as forcing them to accumulate in Parisian density. If you have a single -family house in Cambridge, and your spell has been upzone to allow the construction of a four -story building, you stay free to keep your unifamilial house. If you want to redevelop the property in a multifamilial building, it’s great; If you decide to sell your house to a developer who will replace it with an apartments complex, it’s great too. But no one forces you to do one or the other of these things if you like your existing home.

Second, Cambridge – Like many other older cities in New England and the region of the Atlantic world – already has a good number of dense buildings and houses in the row. Rather than destroying the culture or character of these cities, building more Parisian style housing would point out a return to the pre-family era. Many buildings of the average height of Cambridge were built before the unifamilial zoning became omnipresent in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. And those who survived are now very coveted as luxury houses and architectural treasures; However, for decades, it was actually illegal to build them more. As Azem wrote on X, the Cambridge Zoning Laws, family -oriented, meant that “85% + of existing housing” in the city would be illegal to build. In other words, Cambridge Upzoning can actually help preserve the city’s architectural heritage and the character of New England. At the same time, it is a model for the way other cities can upzon in a way that really facilitates housing costs.

Although the patchwork nature of American policy for land use can slow progress, it can also be an engine for experimentation and friendly and productive competition. Pro-logging activists in cities across the country-in places like Minneapolis, Austin and Sacramento-and far beyond, in the case of Auckland, New Zealand, were inspired by each other, shared ideas and tactics, and provided a push to see who can push through the counterfeits of the use of the most ambitious land. These thrusts can even become a little cheeky: Yimby defenders in Montana sold zoning changes by urging conservative legislators to move away from “Californian style zoning”. Although it will take a few years to assess the full impact of these revisions, the first data of places like Auckland is very promising.

Certain changes have a greater impact than others. A lesson in the last years of YIMBY experimentation is that smaller adjustments to local zoning codes can give negligible results; The ambition is much greater than cautious incrementalism. Take Minneapolis, one of Yimby’s recent successful stories of success. Citywide, the production of more accommodation has contributed to keeping rents and prices of houses, but as the housing researcher Zakary Yudhisthu noted it, there are more things under the hood. The minneapolis parts which have gone from the unifamilial zoning to the duplex or triplex zoning have experienced little housing growth, while the corridors which allow a denser construction have seen more permit applications. In other words, going further is how you get real results.

But to really unlock the production of housing on a necessary scale, high cost cities cannot stop at Upzoning. They must also reshape the authorization rules and other expensive construction requirements, such as parking mandates off street. The real European style zoning would allow buildings of mid-height apartments without outstanding parking and a single central staircase. (There are five to the other because most American cities require several stairs in any building on a certain height.)

Thus, if other dear cities should be inspired by Cambridge, they should also see if they can go even further. There is still a lot of room for another jurisdiction to take the lead in the race to be the city of American Yimby-Est. Takers?

Ned Resnikoff is a consultant in urban and writer. He is a member of the Roosevelt Institute and is currently working on a book on cities with an expected publication date of the fall of 2026.