In the news recently: state efforts to encourage (or force) more housing density in single-family neighborhoods. A big obstacle to increased density is local zoning that limits how many housing units can be built on a parcel of a given size. Asking a city/county for permission to exceed the zoned density will almost always be answered with a big NO.
When those cities/counties themselves decide that more density is desirable for a certain neighborhood/area, they do it in a more planned manner - by changing the zoning to a designation that allows greater density.
A couple of recent multi-family projects on a short section of May Avenue were probably facilitated by such a zoning change - from R-1 (one unit) to R-L (multiple units). The project at 448 May (above), now completed, replaced one residence with four attached townhomes, which is about the maximum number that can be fit onto a ~5,000 sq. ft. lot like this one.
A similar project (below) nearby is now working its way through the planning process, for a double-wide lot of ~10,000 sq. ft. The double width allows a project that basically doubles the one at 448 May. Because the two buildings share one driveway, however, there's more than twice the area available for building footprints. Also, the units are smaller than those at 448 May, giving a total unit count of 16.
