As part of an overall effort to tweak zoning laws to eliminate barriers to housing creation in Monroe, city officials are eyeing changes such as reducing the required number of parking spots for residential areas.

“The number of housing units has not kept pace with the number of new households, leading to a shortage of housing supply,” said a recent report on how the city’s zoning laws impact potential new housing creation, compiled by consultant Vandewalle & Associates Inc. of Madison. “Monroe is experiencing both a shortage of housing and increasing housing costs.”

At issue is whether single family and two-family properties should continue to have a minimum of 2 parking spaces to be up to city code. Currently, according to officials, townhouses and other multi-family structures require two spaces per unit containing zero, one, or two bedrooms. And they also require an additional half of a space for each bedroom over two bedrooms per unit. 

Parking is just one of several big changes recommended by the consultant that could make a difference in Monroe’s housing plight. 

“We’re looking for direction,” City Administrator Brittney Rindy said at the August 13 Plan Commission meeting, during which the commission agreed to further study parking and other possible changes the report cites.

Commission Member Ronald Spielman said while he does not necessarily oppose reducing the space requirement for new development, the city should also address the impact of increased population density — from large, single-family houses being converted to multi-family units — when proposing major changes. 

To that end, Spielman said his neighborhood on 25th Avenue is near a stretch of larger houses that have been converted into apartments; and the influx of parked cars now forces all motorists to negotiate passage in both directions — in a manner resembling a game of chicken.

“One of you (drivers) has to give and it’s always an interesting process,” he said.

Rindy said such localized parking issues do exist in places around Monroe but could be addressed separately and in more detail by officials later.

The report, meanwhile, is clear about the reasons for the housing crunch, citing four key headwinds in recent years to adding new housing stock. Those include:

●  Shortage of new housing construction. Monroe added only 25 housing units between 2010 and 2020. 

●  Increase in new households. Over the same period, the city added 80 households. Moreover, household size has been trending down from 2.22 people per household in 2010 to 2.14 per house. 

●  Tightening vacancy rate. The ideal rental vacancy rate is around 7% while the city’s 2020 rental vacancy rate was at 4%. In addition, an owner-occupied vacancy rate should be about 2% while Monroe hit a low of 0.7% in 2020. 

●  Increasing housing construction and land costs. The National Association of Home Builders’ report entitled “Cost of Constructing a Home” shows differences in cost between building a home in 2019 versus in 2024. A $131,563 increase has been seen in the total construction cost of a new home over this period.

Rindy said after the commission finishes reviewing the changes, they will likely be on the agenda of other relevant committees and ultimately before the city council for approval.

“This is an effort that kind of aligns with our comprehensive plan and just over time we want to make sure we’re not creating barriers to development, especially when housing’s an issue in the community and area,” she said.

Beyond the issue of parking in the zoning code, the other proposed changes from the study the commission agreed to pursue include:

●  Combine the TR-10 & DR-8 districts into one two-family district — both districts could be combined to avoid frequent rezone requests and simplify the entitlement process for two-family land uses.

●  Remove the SR3 and SR4 zoning districts — simplifies the zoning code overall by eliminating unneeded zoning districts. It would result in a largest minimum lot size of 7,200-square-feet (in the SR-5 district) rather than the overly restrictive 12,000-square-feet minimum (in the SR-3 district).

●  Allow additional two-family formats in the two-family zoning district — current zoning code allows for side-by-side, stacked, and zero-lot line two family formats. However, it does not allow for back-to-back units or combination formats.