Infill strategy for the downturn

John Anderson and his partner David Kim are now working as consultants and/or developers on “a constellation of small infill projects” in Chico, California. Formerly of New Urban Builders, they started a new firm, Anderson/Kim Architecture + Urban Design in Chico. They are helping to set up a community land trust for the purpose of developing 60-80 units on a 3-4 acre site that was recently annexed into the city and is getting sewer service. They are also subdividing a 60-foot-wide lot into two units that will meet standards of affordable housing. The Chico Redevelopment Agency will cover $75,000 of the cost for the units, he says. They will be built without garages to meet the affordability requirements but entitlements will allow owners to build accessory units in the future. Anderson and Kim are also renovating a house on a prominent corner in the city that will include an upstairs residential unit and the firm’s offices. Anderson notes that small infill projects often require the same entitlement and design savvy as larger projects, but the costs of acquiring this expertise can’t be spread over a large number of units. That’s where the accumulated “brain damage” and credibility from working on new urban developments in the boom years can help in these lean times. “We’re cautiously optimistic that we can apply the same lessons that we learned working on large greenfield developments to infill work,” he says. A large percentage of the buyers in today’s market have never bought a house before, which makes affordability important, he explains. Buyers with existing houses often face difficulties in selling — and even if they can sell, they may be reluctant to take the hit on the price. First time buyers, on the other hand, are motivated by lower prices and low interest rates — if they can get a loan. Because firms are downsizing, Anderson says, the New Urbanism may be headed back to a time of greater collaboration. In the early days of the movement, he says, every charrette had multiple consultants because firms were too small to provide all of the in-house staff — and that may be the most common way to get work done in the foreseeable future. Consultants may also be able to get work adapting form-based codes for municipalities — a service that is growing in demand, Anderson says.