Blog Williamsburg

Let’s Be Clear on Density, by Roger Guernsey, AIA

Our community is growing. People who have grown up in Hampton Roads are having families. Those who moved here to go to college are staying to work, continue in graduate school, and raise their families. Others are moving here to retire. Still others are buying homes where their children can live while they attend college, since student housing is scarce. Growth is a fact that we must plan for in a reasonable way as a community. As jobs are created in various sectors, we must be able to provide an array of housing types to accommodate those who need housing here. 

Increased density is a zoning tool that many communities use to encourage affordable and sustainable development. Density can be provided as an incentive for a developer to add below market rate residential units on a lot along with market rate units. Increasing density in this way fosters inclusive neighborhoods that will provide a continuum of housing options (e.g., single family homes in a variety of sizes, multifamily units, and residences over top of businesses in mixed use zones).

Increased density can, in fact, promote conditions which make a community more livable, vibrant, and inclusive.  Consider the following:

Density can preserve green space by clustering residences in one portion of a lot. Instead of having single family homes with individual lawns, multifamily units that are clustered together can have a large open space, allowing the natural features of a lot, such as ponds and existing old growth trees, to be protected from demolition if they fit the character of the development.

Density can prevent sprawl and preserve green space in our surrounding counties by allowing people to live near where they work. With housing prices in the city out of reach for most families who make at least a moderate wage, people who move here to take jobs or need a larger home for their families have to move into surrounding counties or other communities along the peninsula. That means more sprawl putting pressure on the environment.

Density can reduce traffic congestion on our roads and highways. When people live near where they work, they spend less time commuting on local roads and highways, reducing traffic congestion and pollution.

Density can strengthen our community. When people have access to affordable housing and live closer to their jobs and services they spend less time on the highways or working second jobs. Those people have more time to spend with their families and participate in the city or schools.

Density can be granted to a developer as a bonus for providing affordable units within a development. Higher densities can be allowed under the proposed changes in the comprehensive plan with special approvals and proper vetting through the Architectural Review Board and the Planning Commission to ensure that each development contributes to the character of Williamsburg. Developers can then provide the housing we need, with no cost to the city.

Density can provide a variety of housing types for a diverse population. Increasing density allows developers to respond to the needs of our community, providing townhouses for those who prefer not to do yard work, or cottages, small condos, and effiencies over garages for those who need less space. To see examples of creative developments that combine density, affordable and market rate units, visit
http://virginia-organizing.org/vopwilliamsburg/campaignmaterials.html.

Locally, walk through the mix of townhouses and affordable dwellings in New Town, especially west of New Town Avenue to see creative higher density mingling of dwellings, private space and parking. There are other examples of density over 20/acre now under construction there. Residents there are able to walk to many services needed for living, with the notable exception of such basics as grocery, hardware, cleaners, etc.

Density can enable our community to continue to be diverse and inclusive. We have a long history here of using creative planning techniques to ensure that our community remains vibrant and welcoming - a tradition we can all embrace, of providing affordability along with growth – from Colonial Williamsburg’s housing for employees program in the 1940’s to the Harriet Tubman, Strawberry Plains and Braxton Court neighborhoods.
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Mr. Guernsey is a licensed architect with a keen interest in affordable housing over the last 30 years in the Williamsburg area. He has been a board member and house designer for Housing Partnerships, and planned numerous local cluster-style neighborhoods of higher density along with affordable house plans within them. Guernsey Tingle Architects published “Architects’ Affordable Homes” in the 1980’s. He helped conceptually with Nicholson Quarter, a neighborhood of mixed cost housing to surround a re-used Bruton Heights School building. He is currently is working to increase workforce housing with Virginia Organizing Project’s “Inclusive Housing Campaign.”

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