61 Small City Housing • Respondents amount of available housing but in the diversity of its stock – this is extremely frustrating. Infill development often comes from smaller developers, looking to construct semi-detached homes on small lots or redevelop a blighted building. Neighborhood landowners interested in building additional units on their property, or adjacent property, also face uphill battles. Janet spoke with a disheartened landowner in the single-family residential zoning area that was soon to have relaxed requirements. He owns two parcels and was planning to build on each – a duplex on one parcel, a triplex on the other. Because the lots are adjacent, and they will be rentals, all the units taken together trigger land development. Neither lot meets the minimum square footage requirement to begin with, and if existing setbacks are enforced, the units will not be large enough to make them worth developing. The landowner contends, this is the very housing that this neighborhood needs, the missing middle! This is housing for folks without intergenerational wealth, without the credit scores needed for a downpayment. This is for our blue-collar workers, the ones that keep the City running, for single-moms and recent college grads entering the workforce. In 2025, Pittsburgh passed legislation to reduce minimum lot size in all residential districts and eliminated minimum lot size per unit – another big city example, –Lauren Finn Improving housing prospects, not just in number, but also in diversity, requires a holistic approach from the City that demonstrates commitment and builds trust.
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