Come on, Boise, if Spokane can be bold with solutions to housing crisis, we can, too

Spokane City Council members this week approved a temporary zoning change to open up the city to more multifamily, denser housing styles in all residential housing zones, according to The Spokesman-Review.

The interim zoning ordinance will allow duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes and townhomes in all residential zones citywide for one year.

“Spokane Washington voting 7-0 to legalize fourplexes in the majority of the city shows just how much YIMBYs — and the dramatic housing crisis, of course — has won the argument,” Daniel Walters, a reporter for Inlander, wrote in a tweet that had 2,346 likes and 157 retweets on Twitter. YIMBY stands for someone who says “yes in my backyard.”

While Spokane usually looks to Boise as a model, it pains us to say that Boise, for once, should look to Spokane as a role model.

Patrick Spoutz, a Boise resident observer of the local housing scene, retweeted the news of Spokane’s ordinance, commenting, “(in Spokane, not Boise. Probably not ever)” and “Congrats to Spokane tho! This is a great chance for people to live in a great city, in all neighborhoods.”

Spokane, much like Boise and other cities across the country, is facing a housing shortage.

Boise city officials have long talked about addressing the shortage here, which has led to skyrocketing housing prices and rents.

But according to BoiseDev.com reporter Margaret Carmel, it looks like Boise city officials are backing down from Spokane-like changes to zoning codes in the face of withering criticism from NIMBYs (not in my backyard), and Boise has a ton of NIMBYs.

After two rounds of public input, Boise’s new planning director, Tim Keane, presented a new zoning code proposal that backs off the idea of upzoning citywide and instead allows denser zoning only along certain corridors, or when developers agree to build with sustainable materials and reserve some units for low-income residents, according to BoiseDev.

By limiting the locations and putting restrictive affordable housing requirements on such developments, such zoning likely won’t have much, if any, impact on building higher-density housing.

You simply don’t get at the housing shortage problem by giving in to the demands for lower density and the status quo.

We are reminded of another controversy about three years ago over easing requirements for so-called “accessory dwelling units.” One rules were eased, construction of so-called mother-in-law units in backyards and converted garages boomed. Here we are three years later, and the city hasn’t been destroyed, as some predicted.

That move was considered bold and progressive at the time. It seems mundane today.

It’s surprising that Spokane would take the bolder move in addressing its housing crisis than Boise city officials.

It’s also disappointing.