Flexible zoning in NKY builds more varied housing

This story is part of our latest super issue, which examines solutions to Northern Kentucky’s housing shortage. Click here to learn more.

Nolan Nicaise has been a renter for almost two decades since he moved out of his parents’ house at 18. 

Now, at 36, he has lived in many major cities across the country, including Denver, Chicago and Boston. As an urban planner by trade, Nicaise understands city zoning codes. 

In 2020, Nicaise moved back to Covington after living in Chicago. He moved into the Woodford apartment building at 303 Greenup St. because he could cross either the Roebling or Fourth Street bridges on foot to get to Cincinnati or Newport, respectively. The building was also on TANK’s Southbank Shuttle route, which offers public transportation. 

Nicaise, a former Covington commissioner, is a proponent of housing density and increasing density in strategic locations where it’s already walkable. He also supports housing developments like triplexes and quadplexes as a possible solution to the region’s housing crisis.  

“We’re seeing a trend in America where we have more and more single-person households, whether those people are elderly, whether those people are young in their 20s and 30s,” Nicaise said. “Most of our housing stock in America is three bedrooms or more.”

According to a 2019 AARP study called “Making Room: Housing for a Changing America,” nuclear families account for 20% of today’s households. The largest demographic, at 28%, is single adults who live alone. According to the study, the idea that a standard American household consists of a mother, father and two children is “inaccurate and outdated.”

“Historically, the smallest units have received short shrift, but today’s largest household category consists of singles living alone,” the AARP study states. “That’s a significant mismatch. The bottom line: Our current housing stock isn’t nearly as diverse as we are.”

A 2023 housing study by the Northern Kentucky Area Development District showed the same thing to be true in the region. It showed that demand for one- to two-bedroom rentals and owned properties consistently exceeds supply, while supply for three- and four-bedroom properties consistently exceeds demand. The study suggests that the region needs to build 6,650 housing units to support economic development in the next five years, which equates to 1,330 units per year. 

Even after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted rental costs, people like Nicaise are choosing to rent in a walkable neighborhood where they can support local businesses or take public transportation and not have to rely on car ownership. 

Rent doubles after rehab

At the time, Nicaise said the rent was $1,070 for a two-bedroom unit that he shared with his roommate. He said that, because of the welcoming nature and long-term tenants, he could see himself living in the building for at least a decade.

“There were maybe 25 units in the building, and some people had been there for over a dozen years, and it felt like there was kind of like an established culture and people looking out for each other,” Nicaise said. “Almost like there were two matriarchs of the building that had been there a long time, and they established the standards for the building. So, it felt really comfortable.”

Nicaise said that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as housing ownership turnover increased due to low interest rates, landlords were also selling their apartment complexes. 

“If [landlords] bought it for a 10th of the current value, they don’t have to charge as much,” Nicaise said. “Then, when there’s turnover and, say a building was purchased in the ’80s for $80,000 and now it was purchased for $400,000, those new owners have a mortgage on it, so they have to charge more. They have to double the rents.”

Tenants in the Woodford, including Nicaise and his roommate, were told they were not allowed to renew their leases. The building had been bought, and the new owners wanted to rehab it. Construction on the Woodford at Roebling Point began in May 2023, and it reopened for leasing in July. Monthly rent for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit had jumped to $2,600. 

Nicaise theorizes that density can help lower rent costs, creating a possible housing solution for people who might not fit the nuclear family model or want a three-plus bedroom home. 

He acknowledged that, as someone who holds a master’s degree and has a steady income, he can afford rent prices that some people may not be able to or move apartments more easily. Still in Covington, Nicaise and his roommate are renting a condo in the Governors Point Condominiums on Second Street. 

“It’s just been a really wonderful experience, a really strong community,” he said. “People say hi, we know most of the people, they see us walking in and out, they’re conversational. They organize monthly get-togethers for a holiday, or there’s even somebody who started a book club within the building.”

New focus on function

What helps pave the way for more innovative housing options that align with the housing study, such as density, multifamily rentals or even accessory dwelling units? 

First, it must align with a city’s zoning code – the set of laws and regulations that dictate how land within a city or community can be used. It traditionally separates areas into specific categories, such as residential, commercial or industrial use.

Zoning regulations have historically favored single-family homes. Covington overhauled its zoning code in 2020 after little change since the late 1970s and early 1980s. The new approach focuses more on the overall look, feel and function of neighborhoods rather than strictly regulating land use.

Covington took a strict, rigid code and moved to what they deem the “neighborhood development code.” According to Kaitlin Bryan, the city’s regulatory services manager and historic preservation specialist, the new code uses a hybrid approach. That means the city combined “Euclidean” zoning, which divides a community into zones with rules for land use, with a form-based code.

In a 2018 news release, Covington Economic Development Director Tom West called the older zoning code unworkable. “It’s not up to date with current property uses, it’s not getting us the development and investment we want, there’s too much red tape and too many hoops to jump through, and it doesn’t foster innovation,” he said.

The new code no longer evaluates proposed development exclusively by how it adheres to a rigid set of rules listing legal uses for a particular property. Instead, the uses have been broadened, and the new code focuses on how development fits within the character (and historical look) of its surroundings.

According to Andy Videkovich, manager of the planning department at Planning and Development Services of Kenton County, the decision on how things were set up was made decades ago, probably in the 1960s or ’70s.

“Planning and zoning is not really a one-size-fits-all solution,” he said. “It’s very dependent on what each jurisdiction feels is the best way to approach this.”

Since 2016, Kenton County Planning Development Services has been working with all the cities in the county to update their zoning ordinances. Aside from Covington, nine other cities in Kenton County have recently updated their zoning ordinances: Bromley, Elsmere, Erlanger, Fort Mitchell, Fort Wright, Taylor Mill, Independence, Lakeside Park and Villa Hills.

The county’s planning staff is currently working with or will be working with the remaining Kenton County cities.

“Before even the housing study was done, we were having discussions with the cities about loosening up things for two-families, accessory dwelling units, things like that,” Videkovich said.

Most of the city ordinances that are being updated were implemented back in the late 1970s or early 1980s.

Zoning reform in action

All the housing types recommended in the housing study are allowed in Covington’s residential zones. 

Multifamily housing, defined as comprising at least five units, is allowed in the urban core, the city’s biggest zone. Those units must be a minimum of 400 square feet. Multifamily housing is not allowed in rural or suburban zones. 

Nicaise said he introduced legislation during his time with the city to eliminate minimum dwelling unit sizes for triplexes and quadplexes, which he believed would encourage their proliferation. 

“In a city that’s older, in a historical city like Covington, we have a lot of opportunities for infill development on really small lots,” he said. “The lots in Covington, a lot of them are like a 20th of an acre. Because of that, I think these triplexes or quadplexes are a great solution for those infill lots or just rehabbing an existing structure.”

Each unit in a triplex or quadplex is a minimum requirement of 700 square feet under Covington’s code. This is something Nicaise is critical of. He said that, prior to Covington’s code update, his parents had turned an abandoned property into a triplex with 550-square-foot units, something they couldn’t have done under today’s code. 

“It’s just hard when you can’t build as many units because they would have only been able to build two units, which means that each of those two units would have been larger, but also more expensive,” he said.

In the city’s walkable areas, Nicaise said the more households there are in proximity to businesses, the more business support they generate. 

An example of a current project in Covington that aligns with the housing study and fits Nicaise’s idea of renovating an existing structure for housing is the conversion of an old warehouse in the city’s Westside neighborhood. The building, at 1564 Banklick St. near the intersection of West 16th and Russell streets, will become 39 apartments. 

“It aligned with the housing study that said we need X amount of these types of units under this price,” Bryan said. “So, it met the price, and it’s adding to the density. Then, just from a historic perspective, it’s another great adaptive reuse project in our community.”

The housing study suggested a deficit in smaller rental properties at all income levels. Orleans Development, the warehouse project’s developer, estimates that the rent range of apartments will be between $1,150 and $1,495 a month, depending on their size. 

Rental households must spend 30% or more of their income on rent (not including utilities, insurance and other housing expenses) in order to be considered rent-burdened. A tenant living in the complex making $52,900 or less would be considered rent-burdened if they’re paying the complex’s median rent of $1,322.50 a month.

According to the American Community Survey, about 45% of Covington renters are rent-burdened. The median household income in Covington was $53,770 as of 2022.

As for zoning, the 130-year-old building was originally part of an old foundry before later becoming a warehouse; prior to the zone change approval, the address was zoned for industrial use and could not have been converted into housing.

Pragmatic solutions

The housing study reported that the region’s largest need is for “workforce housing,” that is, for households earning between $15 and $25 per hour and with monthly housing costs between $500 and $1,500. According to the study, the region needs about 3,000 more such units to accommodate people in that income range.

Real estate developer Al. Neyer partnered with Urban Sites on the redevelopment of the former Kenton County Administration Building and jail at 103 E. Third St. in Covington into a 133-unit luxury apartment building and 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. “They created housing out of essentially a vacant building,” Nicaise said, “and I think that’s wonderful.” 

Another possible housing solution that is more available now due to loosened zoning constraints across Covington, areas of Kenton County and Campbell County are accessory dwelling units. Accessory dwelling units are becoming more popular across the country as families seek a separate space for their adult children, aging relatives, etc.

Covington allows both integrated (an addition to the back of a home) and detached (separate from the main structure) units. While the units must be smaller than the main structure, they are still allowed to be up to 1,000 square feet.

“That’s a very pragmatic example of how this new zoning code was modernized to maybe allow some of these housing options,” said Dan Hassert, former Covington communication manager.

In addition to Covington, the county planning department’s Videkovich said, Bromley, Erlanger, Fort Mitchell, Independence, Lakeside Park, Taylor Mill and Villa Hills have updated their codes to allow accessory dwelling units. 

In September 2023, the Campbell County Planning and Zoning Commission approved zoning amendments to allow accessory dwelling units in its residential-rural estate and agricultural 1 zones, which are the county’s largest lot-sized zones. In February, Southgate approved ADUs. 

A developer’s perspective

For developers, creating the types of housing the study calls for in Northern Kentucky is more challenged by cost than zoning.

Matt Mains, development manager for Drees Homes, said the term “low-income housing” has changed to “income-aligned housing” because it’s “impossible to replace low-income housing now for the cost that it’s going.”

Mains said that to build housing at a lower cost, programs or incentives must be available to developers. He also said interested parties, including the city, county or state, must buy in to the idea to build that infrastructure.

“I’ve kind of always said that the tough thing about Northern Kentucky is we don’t have really big developers like, say, in Texas that brings in and builds giant chunks of land, so everyone’s trying to do little pieces and parts on our own,” Mains said. “It’s hard to bring an apartment developer in, with a single-family developer, and with a commercial developer, because we don’t have that major developer that’s sort of bringing them all together.”

Mains said Covington’s former IRS site, now being transformed into a mixed-use development called the Covington Central Riverfront project, is a different story. This is one area in the region where that type of collaboration is coming to fruition. The city plans to transform the site into a mixed-use development with offices, housing, retail, a public plaza and parks.

“That’s because the city is sort of backing it and funding it, pulling that together, and we need to really see that partnership in other places in order to provide the infrastructure for this higher density, more income-aligned housing,” Mains said.

On March 26, 2024, Drees and Covington entered into an agreement to buy land and develop 16 townhomes on a 0.88-acre parcel. The prices of those townhomes are planned to start at $500,000.

While Drees attached housing starts at $300,000, Mains said the area needs middle-priced housing to free up the lower-income housing that is already available.

“Everyone always says, with Drees, you’re not going to build low-income houses,” Mains said. “We’re not, but what we’re doing is we’re providing a $300,000 attached home that low-income housing [residents] can now move out of and move into that $300,000 home, and that’s the only way to free it up, because no one’s building a house that could be bought for $150,000-$200,000.”

In the housing study’s menu of strategies, under the planning and zoning section, it states, “Encourage mixed-use zoning that allows a variety of uses to encourage density and project-type variety, such as missing middle housing and commercial, through tools like form-based codes or PUDs [planned unit developments].”

From his perspective watching zoning-related changes, Mains said he feels the staff and the municipalities understand what’s needed, and they’re not necessarily against what Drees would like to do. A lot of that criticism comes from “nimbyism,” a term for people who say they don’t mind development, so long as it’s “not in my back yard.”

Mains said the public perception of lot size and density is that smaller lot sizes aren’t good. He said that in Lexington, in contrast, the city knows that, if it doesn’t get density on parcels that it has, then it’s going to eat into the horse property. So, if you go to them with a proposal that’s not dense enough, you will get turned down.

Northern Kentucky views density differently. “Whether it’s Kenton County, Campbell or Boone, the staff sort of understand that, but they only have so much control over the public perception, the public pushback, and then, ultimately, what the council and commissions are going to vote,” Mains said.

Zoning and history

The reason why zoning is the way it is in Northern Kentucky goes back farther than the 1970s and ’80s.

Eric Jackson, a professor of history at Northern Kentucky University, said that zoning in the early 1900s was used to direct not just racial groups but classes of people in Campbell, Kenton and Boone counties. He said it was used to drive migration patterns and how people could live in different parts of a city.

“Different entities view zoning differently,” Jackson said. “For example, some municipalities think that zoning is a way to extend their economic development business sectors and bring more businesses to their towns, where others believe that zoning is a way to increase housing, affordable housing. Other folks believe that zoning is a way to keep certain people out of particular parts of their communities.”

In Covington, which usually had a larger African American population than other Northern Kentucky cities, Jackson said zoning was concentrated, often closer to the river because people of color had family connections on both sides of the Ohio River.

“The zoning patterns had to do with developing commercial real estate that was close to the river, but also housing patterns. The farther you got away from the river, the zoning pattern started to change in a way that was based on not just race, but also class,” he said.

While that was happening in Covington, Jackson said Boone County was a whole other matter. Boone County had a relatively larger population of African Americans through the Civil War. After the war, a large portion of the African American population was consciously or unconsciously driven out of the county for several reasons.

He said those reasons included violence and zoning. A lot of the African Americans who left Boone County went to Covington and parts of Walton.

“After the Civil War, into Reconstruction, they were still driving people out of those communities based on zoning patterns or what kind of housing patterns they wanted to develop, and they wanted African Americans out of particular neighborhoods,” Jackson said. “It wasn’t commercial. It was more housing zoning patterns in Boone County.”

Jackson said Campbell County was different because it did not have a large population of African Americans. He said the zoning patterns were more rural zoning, farming districts, and then those zoning patterns started to change as the population slowly grew based on more people from Appalachia moving into Campbell County.

“Zoning is interesting because it dictates housing patterns and economic development, and it’s tied into the municipalities’ agendas in developing their cities and towns, and it depends on what the objective of a particular administration is trying to develop,” Jackson said. “For example, it could be they don’t want to have affordable housing or low-income housing in certain neighborhoods because it generates a certain type of population that people don’t want in our neighborhoods.”