What’s Happening in Local Land Use | Q4 2025

Real estate is—and will always be—a local business. The direction of our built environment is not driven by big decisions in Washington but by thousands of little decisions made every month by city councils and planning boards.

So we’ve partnered with ReZone on a quarterly feature capturing the most notable, impactful, and unique local land use decisions made over the past 90 days. The decisions offer a lens into where urban America is heading—and, just as importantly, where it’s not.

Today's letter will feature Madison, WI allowing Duplexes and Backyard lots in SFR districts, Nashville, TN allowing Single-Stairway Exits for Six-Story Buildings, Oakland, CA streamlining their Design Review, and some of the biggest projects we could find. 

Let’s dive in.

Madison allows Duplexes and Backyard Lots in SFR districts

Effective as of July 26th, 2025, Madison, WI has passed the “Housing Forward” package, a set of ordinances that fundamentally alters residential zoning. The new rules permit two-unit homes in all single-family neighborhoods, make it significantly easier to divide lots to create new “backyard lots”, and streamline its rules for ADUs. 

The changes represent the city’s most significant step to promote missing middle housing. The initiative “Housing Forward”, sponsored by Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and numerous alders, aims to provide 15,000 new homes by 2030. More ordinances and initiatives are expected. 

While the financial feasibility of infill duplexes is yet to be proven, the backyard lot creates an immediate way to create more density by splitting large lots into two. By easing requirements on setbacks, access strip widths, and lot depth, the planning commission estimates the number of eligible backyard lots to rise from 3,803 to 6,291 - a 65% increase. 

While this decision isn’t quite as impressive as Cambridge, MA’s elimination of SFR altogether covered in our Q2 letter, it certainly marks a big step for increasing housing supply. Based on resident commentary, there’s hope that this ordinance will act as a “gateway reform”, leading to even more pro-housing decisions down the line. 

Learn More

Nashville allows Single-exit Stairways for up to six-story Buildings

Nashville just became one of the first major U.S. cities to legalize single-exit stairways in buildings up to six stories. This was made possible through the formal adoption of the 2024 suite of International Codes (Building, Residential, Plumbing, etc.).