Cookie-Cutter Infill

The City of Sacramento, California, attempts to speed up the infill development process with their model-house pilot program. The solution? Homogenation. The pilot program has a set of four pre-approved plans from which interested persons can choose.

The streamlined planning process is intended to make urban infill more attractive to developers who want to build and sell homes in the urban core and for the individual builder-owners trying to build themselves a starter home.

All four of the plans are for modestly sized homes (from 1,500 to 1,800 square feet) that retain the historic character of the neighborhoods where they would be built. Although small in comparison to most new homes, the infill models all come
with at least three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage.

And each of the plans adheres to the "new urbanism" design priniciples required by the City.

Read more in the  Sacramento News and Review. Anyone know where else a program like this has been instituted? Or perhaps variations on this theme?

Comments

[clew]

It doesn't seem any creepier to me than the Sears kit houses, and those are much loved now.

If it proves popular, surely architects will be able to submit more plans for pre-approval? And permit offices, in my experience, aren't okay at approving minor changes to an approved plan.

[clew]

should have been: "...permit offices are okay... " sheesh.