Age Friendly Neighborhoods

Issues Addressed:
Housing Costs Housing Options Multigenerational
A diagram of an idealized age-friendly neighborhood. The neighborhood includes a mix of housing types, including detached single-family homes of various sizes, mixed-use buildings, and a cottage court. The diagram includes the following labels pointing to aspects of the drawing: "Nearby retail, community center, and open space;" "Diverse housing options, including apartments and starter homes;" "Single-story housing layouts with shared amenities;" "Sidewalks and other accessible infrastructure;" and "Accessory dwelling units for multi-generational households."

What is it?

Age-friendly neighborhoods are places that address the needs of younger and older adults that may move away from their community due to a lack of housing that fits their needs. Typically, younger adults that hope to buy their first home and older adults that want to downsize are looking for similar housing essentials: smaller and easierto-maintain homes that are affordable. Older adults in particular may also want singlelevel living arrangements.

Communities who answer yes to the following questions may want this tool:

  • Are long time residents leaving your community because there are no options available for them to downsize or age in place?
  • Are young adults who grew up and want to stay in the community unable to find local, affordable starter homes?
  • Are existing residents finding their two-story homes burdensome and are looking for one-story homes?
  • Are the businesses, agencies, and educational institutions in your community unable to attract workers on every level due to the lack of housing in your community?

An age-friendly neighborhood has multiple attributes that attracts younger and older adults, including:

  • Accessible single-level living options such as first floor bed/bath, kitchen and living space.
  • Smaller and easier-to-maintain homes and yards.
  • Homes that are accessible for all abilities (incorporating universal design elements).
  • Shared infrastructure and amenities to reduce costs and increase social engagement.
  • Homes that offer quality-of-life essentials such as a nearby library, parks and recreation programs, and walking trails or sidewalks.

How can it help?

Age-friendly neighborhoods can

  • Enable residents to age-in-place.
  • Retain young people in their hometowns.
  • Prevent economic losses due to workers leaving their community in search of adequate housing.
  • Create housing that meets the needs of residents of all ages and abilities.
  • Provide incentives to build smaller, more affordable, low-maintenance homes.
  • Maintain or increase local tax revenue by maintaining demand for housing.

Getting Started

  1. Assess your community’s changing demographics through data analysis and public engagement. Identify whether your community’s lack of housing options is causing age cohorts to move away (especially young people and seniors).
  2. Assess existing subdivision regulations and residential zoning rules. Identify any rules that are preventing the development of housing that meets the community’s needs or provisions (such as cluster and open space housing districts) that could be easily adapted to create more age-friendly communities.
  3. Assess the infrastructure associated with age-friendly neighborhoods, such as sidewalks, open spaces, outdoor furniture like benches, playgrounds, snow plowing capacity (for streets and sidewalks), and more. Identify any areas in your community that are particularly well-served or underserved with these infrastructures.
  4. Create zoning rules for existing and/or new neighborhood developments that incentivize (through density bonuses) or require age-friendly housing. Some key components that might be required or incentivized include:
    1. First-floor main bedrooms and bathrooms
    2. Maximum building square footages and/or bedroom counts
    3. Accessible (no-step) thresholds
    4. Universal design requirements
    5. Shared amenities (community spaces, playgrounds)
    6. Sidewalks and other age-friendly infrastructures required.

Considerations

  • A specific element of age-friendly neighborhoods can be incorporated into any type of residential building, specifically requiring units (or a minimum percentage) be built to universal design standards. Universal design standards are typically standards that ensure accessibility to the home regardless of ability, including provisions for people in wheelchairs or using walkers, lowvision and blind people, and people with hearing difficulties. Universal design features include:
    • No step entry
    • Wide doorways and wide hallways
    • Walk-in showers with grab bars and/or benches
    • Thresholds flush with floors throughout
    • Kitchen layouts and appliances that accommodate wheelchair use
    • Easy access light switches and other components

Case Studies

Resources

Related Tools

A diagram showing the front facades of housing types and given labels: small single-family, townhomes (attached single-family), cottage court (grouped small single-family), duplex, stacked duplex, triplex, stacked triplex, four-plex, six-pack, courtyard apartments.
Missing Middle Housing Types
A drawing showing an aerial view of same plot of land three times. Above there is a version labeled "Undeveloped," with a wooded area and a lake and stream. At bottom-left there is a version labeled "Conventional Subdivision." It shows the land divided into a ten parcels of relatively even size spread out across the area. There is a large amount of road and driveway area and many of the trees have been removed. At bottom-right is a version labeled "Cluster Housing." It shows twelve relatively small homes on twelve small parcels, clustered in two groups at the bottom-left of the area. The trees have been preserved, and only a small amount of road/driveway area connects the homes to the main edge of the area. Green trails wind throughout the parcel and connect to both the houses and the public road away from the houses. The Cluster Housing diagram has additional labels: "Preserved Natural Features," "Less Infrastructure," "Bonus units," and "Public access."
Cluster Housing
A diagram of a parcel of land. On the top is a mix of one- to three-story buildings, many with an apparent mix of uses, sitting along the intersection of two roads. This is labeled "Mix of uses using traditional village design." Lines at the edges of this area point draw down, showing this area is at the center of a larger area shown in dark green and apparently undeveloped. It is labeled "80% of rural and conserved in VPA."
Village Plan Alternative (VPA)
A diagram showing an axonometric view of an area with several colorful 1.5 and two-story homes. An area is demarcated on the land and labeled "Designated Housing Opportunity Zone." Below the axonometric drawing is the label "Taxes in Housing Opportunity Zone" with a column chart with two bars. The column on the left is labeled "Before new development" and "Taxed value on property before development." That column is small and shown in green. A larger column on the right is labeled "After new development." The portion of the column equal to the "Before new development" column is also green. The portion above that is gray and hatched and labeled "Untaxed value on new development: savings for up to 10 years."
Housing Opportunity Zones
A diagram showing drawings connected by arrows. First, a plan view showing a large empty area next to dense urban fabric labeled "Large, complex site with single owner." Second, icons of buildings labeled "Mixed-use potential." Third, icons of a paint brush and magnifying glass labeled "Up-front planning and design." Fourth, icons of people talking labeled "public review and input." Fifth and finally, the initial empty plot of land in plan view, now with a mix of building types, a street network, and open spaces.
Planned Unit Developments (PUDs)
A diagram with two versions of the same plot of land, one over the other. On the top version, the land contains only one single-family home with many wings and a large garage and a long driveway. This version is labeled with a large 'X' and "Regulations cannot mandate unaffordable housing everywhere." The version below contains two modestly sized single-family homes at the front of the site, and a driveway leading back to a cottage court, containing six small single-family homes around a central green. This version is labeled with a large checkmark and "Workforce housing must be allowed in a majority of residential areas."
Workforce Housing Ordinance
A diagram of a single-family subdivision with twelve homes. Eight homes in red are labeled "Base Market-Rate Units." Two homes in yellow are labeled "Affordable Units." Two homes in blue are labeled "Bonus Market-Rate Units."
Inclusionary Zoning