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However, Saint Paul has seen more new single-family housing starts over the last two years than it had in the previous five years combined. There are multiple suburban and exurban communities that have adopted similar code amendments, generally allowing up to three units by right on lots that are at least 5,000 square feet. The consultant team has addressed this in their work to update the city's zoning code, in part by allowing more unit types by right and with adopted standards, in each district. Another tactic is to adopt more modern building codes than have been adopted by the state. For example, the most recent update to the International Building Code (IBC) was completed by the International Code Council (ICC) in 2024 and has different standards for fire suppression, stairwells, and elevators all of which are additional costs to developers than the version of the IBC adopted in MN, which is based on the 2020 IBC. One of the most common zoning code reforms aligned with increasing housing affordability is to eliminate minimum parking requirements. This does not mean eliminating parking for new development or redevelopment, rather it means allowing the developer's knowledge of the market to determine how many parking spaces will be provided. It is often paired with adopting a parking maximum. The effect of disconnecting the parking spaces from the housing unit, or the parking spaces from the business means that a more market -driven approach can be taken as generally speaking, government officials do not know as much about the needs of a business or a target market than the developer, property owner or business owner. Unbundling parking can also help support small and emerging businesses and increase reuse of existing, underutilized buildings. Standards for minimizing congestion in the public right-of-way are typically adopted as well. The zoning code update includes revisions to the amount of required parking. The City of Chaska recently completed an overhaul of its 1970s era zoning code. One of the innovative policy initiatives proposed by the Council and Planning Commission was to clarify that PUDs would be used in order to allow flexibility for an underlying base district and the city's general development standards and use the PUD to evaluate and accommodate a desired public benefit, such as affordable housing. The cities of Little Canada, Shoreview, White Bear Lake, and Hugo have both undertaken similar zoning code revisions. The Arden Hills revisions are underway. InclusionM housing or zoning policies Several cities in the region have inclusionary housing policies. Generally, those policies apply to developments requesting financial assistance or certain permissions from a Planning Commission or City Council. Edina and St. Louis Park have perhaps the longest -tenured inclusionary housing policies, adopting the first versions in 2015. St. Louis Park implemented a similar approach. Since then, the city has seen 3,050 units of new housing and of those 698 are affordable to people at or below 60% of the Area Median Income. More recently St. Louis Park also updated its zoning code to allow for more clarity in — and a reduced number of — residential zoning districts, along with more flexibility for housing types. In 2019 the Minneapolis Federal Reserve found that there were five cities that had adopted inclusionary zoning policies and since then several other cities have adopted similar policies. All of the adopted policies are mandatory when public financing is requested from the municipality. Page 5 of 9