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Housing Strategies We recommend that Edina implement a Housing Succession Plan. The objective of the Plan is to sustain Edina's charac- ter while enhancing housing options. For most people in Edina, market forces) work sufficiently to provide the housing they need and desire. However some segments of the population are not well served by the market. The Housing Succession Plan focuses on the areas where the market is functioning less well. Housing options in this con- text mean that Edina has lifecycle hous- ing opportunities for people of a broad range of incomes and ages who will contribute to making it a great place to live. The Housing Succession Plan proposes five primary strategies for making this happen. Note that these are strategies. They do not produce affordable hous- ing, or create stronger schools or at- tract young families in and of them- selves. But they do create a structure for allowing the market, partnerships and existing resources to work to maxi- mum advantage aj. opportunities arise as well as to provide a clear direction for the future. The strategies are: I. Adopt a mandatory Inclusion- ary zoning policy; 2. Update the Comprehensive Plan to convert appropriate ar- eas to mixed -use and to provide for greater density in appropri- ate areas; 3. Use the greater Southdale area as a demonstration of a cutting. edge livable, pedestrian -friendly urban redevelopment; 4. Create long-term opportunities to make a portion of Edina's ex- isting housing stock affordable to more people and families; and 5. Leverage existing housing pro- grams to create more opportu- nities for hard-working, moder- ate- and lower -income house- holds. The Task Force explored a variety of other strategies, included in Appendix H. Many of these could prove highly effective. But we believe that setting clear priorities creates greater focus and resolve and uses limited resources to maximum effect. So we offer here the strategies we believe will have the biggest paybacks for Edina. I. Adopt Mandatory inclusionary Zoning. Developers often use a gen- eral rule that the house value on a par- cel of land must be four times the price of the land in order for the economics of the development to work. As land prices Increase, it becomes ever more difficult to build lower priced housing. A number of cities throughout the country have responded to this market condition with "inclusionary zoning" policies. In general, inclusionary zoning requires residential and mixed -use developers to provide a percentage of total housing I Market forces refers cc the Instance where a willing buyer and a willing seller who have all of the facts deter- mine a price based on the principles of supply and demand. This means that if there is a lot of supply (for ex- ample, a lot of houses available in an area), where there Is low demand (few buyers are Interested in these houses), the price will be relatively low. Conversely, If there Is little supply (only a few houses available for pur- chase), and lots of demand (more buyers than available houses), then the price will rise. In the instance of Edina, buyers who wish to purchase a home may be "priced out of the market" because there are fewer homes than prospective buyers.