Hanson, Aaron2017-09-142017-09-142017https://hdl.handle.net/11299/190213Many cities across the country are experiencing an affordable housing shortage. The city of St Paul is no exception. That means for non-profit affordable housing developers like NeighborWorks, the challenges to building affordable home-ownership options are greater than ever. The city of St Paul has a diverse assortment of lot sizes and shapes, but many of them are very small or are too skinny to build a new house on due to setback limits in the city’s zoning rules. This means either restricting homes’ design shape and size, or obtaining a zoning variance. Smaller homes make it more difficult to bring construction costs down, and the variance process can be difficult to navigate. This research project set out to identify alternative designs and materials as potential options for building new homes on St Paul’s infill lots and to assess them for feasibility. The alternatives chosen during the initial phase to research further were based on technical and financial plausibility, and then assessed for political feasibility. This research then looked at the policy challenges and makes some policy recommendations. The conclusion of this project acknowledges that there are several alternative options to consider, some of which are already being implemented by other developers. This project serves to scratch the surface of these alternatives for the purpose of encouraging further discovery.enReport