Breaking the Code: Best Practices Guide for Wyoming Communities

State of WY | 2020

Cascadia Partners worked with nonprofit planning firm Community Builders to create a best practices guide and toolkit to help jurisdictions in Wyoming audit and update their residential zoning. The guide focused on middle housing in single-family neighborhoods, reviewing the strengths, challenges, and contextual considerations for each middle housing type.

Cascadia was the lead author of the best practice guidelines. We identified common flaws in zoning for middle housing across nine topics, ranging from density to review procedures and suggested best practice code standards to remove barriers to middle housing, produce more compatible infill, and deliver affordable units. Cascadia also produced a step-by-step guide for auditing residential zones and an intuitive, Excel-based tool for performing a quantitative and financial analysis of zoning standards.

The toolkit is being promoted by the Wyoming Department of Commerce and distributed to jurisdictions across the state. Cascadia staff led a two-part training series for the Wyoming Association of Planners that covered how to use the best practices guide and the code audit tools.