Our Take: The many myths surrounding the UDO
By Kristin Slater and Al Ver Schure
Bread for the World
It only sounds like one of the dwarves from The Lord of the Rings, or the mysterious father of King Arthur, but Holland’s city planners proposed UDO, or Unified Development Ordinance, has something in common with both literary works. They are all shrouded by mythology. Some myths surrounding UDO:
Myth 1: Holland is planning massive rezoning changes.
“The UDO is designed to right-size the existing zoning ordinance, said Housing Next Executive Director Ryan Kilpatrick. Much of what makes Holland such a beautiful community to live in is the diversity of building types and the way those buildings relate to public and private spaces around them. However, not all current zoning districts allow for the existing character and fabric of the neighborhoods to continue in their current form. Some district standards create non-conforming properties or limit future development in a wa
Zoning could help us love our neighbors
By Frank Boersema, Mary De Ridder, Mary Johnson, Nancy Miller, Pam Nordhof, Beverley Rannow, Kris Van Engen, June Veldheer, Al Ver Schure, Kristin Slater, Lou and Mary Ann Wagenveld, and Ron Wolthuis
Holland Bread for the World
As members of Holland Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger advocacy team, we are watching with concern as Holland grapples with its inadequate stock of affordable housing. While one can easily see that households with high housing costs have less money for food, the case of homelessness leads to less obvious connections to hunger.
Many homeless people rent a place to sleep in someone else’s home. For simplicity, we will use the term “couch surfer” to refer to a person or family making do with such an arrangement. Couch surfers do not necessarily have access to a kitchen. If they do, they do not necessarily have access to cupboard space or a refrigerator. If they do have access to such storage space an