Where’s IZ?
Finding Inclusionary Zoning Homes for Sale is Much Harder than Finding Waldo

So, one of the criticisms of Inclusionary Zoning is that “not one person is living in an IZ units yet.” Let’s explore . . .

The City of Madison Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Office has a list of developers who are currently “marketing” their IZ units.

So, I decided to pretend I was a potential homebuyer interested in surfing the net and finding out more about inclusionary zoning and here is what I found: (Warning to the reader: Clicking on the links below in hopes of finding an inclusionary zoning unit will be extremely frustrating.)

The Livingston marketed by Commonwealth Development. They include the application for affordable housing. I found an ad on madison.com that did not include information about inclusionary zoning units. When I attempted to click on this google link

I got this message:

[Warning to the reader: That's as good as it gets.]

The next option is Lakepoint Condos marketed by Steve Stroddie with Coldwell Bankers. The sole mention of inclusionary zoning is found on this page. Clicking on the link to the realtor takes you back to this page.

So, moving along to Heather Glen at Veridian Homes. I couldn’t find a mention of inclusionary zoning anywhere here. I didn’t see anything on their financial tools page or anywhere else on their website.

Next up – Hilldale Row. It is listed as Hilldale Condos on the CDBG website, but its called Hilldale Row. Tonight when I was searching I got this message

So I tried the Wisconsin Housing Parnership and actually searched for the words “inclusionary zoning”. The best I came up with was this.

A search for Joseph Freed and Hilldale just gets you a link to the website that doesn’t work. I also looked on the Joseph Freed and Associates website and clicked on the residential link and found my way back to the same Stark website that wasn’t working.

Being rather persisitant, I moved on. Next up Blackhawk Lofts and the Urban Solutions page about Blackhawk Lofts was under construction and none of the links worked.

So, pressing on . . . “Pine Hill Farms” for which I could find absolutely nothing. So I googled “Bill Holley” and “Holley Development”. I found this. But it didn’t seem very helpful.

Losing hope of finding anything at this point, I tried again. This time “Southern Ridge” which really didn’t get me anything. So I tried Design Shelters. Since I knew this was a Gorman & Company plat, I tried them. I found my way to a page that at least mentioned inclusinary zoning and Southern Ridge but it led me back to Design Shelters or Elmakias Construction.

So, my last hope was Tim McKenzie and Hawks Meadows but again – nothing.

Is it any wonder that no one is requesting to see the inclusionary zoning homes, how would the ever know that they exist? A less persistent person would have given up long ago. Perhaps spending several more hours on the internet might yield something, but shouldn't it be easier to find information than this?