Opening the Playbook: ADU/Middle Housing Reform Strategies in the U.S. and Canada

11:00 am - Welcome - Jonathan Fearn, Casita Coalition

Jonathan Fearn

Jonathan Fearn is a Casita board member and Head of Development of Oak Impact Group, a real estate firm specializing in the acquisition, development and management of commercial and residential properties. Prior to Oak, Jonathan spent over 15 years in institutional scale residential development, serving most recently as Managing Director of Greystar overseeing all development activities in Northern California, and as Vice President of Development at SummerHill Housing Group where he was responsible for entitlements for multifamily, single-family and mixed-use projects.  Jonathan spent his early career working for Em Johnson Interest, a development firm that specialized in affordable housing and economic development projects within low-income communities.  

11:03 am - Opening Remarks - Amy Anderson, Wells Fargo

Amy Anderson is Senior Vice President and Social Impact Lead at Wells Fargo. A seasoned leader in housing policy, programs, and affordable multi-family real estate development with diverse experience in government, philanthropy, advocacy, and non-profit sectors. Deep commitment to increasing opportunity for under-served populations by expanding quality, affordable housing options.

11:09 am - Introduction - Karen Chapple, University of Toronto

Karen Chapple, Ph.D., is Director of the School of Cities and Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. She is a Professor Emerita of the Department of City & Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Chapple studies inequalities in the planning, development, and governance of regions in the U.S. and Latin America, with a focus on economic development and housing.

11:12 am - Portland, Oregon - Kol Peterson, Build Small Coalition

Kol Peterson is a Casita Coalition board member and ADU expert based in Portland, Oregon, who has helped catalyze the exponential growth of ADUs in Portland over the last decade. He is the author of Backdoor Revolution–the Definitive Guide to ADU Development. He edits and manages AccessoryDwellings.org and BuildinganADU.com. He is a technical consultant for AARP on ADU market adoption in jurisdictions and states. He served on the technical and rules advisory committees for Oregon’s House Bill 2001 to overhaul municipal residential zoning standards to allow for middle housing throughout Oregon. He has a masters degree in environmental planning from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

11:22 am - British Columbia, Canada - Jake Fry, Small Homes BC

Jake Fry is co-founder of Small Housing British Columbia and a longtime small housing advocate focused on finding new ways to broaden the range of housing types to create more affordable, sustainable options.

11:32 am - California - Denise Pinkston, Casita Coalition

Denise Pinkston of TMG Partners is President of the Board of Directors of Casita Coalition, with decades of experience in city planning, housing policy, public affairs and commercial real estate. Ms. Pinkston has been an instructor in real estate and planning at both San Francisco State University and Mills College and has served on the boards of several Bay Area housing and transportation organizations. She’s currently on AARP’s Housing Strike Force and Executive Council and is a frequent technical advisor to legislators on ADU and middle housing policy.

11:42 am - Washington State - Anna Fahey, Sightline Institute

Anna Fahey is Senior Director of Sightline Institute’s Communications and Campaigns program, where she works to synthesize best practices from linguistics, political science, psychology, and original Sightline focus groups and opinion research to offer guidance on communicating about housing, climate and other complex topics. She holds a BA from Smith College and an MA from the University of Washington.

11:52 am - Montana - Tanner Avery, Frontier Institute

Tanner Avery is the Communications and Outreach Director for the Frontier Institute. Learning from his entrepreneurial parents, he started a small business from an early age. Tanner earned a degree in Political Science from Montana State University.

12:02 pm - Q&A

Please use the Q&A feature and keep your questions general. For the Q & A Panel, presenters will be joined by additional panelist Sylvia Rzepniewski from Texans for Reasonable Solutions and Marcel Negret from Regional Plan Association with an update from New York and Connecticut.

12:30 pm - Adjourn–thank you!

Slides and recording will be available within one week after the event.