Authored by Jake Parcell, PhD, City Planner & City Development Manager, City of Sterling Heights, Mich.
A vibrant community located in the metro Detroit region of Michigan, Sterling Heights, Mich. is largely built out with more than 42 percent of the land, or 15 square miles, covered by paved areas (like parking lots), surfaces and buildings. The city also has a robust stock of single-family housing, with three-quarters of the 52,791 housing units owner-occupied. Despite being the fourth-largest city in the state, Sterling Heights is predicted to continue growing by roughly 8 percent in the next 25 years. The City was also recently named the “Best City in Michigan for First-Time Home Buyers” due to the amazing parks system, strong schools and incredible commitment to public safety.
Key Takeaways
- When looking at housing reform, especially when a city is very large geographically and mostly built out, it is important to utilize every tool that you have available as a planner or local official to diversify your options to bring forward the best product for your community. This includes zoning reform, the creation of overlay districts to allow for flexibility and administrative approvals so long as they are justifiable and well-researched in your community.
- Multi-family housing, accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and other land uses are very useful for people who want to move into an established community, but also for those who want to stay where they currently live. These alternative unit types can help people “age in community” and find living options suitable for the needs of all ages.
- Data is key. The City of Sterling Heights has invested in a housing study through its Master Land Use Plan, a parking study and a comprehensive analysis of key nodes and corridors. This way, local leaders can best understand what the community wants and needs to generate housing options for all.
The Need for Housing Reform
When you combine the above factors, it becomes apparent that the community is moving towards the need for housing reform. The community is strong enough economically and from a quality-of-life perspective to be highly attractive to potential residents, but also shows signs of an aging population, suggesting people also want to “age-in-place.” In an effort to accommodate the growing need for housing types and housing diversity, Sterling Heights’ City Council, administration and Office of Planning sought to tackle these challenges by completing a full housing study to help provide the data necessary for solving these problems as part of the City’s recently adopted 2025 Master Land Use Plan.
Equipped with the data and analysis of existing land use conditions, the City began looking for ways to create new zoning tools to allow missing-middle housing in key redevelopment areas. The existing conditions where many of these overlays are placed can be characterized as commercial developments with large seas of parking, under-utilized paved areas and large setbacks. In an effort to carefully balance protecting established neighborhoods and revitalizing key nodes and corridors, infill development in under-utilized spaces throughout the City was created in the form of highly specialized zoning overlay districts. In early 2025, concurrently with the adoption of the Master Land Use Plan, the City Council approved the adoption of the following zoning tools for housing reform:
- The North Van Dyke Avenue Corridor District
- A new zoning district that aligns an area of the City that is separated from major commercial districts by a large roundabout.
- The Van Dyke Mixed-Use District Zoning Overlay
- A zoning overlay district that runs for four miles along a major commercial corridor in the City.
- The Neighborhood and District Node Overlay District
- A zoning overlay that covers major intersections throughout the City, characterized by strip plazas as a major land use and higher traffic counts on the adjacent roadways.
The adoption of these overlays marked the first time Sterling Heights implemented new zoning tools to allow for the development of missing-middle housing types that can be developed in a streamlined process that avoided typical special development processes like Planned Unit Development. Each overlay allows for mixed-use development as a by-right use, and since the City is built out (as mentioned earlier with over 15 square miles of paved surfaces and buildings) housing development is beginning to be directed towards the outlots of existing large-box commercial retail. These under-utilized parking spaces represent a premier opportunity to reduce paving and revitalize commercial spaces by infusing new green spaces and mixed-use structures, while also connecting existing residences to new opportunities along these nodes and corridors.
With the focus of the community’s housing stock still primarily being single-family housing, the overlay districts also allow the Planning Commission to review traditional multi-family housing with ground-floor residential as a transitional land use between single-family zoning districts and the overlays. With additional screening methods and traffic impact studies required, there are safeguards in place for these projects to be reviewed in a way that ensures that they fit in neatly with the existing conditions, while providing opportunity for more housing.
Only 17 percent of the City’s housing stock is currently composed of these types of multi-family options (with five or greater housing units in one structure). So while the focus is on green space creation, walkability and mixed-use infill, it is vital to retain the option for developing housing units that support the workforce and new career professionals, as well as multi-family options (with five or greater housing units in one structure).
What’s Next for Sterling Heights?
Sterling Heights is committed to finding ways to help maintain existing neighborhoods while helping people “age-in-community,” as well as create opportunities for people who want to move to the area.
These zoning tools are only the start of reviewing how to implement housing reform in Sterling Heights. The local Southeast Michigan Council of Governments estimates that the community will need an additional 1,400 to 2,100 housing units over the next 8-10 years to meet the anticipated growth demands. This goal can only be met with a unique blend of housing solutions, simply because there are not enough locations in the City to build this many traditional single-family homes on standards lots left in Sterling Heights.
However, meeting this goal does not mean that the suburban landscape of the City will be changed. If this goal were achieved strictly through the development of multi-family units, there would only be a decrease of less than 3 percent in the share of owner-occupied residences in the City, down to roughly 73.3 percent from the 76.3 percent that exists today.
Over the next year, the City is undergoing a comprehensive zoning ordinance rewrite where housing is expected to be at the front and center of the review. This includes seeing how accessory-dwelling units fit into existing lots for people to “age in place” and introducing a new “compact residential” zoning district around the overlays where uses like duplexes or pattern-book homes can be developed under the right conditions (only 3.7 percent of housing structures are currently 3-4 units).
But for a city working to be as creative as possible when meeting housing demands in the face of limited space? The strongest option remains to focus on under-utilized spaces, and explore how to bring them up to their highest and best use while still being respectful of single-family neighborhoods.
