TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo homeowners can already add a backyard cottage or an in-law suite on a single-family lot, and builders no longer have to provide parking, under housing reforms already in effect while a much larger overhaul of the city’s zoning code takes shape. The changes sit inside the city’s PRO Housing initiative, a $6.25 million effort that combines a $4 million federal grant with local matching funds and runs through September 2030, according to a detailed Realtor.com report published Wednesday, November 4.
The initiative targets three things, the Plan Commission and the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development say in the Realtor.com report: a full rewrite of Toledo’s zoning code, a library of pre-approved infill home designs, and direct gap financing for new homes in specific neighborhoods. The City of Toledo confirmed the same three initiatives in its own announcement of the $4 million HUD award, made in partnership with the Lucas County Land Bank and the Plan Commissions.
The city says the work cannot wait. Toledo is short an estimated 12,705 affordable homes for its lowest-income residents, nearly half of all households rent, and the average Toledo home is 102 years old, with more than 30 percent built before 1940, according to the Realtor.com report. Much of that stock, the report notes, needs major repair or outright replacement.
“Housing affordability is a top priority for our city,” Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said in the City of Toledo’s announcement of the grant. “This $4 million grant is not just an investment in housing — it’s an investment in the people of Toledo.” Toledo was one of only 18 communities across 15 states to receive a share of the $100 million in competitive PRO Housing grants, the city said.
Several reforms are already on the books. As of September 2025, parking minimums are gone citywide, so developers and homeowners set their own counts, according to the Realtor.com report. Accessory dwelling units — backyard cottages or in-law suites — are now allowed on single-family lots, one per lot, with no parking required and the owner living on site. Lots that are smaller than standard can now accommodate any residential use the zoning district allows, not just a detached house.
More changes followed this year. In March 2026, the city made density bonuses available through standard site plan review rather than the slower Major Site Plan hearing process. Large rezonings have opened new ground as well: 163 Warehouse District parcels moved from industrial to downtown and mixed-use zoning in September 2024, 188 Vistula parcels were rezoned in March 2026, mostly to mixed commercial-residential, and 185 downtown acres are zoned for any use with no parking requirement.
Form Forward, a complete rewrite of Toledo’s zoning code led by Code Studio, is targeted for City Council adoption by February 2028, according to the Realtor.com report. If it passes as envisioned, more than half of Toledo would be rezoned to allow multifamily housing by right, meaning a duplex, triplex or small apartment building could be built without a lengthy variance process. “Missing middle” housing would become legal across a much wider swath of the city, lot size and setback requirements would shrink, and affordable projects would get a fast-track review.
In Englewood, the city’s UPLIFT program offers builders a minimum of $10,000 per new home to close the gap between construction cost and appraised value, the Realtor.com report says. Eligible projects must be new construction of at least 1,000 square feet, built for homeownership and completed before June 30, 2028. Buyers must earn no more than 120 percent of area median income, and each public dollar must be matched by a dollar of private funds. Future rounds are planned for the Old South End and Junction neighborhoods.
The third prong aims at speed. Starting in 2027, Toledo will offer a catalog of 10 or more pre-approved infill home designs, cleared in advance by Building Inspection and the Plan Commission, so a builder can pick a design, fit it to a lot and skip most of the standard plan review cycle, according to the Realtor.com report. The city has budgeted $600,000 for the process and expects three to six additional housing starts a year from it.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. The timeline is genuine and long: Toledo adopted its first comprehensive housing strategy, Toledo Together, in 2021 and the Forward Toledo land use plan in 2024, won the HUD grant in January 2025, and has funding through September 2030 — confirmed in the city’s grant application and announcement. Confirmed today: the money, the reforms already in effect, and the three-part plan. Still open: Round 1 UPLIFT awards in Englewood are pending, according to the Realtor.com report; the Form Forward diagnostic is not due until January 2027; and whether multifamily-by-right survives two public draft rounds and a council vote is a question only that process can answer.
What happens next runs on that schedule. Community engagement on the zoning rewrite is underway this fall, ahead of the January 2027 diagnostic and public draft rounds in spring and summer 2027, with a council adoption vote targeted for February 2028. Englewood builders await the first UPLIFT awards, and the pre-approved design catalog opens in 2027. For Toledo homeowners, part of the future is already usable: the backyard accessory dwelling unit, with no required parking, is legal today.
Photo: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA