Multi-family structures can fit gracefully into existing city neighborhoods and play well with their single-family neighbors. Credit: Photo by Linda Saul-Sena

Tampa Bay, like much of the rest of the U.S., has an affordability crisis going on. Housing is a huge part of that, but the rise of model suburban zoning codes in the 1970s virtually outlawed “Missing Middle” housing and replaced it with rules that promote sprawl and car-oriented suburban subdivisions.

Locals in the Florida Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU Tampa Bay) have a few ideas about that. Enter the constantly-debated concept of multi-family structures which fit gracefully into existing city neighborhoods.

As Creative Loafing Tampa Bay contributor and former Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena previously reported, “these types of housing can take the form of tiny homes, duplexes, triplexes, and even mini apartment buildings and clusters of small buildings arranged thoughtfully into cottage courts. Many of them still exist, but in limited places.”

On Friday, a self-guided walking tour in South Tampa, complete with local experts to talk to you about the concept, hopes to show some to you. Anyone who can’t join in person can ask for an email of the walking map, too. Happy hour at Irish 31, complete with appetizers, will follow.

There’s no cover for the Hyde Park Missing Middle Walking Tour & Happy Hour, which kicks off at 3:30 p.m. at Buddy Brew in Tampa’s Hyde Park Village on Friday, Dec. 13. Readers are invited to submit their own events to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s things to do calendar.

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