At the end of 2022, after the community of practice ended, two group members elected to research the potential further. In early 2023, the Parkview Legacy Foundation and Blended Impact leadership presented to the Western Riverside Council of Governments meeting consisting of City Managers across the region. The presentation was informational on the community driven process with a call to action to seek pilot funding with SCAG REAP 2.0 funding that was available at the time with a closing deadline.

The City of Riverside leadership opted to seek the grant funds to pilot the program as part of their pro-housing designation. In January 2024, the City of Riverside received notice of award for $500,000 in funding from the Southern California Association of Governments and the California Department of Housing and Community Development as part of the 2022 Regional Early Action Planning (REAP 2) Grant Housing Infill on Public and Private Lands (HIPP) Pilot Project to catalyze the initiative.

In January 2025, an RFP was released from the City of Riverside seeking a qualified entity or individual to provide professional design, technical, and robust community engagement services to facilitate the development of prototype construction plans for small-scale multi-family development (two to four-unit properties, small cluster development, and low-rise apartments) tailored to various sites throughout the City. RADAR, a full service architectural firm, was selected to lead the design and technical components.

As a component of their design process, RADAR was required by the RFP to conduct resident surveys on design preferences, along with establishing a Community Advisory Committee to intake recommendations from the nonprofit community, and a Technical Advisory Committee to intake recommendations from the development and financing community. Our leadership participated in the Technical Advisory Committee meetings during the Summer and Fall of 2025. All of these requirements were a part of the recommendations by the originating community group in 2022 to insure a community informed and engaged design and resulting development process.

In June 2026 the City of Riverside Planning Division presented on the initiative including plan sets, community engagement, and grant funds utilization. Our leadership attended the meeting and read supporting comments into the public record for the effort. City Council approved the plans 6-0 and the plans were considered launched at the city level.

Anticipating a positive outcome, in May 2026 the Parkview Legacy Foundation initiated two awards to support the city in the roll out of the plans. The first was to the University of California, Riverside Center for Community Solutions conduct an independent case study to compare missing middle programs nationally for efficacy, evaluate impact assumptions, and create a “tear sheet” of best practices for other cities to implement. The next was to Blended Impact Labs to support city-university research conversations, market the initiative across virtual and in-person events in addition to articles and other media, and launch a fundraising campaign for demonstration projects.

We currently have a $15,000,000 capital campaign fundraiser open for contributions of grants, guarantees, and Program Related Investments. We intend to utilize the city’s standardize plans to develop duplex units on infill lots. Combined with recent California legislation, we can achieve multiple units per lot, creating gentle density on vacant land. We will be offering these units for sale to create additional homeownership opportunities in the community. We believe by developing at scale, we can create a replicable process and achieve efficiencies that benefits local residents.

Having completed a full scope process from ideation to launch and now development, we are uniquely positioned to assist other municipalities with implementation on their missing middle housing goals. See our process for more details.