With an eye toward the city’s rental-housing crisis, the St. Paul City Council on Wednesday approved a proposal to allow multifamily apartment buildings along two miles of Marshall Avenue.

The change is a higher-density rezoning than many homeowners had advocated for.

Tonight the city council voted for zoning along Marshall that will preserve the opportunity create more housing that is affordable, transit connected, and sustainable. Here is my closing speech: https://t.co/TKLDWU0qJK — Mitra Jalali Nelson ⚡️ (@mitrajnelson) October 24, 2018

“Marshall Avenue is one of the most transit-connected corridors in our city,” said council member Mitra Nelson, who represents much of the stretch from the Mississippi River to Hamline Avenue. “We need to fight for more homes, more housing options everywhere, not just in our low-income neighborhoods.”

Owners of single-family homes and duplexes became alarmed over the past two years to discover that, in many cases, the zoning beneath their properties allowed for five-story apartment buildings. With housing demand growing, developers have courted property owners in hopes of building denser housing, including a proposed five-story apartment building at 1973-1977 Marshall Ave.

The resulting rezoning plan — which was hammered out by city staff over the course of a year — calls for “downzoning” much of the avenue. After months of community conversations, the rezoning proposal that recently came out of the St. Paul Planning Commission reduced the maximum construction allowable along much of Marshall Avenue to RT1 and RT2 — up to three stories, but effectively preserving the avenue for single-family homes, townhomes and duplexes, with the notable exception of added density at major intersections.

Two miles of new zoning along West Marshall Avenue, in a super-simplified nutshell pic.twitter.com/42dUQ3XezZ — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) October 18, 2018

But that plan ran into opposition from Nelson, who won a special election in mid-August on an affordable housing platform. Nelson recently submitted an amendment that converts much of the two-mile stretch to RM1 zoning — still a maximum of three stories, but with multiple apartments allowed per floor.

“Over half of our community is renting, with rents steadily on the rise … a burden that is falling disproportionately on communities of color,” Nelson told the council. Her comments were echoed by council member Dai Thao, who also represents part of Marshall Avenue.

On Wednesday, the council voted 6-1 in favor of the rezoning plan, with Nelson’s amendment included. Council member Jane Prince was opposed.

“I feel strongly that it is neither wise nor healthy to focus all of the housing density west of Snelling Avenue,” Prince said, “which is already the most sought-after by developers.”