The entire process of developing affordable rental housing could be streamlined to keep costs down, said panelists at the Urban Land Institute’s Fall Meeting in Chicago.

National and regional housing policy leaders gathered recently in the nation’s quintessential “edge city,” Tysons Corner, Virginia, to discuss why it’s so important to include workforce housing in a planned transformation of a sprawling suburban office park to a walkable, green urban center. Read what ULI members and other experts say about the need for, and ability to, include workforce housing in this particular project and nationally.

U.S. architects are experimenting with designing net-zero-energy buildings—those that produce as much energy as they consume. Developers around the world are building modular housing to speed construction, reduce on-site labor expenses, and lower development costs. Now, an off-site systems building manufacturer has developed the first modular net-zero-energy townhouses as a demonstration project in Oakland, California.