City Regs Killing Affordable Housing
Compliance with post-construction controls and urban street design guidelines also nixed 36 units from The Reserve housing development on Ballantyne Commons Parkway, and in the process ballooned the per-unit site cost from $9,099 to $15,960.
In another example, the Duncan Gardens development in Optimist Park, a required downzoning and the implementation of post-construction controls skyrocketed the per-unit site cost from $7,083 to a staggering $20,050, said Ray Farris of Tuscan Development. To put that in homeownership perspective, the price point for workforce housing jumped from $120,00 to upwards of $200,000.
“We’re concerned about regulation barriers to affordable housing and what that does to our city’s neighborhoods,” said Sherrill Hampton, director of the Center for Applied Leadership and Community Development at Johnson C. Smith University.
Councilmember Patrick Cannon, a Democrat, shared that concern.
“How much is too much?” he asked, regarding development regulations and their impact on housing prices. “And who are those costs being passed on to?”
Councilmember Edwin Peacock, a Republican, also wanted answers and said the post-construction controls and street design guidelines should be sent to the council’s Housing and Neighborhood Development Committee for review.
“They’ve shown us tangible results that were unintentional when we started this,” Peacock said of the housing examples presented Monday night and the impact regulations have had on development costs.
Other councilmembers balked at the idea of a review.
“I have no interest in sending any of these guidelines to committee,” said Michael Barnes, a Democrat, adding that he feared the end result would be a dismantling of regulations that took years to craft and provided long-term benefits to the city.
Barnes said that there was ample affordable housing in his district, where there are rows and rows of homes with price points in the low $100,000s.
“There’s a difference,” he said, “in talking about affordable housing and free housing.”
Cannon and Peacock both bristled at the notion that their desire to review development regulations was tantamount to wanting them dismantled.
“I want to get a better understanding on cost and flexibility,” Cannon said of the regulations and their enforcement, and how they impact efforts at providing affordable housing. “I want to be able to sleep tonight and know that we’ve done everything we can to help families on the lowest end of the financial spectrum make ends meet.”
Cannon’s slumber will have to wait.
At the urging of Barnes, the council elected to delay sending any of the ordinances or guidelines to committee for review, until hearing from city staff what efforts are being made to work with developers to contain costs and provide flexibility in compliance.
Talk about your nightmares of horror stories and horror rhetoric.
1 2
We need your help! If you like PunditHouse, please consider donating to us. Even $5 a month can make a difference!
Short URL: https://pundithouse.com/?p=730
