Housing Workshop #2

On November 14, 2019, City staff hosted Housing Workshop #2 at the Council Chambers, which discussed housing financing. This workshop provided an overview of project-level development financing and discussed potential funding and financial tools the City could utilize to incentivize housing development. It also included a review of inclusionary housing policies and use of the City’s affordable housing trust fund. Approximately 35 people were in attendance. Data from the polls (in the table below) revealed that a majority of the community is in favor of streamlining and reducing costs associated with current development processes.

Workshop attendees were polled again during the second workshop. Eighty percent of the surveyed residents were in favor of the City adjusting its inclusionary housing requirement. In addition, 77% believed that the City showed allow in-lieu fee payments for a portion of a project’s inclusionary housing requirement, while 20% were not in favor of such a policy. An overwhelming 97% of the survey respondents were in favor of the City providing a menu of alternative options for developers to meet their affordable housing requirements. Ninety percent of residents believe that the City should either reduce, temporarily waive, or defer payment of development and impact fees. Likewise, 90% were in favor of the City offering air rights on City-owned property for housing development projects. Half of the survey respondents believed that the most important policy the City should pursue is to adjust its inclusionary housing requirement. The survey also revealed that the City offering air rights on City-owned property and allowing in-lieu fee payments for a portion of a project’s inclusionary housing requirement were among the least important policies for the City to pursue.

The polling results have been considered in the recommended prioritization of the policy actions the City is working on.