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Explore Affordable Housing Strategies in the Blue Hill District.
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Staff:
Department:
Loryn Clark, Executive Director
Housing and Community
Sarah Vi?as, Assistant Director
Nate Broman-Fulks, Affordable Housing Manager
Emily Holt, Affordable Housing Development Officer
Overview: On March 14, 2018, several Council Members submitted a petition1 asking the Manager to return to the Council with solutions to address several community interests in the Blue Hill District, including affordable housing. The purpose of this memorandum is to propose potential strategies to support affordable housing in the Blue Hill District.
Recommendation(s):
That the Council receive this report and provide direction on the identified strategies for affordable housing in the Blue Hill District.
Overview:
When the Blue Hill District (the District) was established, the Council set a goal of creating 300 affordable housing units or 20% of the new units within the District. To date, 149 affordable housing units have been developed on land donated from the Town through a partnership with local non-profit affordable housing developer DHIC.
Over the past several years, staff have explored options to incentivize affordable housing in the District to reach the affordable housing goal. This item focuses on strategies staff have identified that could assist with meeting this goal and reflects extensive research conducted by Town staff and feedback provided on draft strategies from the Housing Advisory Board.
Fiscal Impact/Resources: Some of the proposed strategies would have a fiscal impact for the Town. For example:
* Resources to subsidize construction or operating costs in exchange for developers agreeing to maintain long term affordability on a specified number of units.
* Dedicating a portion of property tax revenue from properties within the Blue Hill District to an affordable housing fund.
Proposed Next Steps: With guidance from the Council, we will refine and further...
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