Resolution for Securing More Affordable Housing

[Ann Kitchen]

Colleagues

As you are all aware, we have dealt with zoning cases recently and over the years that have pointed out the city’s limitations in extending affordable housing programs outside the downtown areas. Affordability Unlocked was one, more narrowly focused, approach that has begun to improve affordability.

To enhance our options for securing more affordable housing, I plan to bring a resolution that initiates additional opportunities for using the V designation along major corridors. I also plan to bring a resolution related to an affordable housing program associated with multi-family zoning categories.

I understand that others may be interested in these issues and I look forward to working with my colleagues and the community to explore options for securing more affordable housing for our city.

Best Regards
Ann Kitchen
City Council D5

[Kathie Tovo]

CM Kitchen,
Thanks for your leadership. I look forward to supporting this work. I believe your areas of focus align nicely with the work I previously posted about with regard to ADUs. I intend to bring that resolution forward in the near future as well, and I look forward to the conversations.

Best,
Kathie Tovo
Council Member District 9

[Leslie Pool]

CM Kitchen and CM Tovo, I'm ready to support both of these initiatives, and would be happy to work with you on them.

Best,

Leslie

[Steve Adler]

Colleagues,

A significant part of our recent collective effort has focused on Project Connect, homelessness, policing and COVID. While there’s still real work ahead on these topics, it seems many of us are ready to continue and re-focus our efforts on housing affordability and supply.

Some of you have reached out and others of us have posted. I think many of us are trying to identify ideas that might have consensus, to avoid the division associated with some prior efforts.

In an effort to promote coordination of ideas – both from Council and staff – I propose that we set a special called meeting(s), as soon as practicable, just on housing affordability and supply. We could first set a work session for discussion only and then have a dedicated meeting to vote on items that can achieve consensus.

Maybe meeting together with staff with the overarching goal of increasing housing affordability and supply, we can work together to discern the priorities and ideas that best reach consensus and have the greatest beneficial impact.

I hope to work with others on concepts such as
 land development code changes to allow residential uses in commercial zones
 comprehensive approaches to increasing housing supply at different levels under 120% MFI,
 use of Chapter 380 and Public/Private Partnership Agreements to try to incentivize increased supply of workforce housing,
 working with UT, HT, ACC, St. Edwards, Concordia and others on helping facilitate student housing to free up existing more affordable housing stock,
 fee certainty and disclosure,
 permit improvements and predictability,
 TIRZ financial policy that directs remainder funds toward housing affordability and supply and homelessness,
 increasing ADU availability,
 liberalizing parking requirements if and where appropriate, and
 public activity bonds emphasis/focus on PSH and CoC units.

I’m sure multiple people are working on these and other ideas.

Please let me know if this sounds like a good way to collaborate with each other and city staff and focus efforts that are now on-going in most, if not all, our offices.

s

[Alison Alter]

Dear Colleagues,

I am supportive of advancing actions to reduce barriers to ADUs as well as options to increase our ability to create additional income-restricted affordable housing units as part of our strategy to increase density on our corridors. I look forward to working with Council Members Kitchen and Tovo on their individual proposals.

Mayor, I also support having a work session dedicated to this topic. I'm not sure a single work session is sufficient prior to us voting on multiple items, but I would support the conversation and advancing individual proposals as appropriate. I also look forward to continuing our work together to bring forward a code amendment that would allow residential uses in certain commercial zones. I also see real opportunities for supporting the creation of more student and workforce housing.

Regards,

[Ann Kitchen]

Mayor

Thank you for suggesting an approach for a conversation around our shared goals and efforts related to affordability and housing. I also support having a work session dedicated to this topic, and then determining if additional work sessions and/or special called meeting for voting is needed.

I also support advancing individual resolutions as appropriate, some of which may be relatively straightforward and not require much discussion. I would not want setting a special worksession or Council meeting to slow down the work that I know many of us have been doing. Affordability is an important topic for the whole Council so moving forward expeditiously would be important.

Best
Ann Kitchen
City Council D5

[Natasha Harper-Madison]

Good morning colleagues and thanks all for weighing in on this critical subject matter. Mayor, I support your recommendation to have a work session on the concepts listed as well as a special called meeting if needed.

 land development code changes to allow residential uses in commercial zones
 comprehensive approaches to increasing housing supply at different levels under 120% MFI,
 use of Chapter 380 and Public/Private Partnership Agreements to try to incentivize increased supply of workforce housing,
 working with UT, HT, ACC, St. Edwards, Concordia and others on helping facilitate student housing to free up existing more affordable housing stock,
 fee certainty and disclosure,
 permit improvements and predictability,
 TIRZ financial policy that directs remainder funds toward housing affordability and supply and homelessness,
 increasing ADU availability,
 liberalizing parking requirements if and where appropriate, and
 public activity bonds emphasis/focus on PSH and CoC units.

Kindly,
NHM