Say you’re a developer. To make construction more profitable, you want to build more houses than zoning allows on your property. To do that, you have to get local government approval. And to get local government approval, you know that you need to cough up something for “affordable housing,” be it units that meet those criteria or cash that goes into a housing fund for down-payment assistance or nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity.
 Cheri Lewis of the City Planning Commission is eager for an ordinance to move forward that would give developers more incentives to build "affordable housing. |
But that’s only if you’re developing in Albemarle County. There, it’s understood (if not legally required) that you must proffer as affordable 15 percent of your housing units (or the equivalent cash) when applying for something special like a rezoning. Projects in the city, such as the recently approved nine-storey luxury condo project on Avon Street that needed a special-use permit for added density, have no such requirement.
Throughout the year, several City leaders have been trying to change that. This spring, City staff drew up an ordinance that would provide developers the incentive of increased density if they include affordable units. Under the current draft of the ordinance, a developer could add 20 percent more housing units as long as 12.5 percent of the total housing units in the project are affordable to a family earning 120 percent or less of area median income ($66,500). The goal is to get more houses on the market that sell for $190,000 or less.
“Everybody has recognized this is one tool we want to adopt in the City for sure to help the affordable housing issue,” says City Planning Commissioner Cheri Lewis, who has made affordable housing a personal priority.
Yet six months after the ordinance was first composed, it has yet to get a public hearing from City government.
“We started working on this affordable dwelling unit ordinance in the first quarter of this year,” Lewis says, “and it’s too bad we’re going into the last month of this year, and it hasn’t moved forward.” It doesn’t help that the City attorney who has been leading the project, Lisa Kelly, has now taken a job elsewhere.
The ordinance still needs a work session with the Planning Commission. After that, it needs a turn with the newly created Housing Advisory Committee before it gets a public hearing before the Planning Commission and City Council.
Planning Manager Missy Creasy says she expects the ordinance to move forward in the next few months.
But even if the ordinance does get passed, it still doesn’t approach the standard Albemarle County has set.
Says Lewis, “I question why the City isn’t taking proffers to address our affordable housing issue when the adjoining county that operates under the same enabling legislation surely can and is doing so.”
