179 votes
Inclusionary zoning -- make a certain amount of affordable housing required.
This would make between 10$-30% of housing affordable to low or moderate income people.
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Margaret Bartley
I'd like to see examples of how it works. It sounds awful to me, given the incestuous nature of the planning departments in this city. Unless it were to be very transparent, it looks like just another example of developers being able to move into a neighborhood and trashing it. In order to support this policy, I would have to see things like:
1) What is a neighborhood? How big an area would be included? Who gets to decide this? How are they chosen, and what is the appeal process? what is "a... more
I'd like to see examples of how it works. It sounds awful to me, given the incestuous nature of the planning departments in this city. Unless it were to be very transparent, it looks like just another example of developers being able to move into a neighborhood and trashing it. In order to support this policy, I would have to see things like:
1) What is a neighborhood? How big an area would be included? Who gets to decide this? How are they chosen, and what is the appeal process? what is "affordable housing?" Who gets to choose who gets the housing? Will that process be transparent, or will it be another way, like the alternative schools, for insiders to get special deals that are not available to everyone else?
This process seems ripe for corruption.
Erik Heino
We should target a certain percentage of affordable housing (both low and mid-income) citywide and in each neighborhood, and then institute policies designed to encourage that result. Maybe developers should be charged a certain percentage of development costs into an affordable housing fund. Developers that commit to affordable housing can get a rebate on the surcharge. Any remaining funds can be used to subsidize housing for low and middle-income residents of neighborhoods that aren't meeting affordabl... more
We should target a certain percentage of affordable housing (both low and mid-income) citywide and in each neighborhood, and then institute policies designed to encourage that result. Maybe developers should be charged a certain percentage of development costs into an affordable housing fund. Developers that commit to affordable housing can get a rebate on the surcharge. Any remaining funds can be used to subsidize housing for low and middle-income residents of neighborhoods that aren't meeting affordable housing targets. So maybe 10% is the low-income target and 30% is the moderate target. Developers that commit to those targets pay no surcharge. Those that don't can charge whatever they want, but anyone under the 10% and 30% threshold would be eligible for a subsidy from any remaining funds. As demand for the affordable housing subsidy would surely outstrip supply, priority could go to existing residents (based on time living in the city and/or neighborhood). The more development in a neighborhood, the higher the subsidies (direct or indirect) for existing residents to stay.
This would enable long-time residents to resist being forced out of a neighborhood. This would create a population of people invested in their community. It would encourage people to stay in the city rather than flee to the suburbs.
Jon Morgan
This is absolutely the affordable housing policy we need. It works very well in other cities, creating affordable housing and saving the tax revenues we give away now to *incentivize* affordable housing. We don't need to spend public funds encouraging affordable housing, we need to MANDATE it. Look at Washington, DC's policy as a model.