Well, I went and watched this and it’s not really 10% affordable housing.
The rezoning request to allow units to grow from 260 to 400 included text that 10% of that 140 delta (400-260) would be affordable housing or a whopping total of 14 units out o 400 or 3.5%.
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I kind of dig that. If all new builds had that % people would call it a big win
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I like this move by the city and county. But, I also think they could add more by developing the parking lot on the back right of the property
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I’m definitely in support of moves like this. Some of the other dense older affordable housing developments around that area should also be bought by the city.
Also, the housing across Mayo street should be added to the historic registry (if it isn’t already) and preserved because it’s a nice, dense, and historic building worth saving. I’m also not sure if it’s a dorm complex for St. Mary’s.
This is the building I’m referring too.
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Nope, not a dorm complex. Was military housing built during the 30s. They are extremely nice. Lived in one last year and got a special Covid offer that was very affordable for being so close to downtown. Honestly, would easily live there again.
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Looks like there is room to go 40 stories in that coutryard! I kid! But, I do think there is something to using the space round some of these buildings for more house.
The Affordable City by Shane Phillips
My wife picked this up as recommended by a friend. Just finished the intro and it seems promising… practical, nuanced, and policy-focused. The author seems intent on threading together higher-level concerns from various interest groups into one coalition.
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the 11/1 council meeting had many comments on missing middle housing, missing affordability…i don’t know exactly. in looking at yonkers ny, approx 12k people per sq mi, much of their affordable or subsidized housing seems to be clustereed in a small radius. is this a model of note…or not? Properties – Municipal Housing Authority
Great video on non-market housing and how it helps to keep rents affordable. It would be amazing if Raleigh could implement policies that somehow encouraged more of these to be built.
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The City is working on it. Here’s a good (previously posted) primer. The proposed Lane-Idlewild project by the City (sold the acre for $1) and the new Raleigh Area Land Trust (RALT) is an example. And local nonprofits can tap in to Self-Help Credit Union out of Durham for low-interest housing loans such as the organization in your video, and your deposits there help.
The biggest thing I think people miss about the need for affordable housing is that it’s the most visceral form of inequality that ultimately flows from our system of continually skewing economic rewards further and further up the wealth spectrum. If you don’t work on tackling that then you’re missing the forest for the trees, especially when you’re yelling at council members that have very limited options to address it other than funding ($80 mil bond was passed in 2020), zoning changes (see Missing Middle ‘controversy’), and lobbying the state and Feds to enable more city-friendly tax credit projects that aren’t penalized for unit costs when compared to rural projects, and expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to keep up with inflation.
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Obviously, non-market housing choices should be a larger share of available housing – but it’s dangerous to over-promise the cost savings that it can deliver. Only a few percentage points of housing costs go to pay developers of (3%!), and investors in (5%!), new housing:
Almost all of the costs of housing go directly towards paying for things that are necessary regardless of whether housing is built for profit, or not for profit. Plumbers, electricians, masons, framers, architects, surveyors, and yes, bankers and lawyers and developers all work to provide services that are worth paying for – and work with materials that cost money. And almost all of the cost of new houses goes to pay for those goods and services; very little of what’s paid in rent is pure “profit margin” that could be cut out by a non-market owner.
As I’m fond of saying, the difference between a subsidized/affordable housing development & a market-rate housing development is the subsidy, not the housing development. That ongoing subsidy is what covers the gap between the “affordable” rent and the cost of providing the housing. Without additional ongoing government subsidies throwing in lots of money to cover the costs, non-market housing really can’t offer much in the way of cost savings… and most definitely not the ~60% (!!!) that video is promising. (Scroll down in the Sightline article to see some other ways government could actually help, and some surprisingly not-that-helpful suggestions… like reducing developers’ paychecks or investors’ profit margins.)
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I know the redevelopment of this property gets talked about a lot and saw this. If it’s been shared already my apologies.
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Ah yes. I was addressing that Mary Black was comparing this to redlining in the past. I think the site is similar to Park City South and injects affordable housing into a thriving community that is trending upwards. I think its location right against the creek and across from Eliza Pool Park is fantastic! Having access to nature/parks is viewed as a premium and drives real estate costs up. This has been a sore spot for the low income community because when you place a park or outdoor amenity near low income housing, prices go up, rents go up, and people get priced out. This project would benefit the low income population in this respect.
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As you note the western bank of Rocky Branch is elevated hence the narrow band of floodplain on that side versus the lower eastern edge area.
Her general distrust of FEMA mapping is probably based on her knowledge that they are snapshots in time with no projections for future urbanization. There can be some bad “surprises” basing floor elevations on a dated FEMA flood level.
However in this instance pretty sure the area under consideration will pass scrunity since it is higher than the available floodplain area to the east.
Housing backing up to an open space corridor, across from a park, and within walking distance of an elementary school is nicely located. Plus easy access to the Wilmington Street BRT.
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You are correct, in order for the Fayetteville frontage of this lot to flood, large swathes of land to the east would be underwater including many existing buildings and roadways. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but if it’s that big of a current concern, maybe we should build a dyke system…
Of course LR’s disingenuous headline states that the affordable housing would be in the floodplain…
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From the 2019 Raleigh West USGS quadrangle map note the location of the 250 contour on the west side of Rocky Branch versus the amount of lower area east of the stream until the 250 contour occurs.
No danger of that area of interest flooding nor is it in the floodplain portion of Rocky Branch.
EDIT: These are 10-foot contour intervals for those unfamiliar with the USGS series.
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I will just note in reference to this specific case that another one of the concerns (albeit I don’t believe a very good one) is that the council members who seemed more opposed to the development of affordable housing on this plot also noted the steep incline from the road into the property. In my opinion, this lot seems big enough to fit some form of housing while still being (obviously) outside of the floodplain as well as down hill from the steep incline from the road. A developer might have to be creative, but hell they might get the land for free. There is zero reason not to build some form of housing here, even if it takes a bit of creativity on what that housing looks like. But this is, as others pointed out, decently uphill from the floodplain as it exists, and a developer could, and would likely, develop here if this lot was privately owned.
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Chad, I saw that comment as well, and I believe it was made in bad faith.
If you look at the topo screenshot I posted above, the northern portion of the tract is below the grade of Fayetteville st, but the 800’ of frontage south of that is only slightly below or at grade with the curb.
I highlighted in Red the portion that is similar to road grade, but the tract that was up for rezoning is much larger. Yes I agree there is a 4-5 acre portion of this plot that is totally reasonable as a AH project location
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So, I’m watching the city’s growth and natural resources committee meeting online, and this slide struck me as an option presented. How out of touch can these folks be with regard to our market? 890SF for an affordable 1 bedroom unit? What is their market benchment? Is anyone really even building market rate 1 bedrooms this big? This is a concept for a DTS adjacent lot that the city owns.
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