Are there any examples anywhere else in the world where there has been an “affordable” element of every single new development? I’m curious if we’re trying to model ourselves off of some successful effort elsewhere, or being the trailblazers of affordability.
Imagine effectively blocking an entire project that would include 100s of housing units simply because it didn’t include what would amount to maybe 6 (barely) “affordable” units.
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It’s quite common in other large cities and it’s codified by ordinance making it clear for developers what they need to do in states that don’t have legislatures that meddle in local affairs. However this is not every single new development. It’s been a handful of re-zoning requests (not even every rezoning request.) It is completely reasonable for the city to consider other interests beyond what is best for the developer when considering zoning changes.
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Nothing has been blocked tho… so that would take some imagination.
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It just hasn’t been approved. I am definitely cool with the idea of allowing even higher zoning to make more space for more affordable housing. I think calling it “affordable” housing is disingenuous, as their basis for what is affordable to the working class is laughable. “More affordable” is more accurate, since it’s technically guaranteed to be slightly less than market rate.
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So Raleigh’s plan for AH is actually no plan whatsoever except for having the city council to arbitrarily pick those rezoning requests (mostly downtown) and then yell loudly for the voters to hear so that they think AH is important to them and they are doing everything they can (which of course is the opposite).
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Too many people confuse “affordable” with subsidized or Affordable house which are distinct things. Basically the council is asking for extra units to be set aside at slightly below market rates for means tested people for a set number of years.
It’s a very small trade off for the value that is being returned by the rezoning.
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When it comes to rezoning and private development yes because the NCGA prevents them from having an actual plan. To pretend the city doesn’t have a plan that is currently being carried out for public development of affordable and subsidized housing is being disingenuous.
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Maybe lux-light housing would be better term. Seems apartment builders only one to build high end luxury. Such as little bit lower grade flooring and appliances. Would suggest smaller rooms, but the few I’ve been in, in last few years seem to have very small rooms already.
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“Is the micro units something you can’t commit to because theres a finance problem?” council member Kay Crowder asked. “Because there doesn’t seem to be a finance problem in terms of being able to get money where there’s micro units. It doesn’t seem to be a barrier as sometimes affordable housing can be in the banking world.”
-Maybe Kay Crowder will become a developer on one of these mega projects downtown since she knows so much about this subject.
Also why is the Central CAC’s opinion or condition of approval even considered in this.
"The Central CAC voted to approve the rezoning earlier this year, but only on the condition that the plan includes affordable housing. The property owners did not fulfill this condition, and City Council members repeatedly asked them to consider it at the hearing Wednesday night. "
Finally, this project hasn’t been denied they just decided to refer it to Growth and Natural Resources Committee. “Council ultimately decided to refer the request to the city Growth and Natural Resources Committee.”
-They just conveniently waited until the end of the article to include that information.
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I guess what I’m saying is that their idea of “affordable” still isn’t very affordable, so it seems very phony to me. Oh so your apartments normally go for $1,500/mo for a 1bd, but you have 4 units available for $1,200/mo? Cool. I still can’t afford that on my own.
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Yeah Nicole was quite the entire time this was discussed because she knew this was going to happen. In fact, it happened to every single rezoning case during this session.
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Means tested or income based units might be a better term… but they aren’t asking developers to give away units. They’re just asking for a little more variety in the housing stock being offered.
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Which is fine! But if the developer can’t/won’t, then not allowing any new housing only hurts your cause - since the more units built overall helps stabilize rent prices citywide. (More housing = more competition = more competitive prices)
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I see this basically as a can kicking to the new council. I’m surprised they didn’t do this with the Fayetteville rezoning as well. Just push the hard decisions to the new council and then post on Facebook (or student newspaper comment sections) about how the new council is ruining old Raleigh.
Ultimately, it’s going to get approved.
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If it gets to the point where a developer absolutely can not include something like this and the re-zoning request is being held up due only to the inclusion of affordable housing then I believe the developer has an actionable item against the city under state law. We haven’t seen this happen because it seems that it ends up not being a deal breaker and no one wants to get litigious over a handful of units.
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I don’t have a Biz Journal subscription. No problem, I’ll just head on over to the News & Observer, our city’s newspaper of record, because surely they’ll have a story about this…
…
Oh, for crying out loud. Sigh. I really need my company to start buying up some of these newspapers. Okay, somebody want to give me the te;ds (too expensive, don’t subscribe) summary of the TBJ story?
If this is indeed just the defeated council members kicking the can down the road for three weeks, than I am 100 percent on board with that. In fact, if the outgoing council would just agree that all remaining cans should simply be kicked, that would be fantastic, actually.
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Finally, this project hasn’t been denied they just decided to refer it to Growth and Natural Resources Committee. “Council ultimately decided to refer the request to the city Growth and Natural Resources Committee.”
-They just conveniently waited until the end of the article to include that information.
I posted this and other quotes from the article earlier
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The problem is this council is not considering the best interests of people who struggle to afford housing. They are passing the buck on to developers. This is the easy (and cheapest) way out of a problem they don’t really want to deal with. That’s the way I see it at least.
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There’s ways around the paywall on both sites. Just saying… 
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