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Foundations and Footings-Open Housing Opportunities in Richmond
KATHY GRAZIANO
TIMES-DISPATCH GUEST COLUMNIST March 5, 2007
It has been said that a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. We hope that the effort to increase affordable housing opportunities in Richmond does not take a thousand miles ... but we have certainly taken the first steps. In fact, we have taken three of them.
In the fall of 2005, Council member Ellen Robertson introduced a proposed council resolution that asked some hard questions about an affordable housing plan. Just about a year ago, Mayor L. Douglas Wilder appointed an Interagency Task Force on Community Infrastucture to recommend solutions to the city’s need for more and better affordable housing.
The group was composed of city department heads and leaders from the private sector in the areas of community development, homebuilding, lending and real estate.
Following several months of intense work, the task force began to issue a series of recommendations, and several have already been embraced by the city administration and City Council. There is still work to be done, and we look forward to additional recommendations.
On Monday, January 22, 2007, Council did take a major step toward an affordable housing plan. With Mrs. Robertson’s resolution as the foundation, and the Mayor’s Task Force as the footing, City Council has begun framing the plan, with an ordinance sponsored by Council Member Kathy Graziano, and cosponsored by six other members of Council.
The simplest overview of the program is that it creates specific incentives for the private sector to build more affordable housing, both for sale and for rent (within a market rate development). The program would be voluntary; no builder will be forced to do anything. But if a developer/builder wishes to use the powers of the ordinance, he may be able to get permission for greater density on his property; put simply, he may be able to put more units on a specific piece of property than ordinary zoning would permit, so long as some of the additional units are “affordable” according to an income-based schedule.
In the event that a developer/builder wishes to take advantage of the program, without building “affordable” units, he may make a payment to an affordable housing trust fund. But the “buy-out” provision is not a low threshold for a builder. The buy-out price amounts to the total cost of the land involved, plus the cost of constructing the additional units
For other incentives for a builder to participate, the ordinance calls for reducing permitting fees charged by the city department of Community Development, and expedited consideration of all permit applications by the zoning, planning and permitting offices. Builders who wish to use the “buy-out” option would not be granted expedited consideration.
The ordinance takes effect in 180 days, to give the Director of Community Development time to draft regulations for the new program.
Richmond thus becomes the first locality in Central Virginia, and one of a very few statewide, to take up the problem of housing in the city for the people who make our city work ... for public safety officers, and school teachers, for public works employees and downtown office workers, in short for the vast number of people who have a household income of less that $54,100 for a family of four, or less than $43,250 for a family of two. These calculations are based on financial data provided by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This plan is not a panacea ... it is part of a continuum of housing opportunities for all people who want to make Richmond home. The city has invested in infrastructure to make riverfront projects available. It has encouraged development of housing in all parts of the city, and is aggressively pursuing opportunities in areas from Northside to Manchester. Through the efforts of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority and a number of housing-non-profits in the area, the needs of very low income residents are being addressed. Now there will be a structure in place for the middle income families who want to make Richmond home.
There is still work to be done; there will be other proposed ordinances in the future, perhaps from the mayor, perhaps from council members. We still need to refine the operation of the Housing Trust Fund, for instance.
Just as in so many areas, we are not where we want to be, but we are a long way from where we were. Working together, the two branches of city government and the for-profit and not-for-profit branches of the private sector have poured the foundation, laid the footings, and begun the framing, for a structure that will put more roofs over more heads inside our city.
