
{"id":9422,"date":"2010-03-18T12:40:22","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T20:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=9422"},"modified":"2010-03-18T17:47:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T01:47:29","slug":"new-zoning-rules-could-boost-range-of-affordable-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/03\/18\/new-zoning-rules-could-boost-range-of-affordable-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"New zoning rules could boost range of affordable homes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY KIRK ROSS<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\n CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d  The Chapel Hill Town Council opened a public hearing Monday night on changes to the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s zoning rules that are designed to increase the types of affordable housing.<\/p>\n<p>At its meeting at Town Hall, the council reviewed a proposed inclusionary-zoning ordinance aimed at expanding the range of housing stock and making more of it available to low- and moderate-income families.<\/p>\n<p>For more than a decade, the council has required developers seeking zoning changes or special-use permits to make 15 percent of a project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s housing units affordable. The current system relies mainly on the Community Home Trust to manage the affordable units created under the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s current system.<\/p>\n<p>Critics of the system in place say it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t produce enough multi-bedroom units and does not offer enough flexibility in accepting payments in lieu to cover the rising maintenance costs the trust faces as the affordable-housing stock grows.<\/p>\n<p>Affordable housing has been a long-running concern in Chapel Hill as rising housing costs have pushed lower- and moderate-income families \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including teachers, police and service and trade workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201d farther from town.<\/p>\n<p>In an overview of the new ordinance and the need for it, former town planning director Roger Waldon, a consultant to the town on the rules, emphasized the need for a more comprehensive way to achieve affordable-housing goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A large category of the workforce here in Chapel Hill can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to live here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Waldon said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and it has been a community goal to maintain a diverse community and to have people who work here be able to live in the community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Waldon pointed to a study conducted last year by Spencer Cowan of UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center for Urban and Regional Studies that looked at the housing needs for trade and service workers and others generated by new residential construction.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The conclusion of that report and many others is that the market is not providing housing for the full range of people who work in Chapel Hill and would like to live here,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Walden said.<\/p>\n<p>The new rules, he said, would be more thoroughly spelled out for developers and give them more incentive to build to a greater density if more affordable units are included. That would allow them to recoup some of the costs of adding affordable units.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Developers are able to get some significant density bonuses to help offset those costs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Waldon said.<\/p>\n<p>Although many states use similar rules, only two jurisdictions in North Carolina, Davidson and Manteo, have inclusionary zoning. In Chapel Hill, it is not a new concept. The council formed an Inclusionary Zoning Task Force, led by council member Sally Greene, in September 2005.<\/p>\n<p>One significant change in the new rules would be to provide units that are affordable to people making 65 percent of the median income of Chapel Hill. The current system sets the affordability threshold at 80 percent of the median income, which this year is $57,050 for a family of four.<\/p>\n<p>Greene and others have argued that in order to include the types of households the town wants to assist, the threshold has to be lowered.<\/p>\n<p>At Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting, Greene said one problem left to be solved is how to guarantee that the lower-priced units don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t end up as one-bedroom units, as they often do now.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Jim Ward said he also wanted to see the types of units expanded, saying too many units are smaller, one-bedroom ones. The council, he said, needs greater flexibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Maybe it should be 15 percent of bedrooms,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ward said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153or 15 percent of bathrooms or 15 percent of value. Fifteen percent of units is not getting us where we need to go.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Ward said he was in general support of the plan, but wanted to make sure the units would be kept affordable in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>Greene said that the town likely would have to do more oversight of the units to make sure that deed restrictions on pricing would be adhered to with each sale.<\/p>\n<p>The new rules also try to maintain affordability over time through design, such as providing for wider doorways and other features that would allow people to retain their homes longer.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Duncan of NC State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center for Universal Design, who encouraged the task force to look at design issues, said lower-income earners can have trouble staying in the same home because of the cost of upfitting it as it grows older.<\/p>\n<p>The council is expected to take up the ordinance again as early as next month and will continue to take public comment on the plan, which is on the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website at <a href=\"http:\/\/townofchapelhill.org\/index.aspx?page=1298\">townofchapelhill.org\/index.aspx?page=1298<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In other action Monday night, the council reviewed a special-use permit for Murray Hill, a 15-unit development on a 1-acre lot on Meadowmont Lane near the Meadowmont Wellness Center. The development includes two affordable-housing units and a $21,250 payment in lieu. <\/p>\n<p>The council also reviewed a concept plan by the university foundation for a 90,000-square-foot expansion of the Kenan-Flagler School of Business Rizzo Conference Center on Dubose Lane at Meadowmont. The expansion would add space for the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s executive-development, continuing-education program, along with 80 additional guest rooms and 168 parking places.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chapel Hill Town Council looks at an inclusionary-zoning ordinance aimed at expanding the range of housing stock and making more of it available to low- and moderate-income families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9422"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9441,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9422\/revisions\/9441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}