Unnecessary Limits on Housing Development

[Devin James]

In one of our development projects, the City staff asked us to remove 40 units from our concept plan.

This wasn’t requested by the City Commission at a formal hearing, it was the opinion of the staff.

Our original concept already proposed fewer units than the current zoning would have allowed.

Here’s what erasing 40 units means:
- 40 fewer homes for buyers
- Over $1M in lost profit for our team
- Fewer tax dollars and impact fees that could’ve benefited the City’s infrastructure & services

We gotta get better

Everyone wants more affordable housing, but not everyone wants to do what it takes to achieve it

[Jay Hinrichs]

Quote from @Scott Mac:

Can the staff force you to do that or hold you up in some way?

What are they asking you to put in instead, a park, basketball hoops, a skating rink, a police station maybe.

I find each jurisdiction is different.. Some will follow staff recommendations almost all the time .. others will not.. In Oregon for instance unless your doing a PUD open space cannot be required and you MUST create lots to specified zoning density.. in other words if your zoned 5k sq ft lots U cant ask for 7500 sq ft lots you must be within 10% of the base zoning.