By DAN TELVOCK
Housing experts say an affordable-housing proposal Spotsylvania County supervisors are considering will provide little relief for people who cannot afford homes here.
Critics of the plan say:
The proposal addresses affordable housing for families only.
It does not address affordability for police officers, teachers or similarly paid workers.
The proposal discourages local government assistance and incentives to developers, which are common in areas that have had success with affordable housing.
"Clearly, what is being proposed here is nothing," said Michelle Krocker, executive director of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance.
Instead, the plan says:
The market will drive the availability of affordable homes.
Developers should build more mixed-use projects, with a variety of housing choices even though the county does not have any land zoned for higher densities.
Developers seeking a rezoning should designate a minimum of 10 percent of the units in a project as affordable, but provides no incentives.
Krocker said government interaction is a key component for affordable housing. For example, Fairfax County recently donated land so a developer could build affordable housing near its government center, she said.
"What is being presented here is really not a program or policy at all. It basically boils down to this: As the real estate market becomes more depressed, [their] hope is housing prices will come down low enough so they are 'affordable,'" she said.
The proposal is just one element of the county's growth blueprint, called the comprehensive plan, which will be the subject of an Aug. 12 public hearing. The entire plan, which is a guide for growth and not law, can still be changed, and it is updated every five years.
County staff defined affordable as a household earning the median income or less paying no more than 30 percent of its income for housing. The proposed plan uses 2006 statistics with a family median income of $75,507. So monthly rent or mortgage could be up to $1,887.
But since 2006, the median income level for a household here has jumped to $99,000, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Using those figures, "affordable" is $2,475 per month in mortgage or rent.
At one time, the proposal addressed affordable homes for single adults by encouraging condos priced below $100,000. That was deleted. The plan also once encouraged incentives to developers, but staff said that was deleted because of "the current fiscal climate."
Supervisors Hap Connors and Benjamin Pitts questioned the lack of developer incentives during Tuesday's board meeting.
Gary Parker, executive director of the nonprofit Central Virginia Housing Coalition, said there are federal and state tax credits available to those who build affordable housing. His organization is building 14 affordable apartments on Charles and Dixon streets in Fredericksburg with tax-credit assistance. But tax credits aren't enough to solve the affordable housing problem.
"The county plan doesn't do anything," he said.
C. Theodore Koebel, director of the Virginia Center for Housing Research at Virginia Tech, said Spotsylvania's proposed plan could have a positive effect if there were land already zoned for high density. The county does not have any land zoned for high density, but the proposed plan does encourage zoning ordinances to allow for clustering and mixed-use projects.
Mixed-use projects "will help control prices better than anything else," he said, because of the variety of housing choices.
Developers have helped create affordable housing in areas where there hasn't been any government assistance. Tricord Cos., a local home builder, had a work-force housing program for its Wilderness Shores project in Orange County. There was no government assistance.
"Our initiative last year to offer teachers affordable town homes in our Wilderness Shores community was only possible because our cost of land was low," said Tricord spokesman Hart Rutherford. "We had purchased it years ago before the market soared. Also, we paid no proffers since the land was already zoned."
He said doing a project like that in Spotsylvania is less economical because land costs more, and there are higher proffers, which are voluntary offerings made to offset costs of public services.
"The economic barriers are just too high unless supervisors take positive action to lower them," he said.
Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com
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Spotsylvania County supervisors decided Tuesday to incorporate an affordable housing element into the 2008 draft comprehensive land-use plan, which is a guide for growth in the county. The entire package will be the subject of a public hearing Aug. 12 at the Holbert Building on Courthouse Road.
Here are the major elements of the affordable-housing plan: Affordable housing should primarily be market-driven. Strategies should not involve local government funding, an affordable housing fund, relief from proffers or credits, tax incentives or other measures that require staff time or public dollars. Applicants seeking rezonings should set aside It encourages mixed-use developments to provide range of housing types. Affordable homes should have deed restrictions to keep units affordable after a sale. Supervisors should adopt a transfer-of-development-rights program that preserves open space and sends affordable housing to primary-growth Supervisors should adopt new ordinances to allow for cluster subdivisions, traditional neighborhood design and apartments attached to homes or garages. |