Inclusionary Zoning

Pioneer Press Sat, 5 Jul 2008 06:56:39 MDT
The good news about, and good reasons for, affordable housing

The Pioneer Press' three-part series on affordable housing in the suburbs sheds light on a critical public policy issue. But readers could easily come away with an impression of hopelessness: neighbors angrily condemning affordable housing developments, residents of those properties feeling embattled, cities piling on regulations, and developers forced into building only luxury housing. That's not the full picture of affordable housing in the suburbs. Nor does it reflect the fact that there is good reason to believe we can do better in making our communities welcome to all. ... One of the most promising and underutilized tools for generating affordable units is Inclusionary Zoning. With IZ, a city expects a developer to include some affordable units in his or her new development in return for providing incentives to make it work financially for the developer. Typically, we look mostly to government subsidies to make housing units affordable; the beauty of IZ is that it can produce affordable units for households in the $40,000-income range without government subsidies. More than 400 cities in the U.S. have adopted some form of IZ, including Boston, Denver, Chicago, New York, and many smaller cities. For IZ to work, cities have to make sufficient concessions so that developers don't have to build the affordable units at a loss. The most common concession is a density bonus â€" allowing the developer to build more units on the same parcel of land. Even modest increases in density can have a boost for affordability, and the good news is we now know how to design higher-density housing to avoid the problems of the past. A number of cities here now use density bonuses, but we can do much more with this and with other incentives cities can offer. Many cities want to do the right thing in diversifying their housing supply; they just need more tools such as IZ. Now is a great time for citizens to play a role in nudging their local government in the right direction. All metro cities are rewriting their comprehensive plans for submission to the Metropolitan Council by the end of this year. Cities must include in those plans how they will meet their affordable housing goals for the next decade. Showing up at a public hearing and urging local officials to adopt IZ and similar strategies is one small but effective step toward more inclusive communities. Tim Thompson is president of the Housing Preservation Project, a St. Paul-based public interest law firm that uses legal and advocacy strategies to preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing. His e-mail address is tthompson@hppinc.org. More information on the role of local governments in affordable housing is available at www.TCHousingPolicy.org.

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

Good for Woodbury

Pioneer Press Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:37:50 -0700
Woodbury finds secret to success of affordable housing

When Woodbury opened a 41-unit affordable-housing complex Friday, something was missing. It was the protests. Affordable housing in the much-less-affordable suburbs is usually as unwelcome as a stain on a tuxedo. But there wasn't a peep of protest at the city's latest affordable-housing project, Sienna Ridge on Brookview Road. With more than 1,900 affordable homes and rental units - and the most Habitat for Humanity homes of any Twin Cities suburb - Woodbury is far ahead of its affordable-housing goals. Woodbury's secret of success could be called "stealth affordability" - scattering the units widely and making sure they blend into neighborhoods. In this way, the city wards off the most frequent complaint of neighbors - that the units will hurt their property values. "We do not want them to be distinguished as 'affordable' when you drive down the street," said Janelle Schmitz, the city's planning and economic development manager. In most communities, an affordable-housing project triggers the NIMBY response - not in my back yard. Neighbors worry about low-income families bringing crime into their neighborhoods and lowering property values. Schmitz said affordable housing is often confused with federally financed Section 8 housing, for those living in poverty. That program gives subsidies directly to recipients, who move where they wish and apply the subsidy to their rents.

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

Condo-ize the old jail?

Pioneer Press Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:30:53 -0600
Ramsey County / Board rethinks role in housing

Ramsey County commissioners are grappling with what role they should play in the housing market. On Tuesday, a narrow majority of commissioners agreed to scrap a nearly decade-old fund that helped build public housing. But commissioners also reaffirmed their desire to stay in the housing game. That the 4-3 vote was nonbinding and came at a fractious workshop â€" featuring several questions of "What are we voting on?" â€" illustrates the lack of strong consensus on what role the county should play as vacancies, foreclosures and falling home values transform the housing market. "If I voted on something 10 years ago and now the world has changed, I'm supposed to change with the times," explained Commissioner Rafael Ortega, who cast the swing vote. The events took place at a workshop of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority, which is composed of the seven county commissioners. At issue was the Housing Endowment Fund, which was established in a 4-3 vote in 2000 to help build housing projects that could cater to the poorest residents, such as homeless people or those on the verge of it. The idea was to inject new money from the sale of county land and get the fund up to $10 million. The fund never got that big, although over the years, it did lend about $6 million to 18 different projects in the county, including $500,000 for the 13-unit Emma's Place in Maplewood to an equal sum for the 314-unit Gateway Village in St. Paul.

[[keywords: Housing;PropertyTax;Ramsey;]]

Affordable housing in the news

Star Tribune Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:42:00 GMT
In Plymouth, demand for housing help far surpasses availability

A chance to join a waiting list for subsidized housing is expected to attract thousands, but only 300 will make it. Thousands of people are expected to bombard Plymouth City Hall next week to sign up for a subsidized housing waiting list. They will be competing for just 300 spots. That ratio indicates an increasing demand and shrinking supply for affordable housing in the metro area, housing advocates said. "You have to income-qualify to even get an application," said Eric Hauge, a tenant organizer for HOME Line, a nonprofit advocate for tenants. "So that shows the need." The waiting list is for the federally subsidized Section 8 program and is meant for people living on low incomes. To apply, a two-person household cannot make more than $31,400. Plymouth will fill its waiting list of 300 by lottery from the applications of those deemed eligible.

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

But,but, but the traffic from all those outsiders

Star Tribune Thu, 03 Jan 2008 02:08:48 GMT
A new kind of senior housing includes retail

Presbyterian Homes' plans for Eden Prairie and Wayzata show a twist on housing for active oldsters. Condos sit atop shops, restaurants surround a grassy plaza and families stroll beneath elegantly lit porticos. This is not your average senior housing. Presbyterian Homes and Services' plans for 14 acres in Wayzata are much like its plans for a 21-acre site in Eden Prairie: a senior housing complex that offers much more than senior housing. While such developments often include small amounts of retail -- a pharmacy, for example -- Presbyterian Homes' plans for Wayzata include 130,000 feet of retail space. They also call for office space, housing that's not just for seniors and possibly a hotel.

[[keywords: LandUse;Metro;]]

Economist uses the D word

Star Tribune Wed, 23 Apr 2008 05:21:58 GMT
A troubling forecast for housing prices

A respected economist says the housing slump could approach or surpass levels not seen since the Depression. NEW HAVEN, CONN. - An influential economist who long predicted the housing market bubble cautioned Tuesday that the slump in the U.S. housing market could cause prices to fall more than they did in the Great Depression and that bailouts will be needed so millions don't lose their homes. Yale University economist Robert Shiller, pioneer of the widely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, said there's a good chance housing prices will fall further than the 30 percent drop in the historic depression of the 1930s. Home prices nationwide already have dropped 15 percent since their peak in 2006, he said. "I think there is a scenario that they could be down substantially more," Shiller said during a speech at the New Haven Lawn Club. Shiller's Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index is considered a strong measure of home prices because it examines price changes of the same property over time, instead of calculating a median price of homes sold during the month.

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

Don't trust anyone under 60

Star Tribune Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:39:15 GMT
Twin Cities suburban trend: Silver-lined home market

n a suburban housing market chilled by recession and mortgage woes, one segment of housing is still hot: independent housing for seniors. In the development pipeline are almost 600 units in Bloomington, more than 700 units in Edina, and about 145 units in Richfield. Roseville's first housing development proposal in three years is a 93-unit senior co-op that would be the sister to a successful co-op built a few years ago. ... Presbyterian Homes & Services alone has recently opened or is planning suburban Twin Cities developments that include about 800 units for independent seniors. Ecumen, another large nonprofit specializing in senior housing and services, is doing a condo conversion in Cannon Falls that will include 40 senior apartments, and also is planning a senior development in Maple Grove with 96 apartments for active seniors. Eventually townhomes will be added.

[[keywords: Housing;Living;Metro;]]

If you build it...

Star Tribune Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:12:08 GMT
New housing in Woodbury projected to keep booming

Woodbury will rank first among Washington County cities in the demand for new housing over the coming decade, according to a study presented to county commissioners Tuesday. Woodbury and nearby Oakdale already have 71 percent of the county's rental units, in big part because of many more jobs in those cities. While Woodbury is expected to have a quarter of all the county's housing by 2020, Cottage Grove and surrounding area will have nearly 22 percent, and Hugo will have more than 18 percent, the study by Maxfield Research Inc. found. Meanwhile, strong demand for more senior housing will become evident in Cottage Grove, Woodbury, Forest Lake, Oakdale and Stillwater, in that order, the study said.

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

All sprawled out

Pioneer Press Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:57:25 -0600
In transportation costs, the 'burbs get you coming and going

What does it really cost to live where you do? In some suburbs, it can cost more than 60 percent of your income for housing and the cost of getting around. If you live in the downtowns of St. Paul or Minneapolis, the cost of housing plus transportation is about half as much. A foundation in Chicago is measuring the cost of housing choices, for the first time combining transportation and housing costs online. A site the foundation produced, htaindex.cnt.org, shows how transportation costs neutralize a long-standing advantage of the exurbs â€" the promise of bigger houses at a lower cost. The Web site makes St. Paul and Minneapolis look like bargains. Each requires only one-third of a typical household income for housing and transportation costs. The more remote the suburb, the greater the costs â€" about 53 percent in Lino Lakes and Woodbury, all the way to 64 percent in Afton. After decades of rapid growth in the exurbs, the prospect of $4-a-gallon gas "is probably a tipping point," said Linda Young, research manager for the Center for Neighborhood Technology, which produced the site.

[[keywords: LandUse;Living;Metro;]]

Ripples

Star Tribune Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:41:34 GMT
Forum offers bleak view of Minnesota housing

Speakers at the event held in Minnetonka told of abusive mortgage lenders, bankruptcies, hard-hit communities and neighborhoods, and lost homes. ... "Minnesota's struggle in the housing crisis is growing quickly," said Matt Entenza, board chairman of Minnesota 2020, a public policy think tank that cosponsored the forum with the Minnesota Housing Partnership. "We have a real and serious issue." Speakers talked about neighborhoods losing their identities as longtime residents lose their houses and move away, about unscrupulous mortgage lenders targeting communities of color, about rising public costs as city crews try to reckon with vacant property, and about shifting economics in the value of land and buildings. "The reality is, the housing crisis is tearing apart communities, it's tearing apart lives," Entenza said.

[[keywords: Housing;PropertyTax;Metro;]]

Who is my neighbor?

Star Tribune Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:52:52 GMT
Housing with no welcome mat

New subsidized housing is dispersing in Minneapolis, but locating it near middle-class homes draws opposition. Harry Kaiser is active in social-justice issues at his church, so he's not entirely comfortable opposing the housing project that's planned across the street from his south Minneapolis house. "It's really tough for me to come out against affordable housing," he said. But...

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

National housing starts continue to tank

Star Tribune Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:45:09 GMT
Housing construction drops in November with single-family activity at lowest level since 1991

Housing construction fell in November with single-family activity dropping to the lowest level in more than 16 years. Analysts said the recession in housing showed no signs of a turnaround. The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that construction of new homes and apartments dropped by 3.7 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.187 million units. Construction of single-family homes fell by 5.5 percent to an annual rate of 829,000 units. It was the eighth consecutive drop in single-family starts, pushing activity in this area to the lowest level since April 1991. Apartment building rose last month by 4.4 percent to an annual rate of 332,000 units. In an ominous sign for future activity, the government reported that applications for building permits fell for a sixth straight month, dropping by 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.15 million units, the slowest pace for building permits since June 1993.

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

National housing news

Star Tribune Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:39:55 GMT
Home construction drops 25 percent

The prolonged slump in housing pushed construction of new homes in 2007 down by the largest amount in 27 years with the expectation that the downturn has further to go. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that construction was started on 1.353 million new homes and apartments last year, down 24.8 percent from 2006. It was the second biggest annual decline on record, exceeded only by a 26 percent plunge in 1980, a period when the Federal Reserve was pushing interest rates to post-World War II records in an effort to combat an entrenched inflation problem. Many economists believe that the current slump in housing will rival the dive in the late 1970s and early 1980s when housing construction fell for four straight years before beginning to recover after the severe 1981-82 recession. For December, construction fell by a bigger-than-expected 14.2 percent.

[[keywords: Housing;]]

Price...price...price

Pioneer Press Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:06:36 -0600
Home sales rise as prices tumble

WASHINGTON â€" Sales of existing homes increased unexpectedly in February after six months of decline, but private economists said it was too soon to say the prolonged slide in housing is coming to an end. The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose by 2.9 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.03 million units. It marked the first sales increase since July, but even with the gain sales were still 23.8 percent below where they were a year ago. Prices continued to slide. The median sales price for single-family homes and condominiums dropped to $195,900, a fall of 8.2 percent from a year ago, the biggest slide in the current housing slump. The median price for single-family homes was down 8.7 percent from a year ago, the biggest decline in four decades. Economists said they still believe any sustained housing rebound was many months away. "The hemorrhaging has stopped but the recovery will be long, slow and painful," said Bernard Baumohl, managing director of the Economic Outlook Group. "It's unlikely that we will see any sustained jump in home purchases, much less higher prices, until mid-2009 at the earliest."

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

Glass half-empty

Pioneer Press Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:16:39 -0600
Builders remain pessimistic about slumping housing market

WASHINGTON â€" A reading of U.S. homebuilders' sentiment remained unchanged in April, just shy of its record low for the third consecutive month as the housing market failed to recover. The National Association of Home Builders said today its housing market index came in at 20 this month, the third-lowest reading on record. The index, derived from a survey of about 400 residential developers nationwide, gauges builders' perceptions of current conditions, interest from potential buyers and expectations for home sales over the next six months. Index readings higher than 50 indicate positive sentiment. The index has been at 20 or below since September, and below 50 since May 2006.

[[keywords: LandUse;Housing;Metro;]]

Senior housing closer to Turtle Lake

Pioneer Press Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:12:23 -0700
Forest Lake / Senior homes join planned community

Forest Lake will get its first town-within-a-town senior housing complex this spring when a 276-unit facility opens in the southwestern part of the city. If everything goes as planned, the complex will be smack in the middle of the city's first fully planned community, the 620-acre Headwaters Development. Shops, recreational facilities, mass transit and homes are expected to sprout up nearby in the coming years. About three-fourths of the senior units will be at market rates, and the rest will be for low- and moderate-income senior citizens. "Seniors have been an area of the population that have not gotten much attention," said Forest Lake Mayor Stev Stegner. "It is important for seniors to be near the services they'll be using." The units will be across from the new county library and government center on Forest Road North, just off U.S. 61. The senior complex has two parts - one run by the private company Walker ElderCare Services and the other by the Washington County Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

[[keywords: Housing;Metro;]]

In my backyard!

Star Tribune Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:15:24 GMT
Sarah Campbell: A church, a city and sanctuary for all

What motivates the members of the Mayflower church to build workforce housing on their land. ... In the last few years, we've learned a lot about how hard-working people in Minneapolis are struggling and often failing to get by, and that the lack of variety in the supply of housing is a big part of the problem. We've learned that higher-density development, providing easy access to transit, is far more beneficial to our planet than suburban sprawl and long, single-car commutes. We've learned that building a wider variety of housing opportunity and choice does not increase crime, or lower property values, but does just the opposite: Economically healthy cities have neighborhoods that are wonderfully complex and diverse. We've done our research and learned that the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation, which will develop the property, builds beautiful and "green" buildings and maintains them scrupulously. Finally, as we look out our sanctuary window and see our land, we know that we can do something to make a difference.

[[keywords: LandUse;Housing;Living;Metro;]]

More housing news

Star Tribune Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:27:19 GMT
Housing data deepen the gloom

...The numbers, in three reports released Tuesday, showed that: • More than 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some stage of foreclosure last year, a significant increase, according to RealtyTrac, a housing data firm. • Home values took a major swoon, with prices in a 20-city index tracked by Standard & Poor's declining by a record 7.7 percent in November. The study said Twin Cities-area prices that month were 6.6 percent lower than the year before. • The rate of homeownership saw its biggest one-year drop on record, and the number of vacant homes climbed to 2.18 million from 2.07 million, the Census Bureau reported.

[[keywords: Housing;]]

What goes up must go up

Star Tribune Sun, 25 Nov 2007 00:26:13 CST
Tax bite deepens as home values fall

Minnesota is phasing out a program that shielded many homeowners from big property tax increases during the housing boom. ... The system, called the limited market value program, was created by the Legislature in 1993 in an effort to protect property owners from the tax impacts of sharp increases in property values. The program was supposed to end after 2001, but the Legislature feared that doing so in a hot housing market would sting homeowners with sharply increased property taxes. Instead, it began phasing out limited market value with the goal of ending it in the 2009 assessment year. But the phaseout, combined with a sharply slumping housing market, is creating especially jarring variations in proposed taxes this year. "You're going to have people on the same block, some of whom will have a big increase in taxes and others who will have little increase or a decline," said Matt Smith, an authority on taxes for the city of St. Paul. Many of those expected to be hit with steep tax increases are feeling the impact of the phaseout of limited market value. The system slowed the growth in the taxable value of properties when home prices were skyrocketing. Now that previously unrecognized value is showing up on tax notices, along with higher taxes. The phaseout means that a home's taxable value can rise each year to equal an ever greater portion of its actual market price -- a process that will continue until the two are identical. By 2009, all properties must be at their full market value for tax purposes in 2010. Combined with the swoon in the housing market, the result in some cases is that a home's taxable value can continue climbing while its market value falls, particularly among homes that jumped most in value in earlier years.

[[keywords: PropertyTax;Metro;]]

Use it or lose it

Star Tribune Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:37:43 GMT
Vibrant urban villages? Plans don't fit reality

As the housing slowdown dashes plans across the metro to create "livable" core communities, the Met Council is accommodating some adjusted goals. Stitched together by developers from fields and gravel pits, Apple Valley has worked for years to build the kind of downtown where residents can leave home in the morning and walk to the bus, their jobs or local stores. New restaurants and a hotel, townhouses and a park with water fountains where kids can play have already sprung up in the Central Village, but right next door, there are still empty fields. The housing market slump caused a slowdown in development that forced city leaders to plead earlier this summer to hang onto public funding that is key to their vision: a $2.3 million Livable Communities grant from the Metropolitan Council to build underground parking below an as-yet-unbuilt complex of housing and businesses on Galaxie Avenue. In the last year, Met Council officials have fielded an unprecedented number of requests from city leaders who already have Livable Communities grant money in hand, but say they need to change plans to make their community's project. And for the first time in the program's history, a shortage of deserving proposals led the Met Council to hold back about $3 million last year in money available through the program, which helps metro-area cities create thriving urban villages by cleaning up contaminated property and building affordable housing near businesses and public transit.

[[keywords: LandUse;Metro;]]