Charlottesville’s City Planning Commission approved a bill Tuesday that could provide home builders with incentives to build lower-income housing.
Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris noted that limited access to affordable housing has been a problem for Charlottesville residents for the past five years, and the recent economic recession has worsened the situation.
“Housing costs have gone through the roof, and wages have stayed the same,” Norris said. “Anything we can do to provide more affordable housing is a good thing.”
Norris explained that the local Charlottesville government and local home builders association worked together to lobby for the bill.
The legislation would require builders requesting rezoning or special-use permits from the city to set aside 5 percent of their residential building area for the construction of affordable housing, to provide the same amount of housing in another part of the city or to donate $2 per square foot of their entire building area to the city’s affordable housing fund. In exchange, builders would receive an expedited review of their site plan. Then, according to the plan, affordable housing units could be given to residents who earn no more than 60 percent of the area’s median income.
“It’s something that lots of people have worked on and the city has been very helpful,” said Jay Willer, executive vice president of the Blue Ridge Homebuilders Association, which includes 250 local builders. City officials “need a bill that encourages builders to participate, and builders have said this can be the solution.”
Nick Rogers, neighborhood planner with the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services, has overseen the bill’s progression. He said some members of the planning committee would have liked for the bill to help more Charlottesville residents. Rogers said, however, that because the “enabling legislation [passed by the General Assembly] was very specifically scripted,” Charlottesville authorities were unable to relax the income requirements for area residents to receive affordable housing units.
“There was no latitude,” Rogers said, adding, however, that “generally, people are pleased to have” the bill.
Both Norris and Willer described the bill as a win-win situation.
“It’s one more tool in our tool chest to address a real problem in Charlottesville: affordable housing,” Norris said.
City Council must still approve the bill before it becomes law.
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