AGENDA #5e
to: Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager
from: J.B. Culpepper, Planning Director
Loryn Clark, Housing and Neighborhood Services Manager
subject: Response to Petition from Orange Community Housing and Land Trust Board of Directors
date: June 9, 2008
The purpose of this memorandum is to respond to a petition received by the Council on April 21, 2008 by the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust Board of Directors to: (1) request that a market study be commissioned to determine the Town’s affordable housing needs over the next ten years; and (2) request that the Council allow flexibility with developers of condominium projects with their affordable housing plans that are subject to approval until the study is completed.
At the April 21, 2008 public hearing regarding a Special Use Permit application for the Residences at Grove Park, Jim Tucker, Treasurer of the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust Board of Directors, discussed the idea of a market study with the Council. The Land Trust expressed concerns to the Council regarding the large number of one- and two-bedroom condominiums that will be built over the next several years as a result of the Council’s affordable housing policies. The Land Trust is unsure of the marketability of the units, and whether households that might be interested would qualify to purchase the units.
We agree that a market study regarding the Town’s affordable housing needs could produce information that would be helpful to the Council, the Land Trust, developers and the entire community. This information would also compliment the Town’s Affordable Housing System report. The Affordable Housing System Overview provides a comprehensive understanding of the populations, organizations, housing types, and barriers that comprise the affordable housing system in Chapel Hill; and helps advance shared goals for the affordable housing system. Accordingly, the overview provides a concise, point-in-time snapshot of affordable housing capacity in Chapel Hill as well as a summary of affordable housing strategies and priorities. We expect to update this document on an annual basis.
We recommend that the Council authorize the staff to identify options and costs for a market study and return to the Council with recommendations for how to proceed. Elements of a market study could include a survey of potential buyers to determine their housing stock preference, how affordable housing should be priced, a projection of affordable housing needs, and a breakdown of demographic and economic factors. We also suggest inviting our affordable housing partners, Orange County, Carrboro and Hillsborough, to participate in discussions about how a market study could benefit the entire County.
The petition from Mr. Tucker also suggested that the Council allow developers some flexibility in their applications with respect to the affordable housing component until the study is complete. We recommend that we review the applications pending approval and discuss our findings with the Council Committee on Affordable Housing. We would report on the Council Committee’s discussion in a follow up report on September 22, 2008.
We propose to prepare a follow-up report for the Council’s September 22, 2008 meeting regarding the options and costs associated with development of an affordable housing market study for the community over the next ten years, and to contact representatives in Orange County, Carrboro and Hillsborough to determine their interest in a project of this nature. Our follow up report would provide more detail about the elements of a study, and how the information obtained from the study could relate to the Affordable Housing System Overview. The report would also include a summary of comments from a meeting of the Council Committee on Affordable Housing regarding how flexibility with affordable housing plans could impact development applications.