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Alexander Koenigseker: Longmont's Inclusionary Housing Revisited

Due to the always present problem of affordable housing in Boulder County and the growing number of new developments in Longmont, Longmont City Council is revisiting the “Inclusionary Housing” policy that was enacted for 10 years before being repeale
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This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Due to the always present problem of affordable housing in Boulder County

and the growing number of new developments in Longmont, Longmont City

Council is revisiting the “Inclusionary Housing” policy that was enacted

for 10 years before being repealed in 2011. The policy would require 10

percent of all new residences be designated as affordable before plans can

be approved by the city. At first glance, this policy seems like a great

addition that would dramatically increase the number of affordable

residences in Longmont from the limited 1,611 that can be found now (City

of Longmont “*Affordable Rental Information*”). What could possibly be a

downside to Inclusionary Policy? Well, developers don’t have to develop in

Longmont or at all.

When the policy was first passed in 2001, the number of residential

building permits issued by the city of Longmont was at its highest since

data was available in 1973 with a total of 1,641 permits. The following

year, the number of permits issued for residential buildings dropped

dramatically to a mere 983 and continued to drop, hitting a low in 2009

with a total of 63 permits being issued. Two years later it was later

repealed due to the assumption that it was stunting development growth and

putting too much of a burden on the home development community (*Longmont

Workforce Housing Task Force Report to City Council*). In 2012, one year

after the policy was repealed, the number of permits issued by the city

more than doubled from 119 to 378 and has continued to increase with 1,009

permits issued in 2017 with no signs of slowing down (Longmont Planning and

Development Services Reports).

Is inclusionary housing the best policy for Longmont? No, and we have seen

that in the past and so has larger cities such as Denver and Oakland. In

2013, Governor Brown wrote, “As mayor of Oakland, I saw how difficult it

can be to attract development to low- and middle-income communities.

Requiring developers to include below-market units in their projects can

exacerbate these challenges, even while not meaningfully increasing the

amount of affordable housing in a given community.” (NY Times, “*Affordable

Housing That’s Very Costly*”). Does this mean that we are doomed to never

have affordable housing? No, we just need a different approach. Longmont

currently has an incentive program for developers that allocate 10% of

their units for affordable housing. These include an expedited review

process, density bonuses, fee waivers, and subsidies for water/sewer system

development fees (Longmontcolorado.gov “*Affordable Housing Incentives for

Developers*”). These are standard ways that most cities that are growing as

fast as Longmont are using to increase the amount of affordable housing

available. To solve the affordable housing shortage, it will take

innovation and creativity instead of standard incentives.

In 2016, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced a new revolving fund to

address the same lack of affordable housing that we are seeing in Longmont.

The fund is used to support the difference of the affordable housing and

current market rates for families that have a household income below the

local average. This provides a large incentive for developers while

providing affordable housing for families that need them. An adapted

version of Denver’s fund could become equally successful in Longmont and a

much better alternative to the proposed inclusionary housing policy.

Opening a fee-based expedited process and adjusting current affordable

housing incentives would allow Longmont to build the capital required to

properly integrate the program without increasing taxes on residents. This

expedited process would allow for non-affordable housing developments to

take advantage of the fast track process while raising the capital needed

to support the fund.

This is only one option of the many that Longmont should examine before

acting on inclusionary housing. There may not be a perfect solution to the

problem of affordable housing but it will require innovation and creativity

on the part of City Council and not just the re-implementation of past

programs that have failed.

--

Alexander Koenigseker, Longmont, CO 80501

This is an opinion piece that was submitted to the Longmont Observer and does not necessarily represent the opinion of the Longmont Observer. If you have an opinion piece you'd like published, please visit our 'Submit an Opinion' page.