This reporting doesn’t include the city attorney’s position on the matter, which is (as I understand it): This is a by-right development… So attempting to prohibit it would expose the city to greater legal liability than would working through the process to make the project conform to the city's Unified Development Ordinance and the form-based code that applies.
This isn’t a case of council abdicating some authority, but instead a savvy developer working with the system. Staff literally cannot allow development that breaks ANY of the rules or regulations, so it is misleading to provide a quote which implies that they did.
But also and perhaps more importantly, Little’s quote complaining about the price of the townhomes amplifies a fundamental misunderstanding of a basic economic theory; the Law of Supply and Demand. Generally, increasing the supply of housing in our area should lead to price decreases. It is extremely challenging, if not impossible these days, to build new affordable housing, but that isn’t the point: Building new housing at any price point will decrease the demand and therefore the value of the existing housing stock because it will increase the supply. If Ms. Little truly wanted more affordable housing, she should be advocating for an even denser development at the Mary’s Landing site.
And I find it telling that Ms. Little and her organization aren’t so vocal about the proposed redevelopment at Greenbrier. Perhaps they aren’t as upset by that 173 unit development because it isn’t in their back yard.
Two things. As noted, the only thing approved by right is the number of buildable lots. All other aspects of the development will have to meet current codes, both building and municipal. Second, if we are going to discuss affordable housing, we really need to define that term. Every occupied house is theoretically affordable, so enough with the fuzzy language. Public policy requires a definition.
This reporting doesn’t include the city attorney’s position on the matter, which is (as I understand it): This is a by-right development… So attempting to prohibit it would expose the city to greater legal liability than would working through the process to make the project conform to the city's Unified Development Ordinance and the form-based code that applies.
This isn’t a case of council abdicating some authority, but instead a savvy developer working with the system. Staff literally cannot allow development that breaks ANY of the rules or regulations, so it is misleading to provide a quote which implies that they did.
But also and perhaps more importantly, Little’s quote complaining about the price of the townhomes amplifies a fundamental misunderstanding of a basic economic theory; the Law of Supply and Demand. Generally, increasing the supply of housing in our area should lead to price decreases. It is extremely challenging, if not impossible these days, to build new affordable housing, but that isn’t the point: Building new housing at any price point will decrease the demand and therefore the value of the existing housing stock because it will increase the supply. If Ms. Little truly wanted more affordable housing, she should be advocating for an even denser development at the Mary’s Landing site.
And I find it telling that Ms. Little and her organization aren’t so vocal about the proposed redevelopment at Greenbrier. Perhaps they aren’t as upset by that 173 unit development because it isn’t in their back yard.
Two things. As noted, the only thing approved by right is the number of buildable lots. All other aspects of the development will have to meet current codes, both building and municipal. Second, if we are going to discuss affordable housing, we really need to define that term. Every occupied house is theoretically affordable, so enough with the fuzzy language. Public policy requires a definition.