Gainesville City Commission asks staff to bring back mandatory inclusionary zoning ordinance
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the January 11 General Policy Committee meeting, the Gainesville City Commission asked staff to bring back a mandatory inclusionary zoning ordinance that would require developers to make 10% of their units affordable for 99 years.
Juan Castillo from the Department of Sustainable Development described the proposed inclusionary zoning policy as a “very important and exceptional item” to address affordable housing.
Mayor Harvey Ward interjected, “And I think we’ve only been working on this for six years now.”
Castillo explained that inclusionary zoning is a regulatory tool “designed to require or encourage developers to provide affordable housing in their development.” The regulations can encourage or require developers to set aside a percentage of units for people who meet certain income thresholds.
Staff proposed requiring new multi-family rental developments with 10 or more units to set aside 10% of the units for people who are making 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI) for 99 years. Developers would be entitled to a 30% density bonus by right, and they could pay the market rate for the units to the City instead of setting them aside as affordable units. The units must be comparable to the market-rate units, and they must be dispersed throughout the development instead of being grouped together. A developer can also apply for an additional density bonus in exchange for providing more affordable units.
Castillo said the City Plan Board approved the plan but had a concern about setting the threshold at 10 units because smaller developers may not have the resources to dedicate affordable units. However, staff recommended keeping the threshold at 10 units.
In response to a question from Commissioner Casey Willits, Castillo said the payment for the market-rate value of units, in lieu of making them affordable units, would go into a pool of funds for affordable housing.
Ward said if they’d implemented this when they first started talking about it in 2018, they would “already have hundreds more units available of affordable housing by now… We should be very careful and remember that this is one of the tools in the toolbox… This will help; it will not be the fix.” He said all the policies will combine to improve the housing stock in the community over the course of a decade or two.
Public comment
During public comment, Tana Silva said the AMI should be for Gainesville only and should include utilities, taxes, and insurance–all the housing costs. She also thought the threshold should be more like 30 or 50 units.
Kali Blount said 80% of AMI is “skimming the cream off the top of a gigantic need” and that 10% of units would be “a minuscule change in the pattern of our city.”
Bobby Mermer from the Alachua County Labor Coalition said the union endorses the proposal; he said it would “provide much, much-needed relief and an improved quality of life for many Gainesville residents struggling with finding housing and at virtually no cost to the City… It also allows the working class to take a piece of the pie as developers continue to build in Gainesville.”
Clay Sweger encouraged the City to develop a streamlined process, especially for small developers, and suggested that senior living facilities be exempted from the ordinance, not just the assisted living facilities that are in the draft ordinance.
Willits favored exempting assisted living facilities but wanted to make sure developers couldn’t just designate a project as “senior living” and be exempted from inclusionary zoning requirements.
Commissioner Ed Book supported a voluntary program with incentives for developers to include affordable housing in their projects.
Motion and vote
Saco made a motion to ask staff to come back with a draft ordinance for inclusionary zoning “with a specification at 10 units” and information on its applicability to senior living facilities. Eastman seconded the motion.
The motion passed 6-1, with Book in dissent.
More of the brilliant city commission trying to poison the entire city with “affordable housing.” Imagine paying 2k a month for your apartment while some deadbeats using your tax dollars smoke weed and blare their music all day. Diversity is not our strength.
Two Face apparently mislead his sheeples to get into office.Not hard to do with Gainesville Voters.Party on Comrades.
Can it be mandatory they be run out of town? Maybe exclude them from breathing any air that should only be used by people with common sense? That’s about the only way to fix the dysfunctional city.
Their stupidity has no boundaries.
The people who voted for them appear to have the same issues.
Fascist democrats.
When God was assigning brain sizes, Saco was somehow allotted less than the minimum.
As much as lard-arsed Harvey would probably enjoy it, if he was on the side of the road on fire, I wouldn’t stop to piss on him to put the fire out.
The brightest part of Ward, dribbled down his mama’s leg…..
As long as this “Affordable Housing” ordinance is in in place, development is going to continue outside of the COG city limits.
What you really tryna say is,
“We need to even out those who work their asses off to make ins meet, with those who collect welfare and state assistance….
And it’s simply not gonna work.
And then,,, ten years from now, your next COG Commission is gonna have state regulatory folks up y’alls ass about it, just like the sling y’all got us in with GRU.
Yo man look….,
White, black, rich, or poor, ya’ll CANNOT change The “Ghettos” around town, and make housing developments (ie. Apartments Etc) “Inclusionary”.
What’s worse about your logic here, is that YOU KNOW WHAT THE Real Solution Looks like.
Ya’ll just can’t say it to John Q public without being ridiculed for it.
I read that one article with the poor sob story e-mail was sent out describing “budget cuts” to various city entities when the GRU Regulations/Investigations first started getting real just before Christmas.
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure it out.
Think about this, Why is it that a majority of new housing development projects taking place outside of the city limits?
Because nobody wants the ghetto in their back yard.
Awws…. You poor homeless thing, 😔
here…..
Lemme give you some food stamps, and here, here, let me give an affordable home that is qualified under “our” provision for building and developing more housing.
BBBBUT! FIRST AND FOREMOST, LETS FIND DEVELOPERS WHO WILL FALL FOR THIS CRAP….
And….
You jackass’s will pass it, and write it into small tiny print on development contracts inside the city limits…. 😂
Just sign here, and your guys can break ground……
“Suckers”!!!!
In the sob ass e-mail I read, that was posted right her on AC, A COG Representative typed out,
Funding for homeless shelters around the local vicinity might potentially be cut due to the GRU thing. I’m paraphrasing but ya’ll get the idea.
And there it is!!!
The damn logic!!!! Or lack thereof in COG commission’s eyes. 🤣
Literally,,, Cut the crap that’s bringing our community backwards.
Why can’t the state fund the homeless shelters?
They fund Meridian??? Oh, Right…..
A lot of people who go to Meridian have to have insurance, and if not, Meridian will figure out a way. Because the State has subsidised insurance programs…..
I got to give credit where credit is due,
the COG Commission is trying. 😆
But, it’s not gonna work.
It’s just not….
Like GRU, the State of Florida is gonna have to come financially save y’all, but they mostly Republicans.
We all know what state representatives are gonna say about it.
“They gone say This is a bad idea”,
But this bad idea is Inclusionary. 😭
Please see our side of this. 😰
“Nope, Let’s keep the ghettos where they are. Let’s not create new ones, and let’s not create conflict by trying to determine who can afford to live where.
The lowest rung of housing should be deed restricted, owner-occupied, with special rules to dissuade crime and human trafficking.
If it’s just more subsidized rentals, it’ll be another false economy, breed crime, ruin surrounding neighbors’ lifetime investment, etc. as usual per our lawyer-designed urban planning legacy 👹🍦🍦🍦D
These commissioners are mentally defective. 10% subsidized (Section 8) in every new neighborhood? Really? Does that mean the banks have to loan money to people who can’t pay it back?
THEY ARE BEING RACIAL, I DO BELIEVE THAT IS AGAINST THE LAW, ISN’T IT?
The BEST way to make housing affordable is to get a job (or 2), and work hard. Also, spend your money wisely – stop buying booze, cigarettes, and lottery tickets. Maybe stop making babies that you can’t afford.
Mo Betta 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
That is the indisputable truth!!
Of the govt keeps “helping” the lives of the “less fortunate” will never change.
We will never have equality of outcome because there will never be an equality of effort.
Mo Betta, you are the first I have heard in a very longtime, to really have nailed the problem down.
>>The units must be comparable to the market-rate units, and they must be dispersed throughout the development instead of being grouped together.
This is the proof that this policy has nothing to do with making more affordable housing available. Otherwise, why would it matter? They just want to flood every district with government-dependent voters, aka Democrats.
It sounds very RACIAL TO ME.
They all should be AFFORDABEL, what kind of language is that?, sounds like idiot language to me.
Actually, I’m getting out the popcorn. Rule one in politics in Florida, developers get to do what ever they want to do. This might fall afoul of rule #1. We will see, maybe they can figure out how to pass this mandate along to the tax payer.
This woke, pandering commission really knows how to ruin a good thing, especially a good neighborhood.
I’ve worked since turning 16, put myself through college, landed the career & worked more than full-time ever since. So my family and I can afford to live AWAY from certain elements. But this commission wants to gift-wrap what I’ve worked so hard for & give it to people who have put forth about 3% of the effort in life that I have. Yes- I have a huge problem with that!!!
And you watch- sprinkle 10 of these houses into any good neighborhood. Burglaries & thefts ‘suddenly’ start happening, good people get run-off, property values tank & reviews of the area start to suck. The list goes on.