SUBJECT: General Business
Title
A Resolution of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Erie Adopting the Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership’s Priorities and Strategies for Expanding Access to Diverse Housing for Our Community
Body
DEPARTMENT: Administration
PRESENTER: Malcolm Fleming, Town Administrator
TIME ESTIMATE: 15 Minutes
only required for non-consent items
FISCAL INFORMATION: N/A
Cost as Recommended: Unknown at this time, but any costs would be subject to prior approval by the Board of Trustees
Balance Available:
Budget Line Item Number:
New Appropriation Required:
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Approve the proposed Resolution to show the Town’s commitment to the Regional Housing Partnership’s priorities and strategies for expanding access to diverse housing. If the Board approves the Resolution, staff will develop an action plan for 2021, including community/stakeholder engagement, and begin active participation in the Regional Housing Partnership to identify strategies and potential actions for Board consideration.
End
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
Issue No. 17 on the Town’s 2020 Work Plan is “Affordable Housing”. The detailed description of this issue is, “Join and work with the Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership (BCRHP), with Weld County, and with developers to expand access to diverse housing. Specific actions include, (1) adopting a resolution to formally join the BoCo AHC, (2) adopting an IGA with Weld County to participate in Weld’s CDBG program and submitting a grant application, (3) identifying and fixing provisions in the UDC and Town fees that make it difficult/impossible to construct attainable housing in Erie. ” With this objective in mind, Town staff reached out to representatives from the BCRHP to explore opportunities to expand access to diverse housing in Erie.
During the Board of Trustees’ August 18, 2020 study session, representative from the cities of Boulder and Longmont, and from Boulder County discussed the Regional Housing Partnership goals, and how diverse and affordable housing contributes to community vitality and economic development, helps promote family stability, improves environmental outcomes, and increases public safety. They also discussed various specific strategies that each of their respective jurisdictions use to promote diverse and affordable housing and help achieve the Regional Partnership’s goal to have 12% of all housing units in Boulder County be affordable (as defined by median income criteria to mean that a family spends no more than 30% of their household income on housing costs) by 2035.
The Executive Summary of the Regional Housing Partnership’s Regional Housing Strategy, “Expanding Access to Diverse Housing for Our Community” states:
Across Boulder County and beyond, the rising cost of renting and buying a home has placed tremendous burdens on our neighbors in communities throughout the region. This regional plan has been created through a collaboration across the region, seeking a unified vision, goals, and set of strategies to rise to this challenge. The regional plan represents a regional, coordinated effort to adopt the following five strategies:
Establish a Regional Goal
The Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership recommends a goal of ensuring 12% of the housing inventory will be permanently affordable to low, moderate, and middle-income households by 2035. This goal requires securing 800 homes per year for 15 years, which would be achieved through a combination of acquisition, redevelopment, and new construction.
Bolster Financial Resources
Increase local funding sources by $20 million per year to invest in community housing and attract additional funding from sources including the private sector and state and federal resources. A diverse set of approaches will be required to meet this ambitious goal.
Secure Land and Development/Redevelopment Opportunities
Land for housing is increasingly scarce in the communities within Boulder County. Securing land and prioritizing its use for community housing are key requirements to meeting the regional housing goal. A variety of partnerships can help support this strategy.
Preserve Affordability
Price escalation is pushing homes out of reach for low- and middle-income owners and renters. This plan recommends several strategies for preserving affordability of existing homes, including acquiring and deed restricting existing housing inventory, adopting one to one replacement and right of first refusal ordinances.
Consider Regulatory Processes
Each community has recognized housing as a core value in its comprehensive plan. Community are encouraged to act on these core values by reviewing and aligning their regulatory processes to create a more favorable environment for diverse housing types and income. Regulatory alignment includes increasing incentives, reducing barriers, and creating requirements through annexation and inclusionary housing policies.
Adopting these strategies will strengthen our regional housing response. Establishing local community specific goals is also encouraged. The plan has been widely vetted and has been presented to nearly 40 audiences, including business leaders, elected and appointed officials, community groups and non-profit organizations. A range of goals from 10% to 15% of the housing inventory were discussed. The general consensus based on feedback the Partnership has received was that 10% is insufficient, and that 15% would be difficult to achieve. This plan incorporates the extensive feedback received from those meetings and includes the Partnership’s recommended 12% goal.
At the conclusion of the Board’s August 18, 2020 meeting, Board members expressed strong support for joining the Regional Partnership and exploring in 2021, using various Advisory Board, community, and developer engagement approaches, what policies and actions the Town could adopt to promote more diverse and affordable housing in Erie. Adopting the attached Resolution would formalize the Board Members’ statements of support for this action.
To date, Boulder County and the cities and towns of Boulder, Jamestown, Lafayette, Louisville, Longmont, Lyons, Nederland and Superior have all joined the Regional Partnership, adopted respective versions of the attached Resolution regarding a Regional Housing Strategy, and are working collaboratively on the issue.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Proposed Resolution to adopt the Boulder County Regional Housing Strategy Expanding Access to Diverse Housing for the Community
2. Link <https://homewanted.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Regional-Affordable-Housing-Plan.pdf> to “Expanding Access to Diverse Housing for Our Community Regional Housing Strategy”
3. August 18, 2020 Presentation by Regional Housing Partnership representatives