Nonprofits excluded from linkage fees
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Video
Affordable housing
Public comments from Tuesday night's meeting from Catherine Carson, Sandy Evans Hall and Ed MacArthur.
Steamboat Springs — Non-profits are excluded from sweeping new housing policies adopted by the city of Steamboat Springs on Tuesday night.
Capping nine months of research and preparation, the Steamboat Springs City Council approved a vastly revised inclusionary zoning and linkage ordinance, voting, 4-2, to change how the city will provide affordable housing for local workers facing Steamboat's booming real estate market. Council members Paul Strong and Loui Antonucci voted against the ordinance, citing what they said are excessive fees for commercial developers. City Council President Susan Dellinger was absent from the meeting, which continued past 11 p.m. in a crowded Centennial Hall.
The City Council made several significant changes to the ordinance, some just minutes before its adoption. Arguably the largest change was a unanimous decision, spurred by Councilman Paul Strong, to exempt institutional uses - including all non-profits, such as Yampa Valley Medical Center and LIFT-UP of Routt County - from paying "linkage" fees for new construction.
Linkage fees compensate the city for housing needs created by development.
Karl Gills, the hospital's chief executive officer, has for months spoken against assessing such fees to local non-profits. Tuesday night, representatives of six other non-profits pleaded to the council to exempt them from linkage fees, which Tami Havener of the Family Development Center said could have cost the center up to $100,000.
"Anytime we add costs, it goes back to families," Havener said, citing rising local birth rates and a waiting list of 175 children in line for the center's pre-school facilities. "We would like to expand:the need is only going to get worse for our young families."
But while non-profits are now exempt from helping the city fund affordable housing, commercial developers will shoulder much of the burden.
A sticking point for the council was how much of a fee to charge commercial developers. While Strong and Antonucci pushed for a 5 percent rate - a percentage that would be plugged into the city's fee formula - other council members supported a 10 percent rate. Mark Halvorson of the Yampa Valley Construction Trades Association told the council that for a roughly 10,000-square-foot office building he would like to build, the difference between a 5 percent or 10 percent rate is $100,000 or $200,000.
The council gave Halvorson, and commercial developers, somewhat of a compromise.
In an effort some council members said is intended to help small businesses, the first 5,000 square feet of new commercial construction will now be assessed a linkage fee at a 5 percent rate. Square footage beyond that will be assessed at a 10 percent rate.
While homebuilders also will be required to help the city fund affordable housing, the council lightened the load for residential development.
Residential construction of less than 500 square feet is exempt from fees. Construction from 500 square feet to 1,999 square feet will only be assessed at a 1 percent rate, a reduction from previous versions of the ordinance.
Councilman Towny Anderson proposed one of the final changes to the ordinance, giving commercial and residential developers the right to pay the city a fee in lieu of providing affordable units required by the city's inclusionary zoning policies.
Previously, the city only allowed such fees in minimal amounts, for fractions of units left over in city calculations.
Councilman Ken Brenner said the change will drastically reduce the city's ability to acquire actual affordable homes, rather than payments.
"It makes no sense to do that - what we're going to get is fee-in-lieu," Brenner said. "I thought we were doing a great job this evening : but this is the wrong thing to do. I'm really disappointed."
The inclusionary zoning and linkage ordinance will be effective Wednesday, June 20, because the City Council tabled action on associated housing guidelines until its meeting June 19.
"This is about keeping up and going forward," Anderson said of the ordinance. "We're not going backward."
City Council President Pro-tem Steve Ivancie, who moderated the meeting in Dellinger's stead, noted the policies can be changed in the future.
"We have annual review of this, and we'll be able to adjust it as needed," Ivancie said. "This is just one tool: I think this ordinance requires pretty much everyone to pay. We all have a stake in this. We all have a foot in the pond."
-To reach Mike Lawrence, call 871-4203
or e-mail mlawrence@steamboatpilot.com
Comments
another_local 5 years, 11 months ago
"We all have a foot in the pond"? Which pond is that? This from a council whose members, for the most part, have no skin in the game.
Is the city required to hold payments made in lieu or do they flow into the general fund?
This is a serious mistake. At least the next council can unwind it unlike the spending decisions where the money is already gone.
another_local 5 years, 11 months ago
I think the money was all spent (along with parking fees in lieu collected over the years) on consultants and studies.
steamvent 5 years, 11 months ago
Perhaps the biggest offense of this new ordinance is that, just like the Affordable Housing proposal that was soundly defeated by voters several years ago, THERE IS NO SPECIFIC PLAN FOR WHAT HAPPENS TO THE FUNDS COLLECTED. Even now, funds the city has collected under other schemes in the name of affordable housing are sitting in limbo, even unreachable by the "Housing Authority." Combine that with no public vote and you have a cruel JOKE for which we will all pay.
Pilatus 5 years, 11 months ago
Spent on consultants hired to figure out how to spend money on answers that have no questions.
buck 5 years, 11 months ago
This ordinance would be death of Steamboat's middle class, except that we will have a new, less-Socialist council after the November elections.
elphaba 5 years, 11 months ago
We should all thank this Council for making our existing real estate more valuable. Prices went up last night in Steamboat on anything that's standing. Making housing more expensive to make it "affordable" is an oxymoron - adopted by morons.
Brian_Bavosi 5 years, 11 months ago
I'm confident that everyone could see the writinng on the wall long before the decision was made.
What was more interesting to me was the lack of knowledge some of the council members had with the ordinance itself. It seems outrageous to me that an elected official could be comfortable with a second reading when there is not a program in place to administer this thing.....they were openly joking and laughing about not having anything in place and brenner acknowledged that they move at a snails pace and it would take forever for them to figure this out!
Where's the Housing Authority? What good can they serve when they have no input or involvement in administering affordable housing policy?
I think it is more important to notice the inefficiency of not only the the meetings but also the agendas. Knowing that linkage is a controversial issue, I think Council has been irresponsible with the timing of these discussions. This issue was worthy of it's own meeting all the way through the process. I know that council has a huge work load but they dictate it. Maybe eliminate some of the bs they make decisions on and empower there own paid staff to handle what they were trained to do. No community member should have to sit in a hearing until 11:00 pm just b/c the most important issue is buried at the bottom of the agenda....make it the first item and get it over and done with in a timely fashion. I applaud Paul Strong for deciding not to go over every word of the ordinance for the tenth time....Talking in circles is only necessary 80% of the time. It's pretty funny Towny mentioned Revelstoke....socialist systems are applauded in Canada!
Power2thePeople 5 years, 11 months ago
Consultants, rejoice! City Council just found a new source of funds for more ridiculous, unnecessary "feasibility" studies. Perhaps they could hire a consultant to study the environmental impact of those evil proposed hot dog stands along Lincoln Avenue. $100,000 or so should do it.
Better yet, Council could charge the poor hot dog vendor a linkage fee for creating a job or two. A fee of ten bucks or so per dog should do it.
spukomy 5 years, 11 months ago
Does anyone know how much $ has been collected, where it is stashed, how it will be dispersed, or who is in charge of that decision? Insert consultant joke here.
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