Updated DC Housing Priorities Coalition priorities for B23-1 _ 7-8-19.docx (4)
Category: Affordable Housing
CSG support for Prince George’s Countywide Sectional Map Amendment
CSG Support of Prince George’s County Council advancing SMA
July 2, 2019
The Honorable Todd Turner, Chairman
Committee of the Whole
Prince George’s County Council
RE: Support for:
CB-011-2019, An Ordinance Concerning the Countywide Sectional Map Amendment;
CR-026-2019, A Resolution Concerning the Countywide Sectional Map Amendment;
CR-027-2019, A Resolution Concerning Preparation of a Countywide Sectional Map Amendment and Approval of Goals, Concepts, and Guidelines; and Public Participation Program
Dear Chair Turner and members of the committee:
Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. The Coalition for Smarter Growth is the leading organization working locally in the Washington, DC metropolitan region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Our mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish.
We wish to express our support for initiating the countywide sectional map amendment to advance the implementation of the zoning rewrite enacted by this Council in the fall of 2018. This zoning rewrite is a significant advance for the county. We appreciate that this is an important change for the county, and we commend the level of public engagement required to implement the countywide sectional map amendment.
This change is worth the effort because it replaces the county’s current obsolete and cumbersome zoning regulations which are holding back the county. Here are some of the ways the zoning and subdivision process will improve:
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Design and building form standards: the document establishes transit-oriented zones at the local and regional scales to support the goals of walkable urbanism, creating walkable, and bikable areas that are well-connected to transit;
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Parking standards for urban and transit-oriented areas: the zoning rewrite reduces excessive minimum parking requirements in transit-oriented centers in order to support more multimodal designs and uses.
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Street designs: the revisions require interconnected streets, shorter blocks, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. It implements newly adopted urban street design standards that support walk and bike friendly streets.
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Transportation demand management: the regulations also establish progressive traffic reduction measures that emphasize encouraging more people to ride transit if available, bicycle, share rides and walk.
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Ease of use: The zoning and subdivision regulations are presented in a more readable format providing tables and graphic illustrations to better understand and visualize the standards.
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Ending perpetual approvals: The proposed rules establish limits on approvals after a number of years. Today, approvals are allowed to live on forever, despite significant changes that may occur after initially projected conditions. While some of the provisions seem overly generous, setting the proposed limits would be a big step forward for the county.
Adopt this critical reform
We believe implementation of the zoning and subdivision rewrite is a tremendous improvement for the county and the community. It is a once in a generation opportunity. We urge the Council to vote to initiate the countywide sectional map amendment process in order to keep the zoning rewrite timeline on track. The countywide sectional map amendment is the next essential step to ensuring the timely implementation of the county’s modernized zoning and subdivision regulations.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Cort
Policy Director
CSG Support of PGC advancing SMA
CSG in the News: Why local affordable housing orgs want to expand accessory apartments in Montgomery County
Why local affordable housing orgs want to expand accessory apartments in Montgomery County
By John Paukstis, Jane Lyons, Greater Greater Washington
Like much of the United States, Montgomery County is facing a critical housing shortage. Finding healthy, affordable housing near jobs and transit is extremely difficult for many people at varying income levels.
Earlier this year, Councilmember Hans Riemer introduced Zoning Text Amendment 19-01, which is aimed at making it easier for county homeowners to build accessory apartments (also known as Accessory Dwelling Units or ADUs) on their properties. Accessory apartments are separate apartments either within, attached to, or detached from a main unit—think English basements, garage apartments, and small backyard cottages.
Accessory apartments allow homeowners to flexibly use their largest asset, their home, as their family’s needs change. Accessory apartments also provide important economic, social, and environmental benefits including:
- Providing critical rental revenue to a senior living on fixed income and looking to age in place
- Utilizing existing infrastructure to provide additional housing without increasing sprawl
- Increasing housing opportunities around transit, near jobs, and in desirable communities
- Providing opportunities for multigenerational living while maintaining independence for all parties
- Habitat for Humanity could build accessory apartments for low- to moderate-income residents or for adults with disabilities
Importantly, accessory apartments provide opportunities for families who cannot afford to buy a home, to access housing in areas of the county which are generally inaccessible to them otherwise. Much of Montgomery County is zoned for single family, detached homes. With an average home value of $450,000, many potential homebuyers are priced out of the market and unable to save a down payment due to the high cost of rent and living.
Accessory apartments offer an opportunity to expand housing options in highly desired neighborhoods, helping make our communities more diverse, no matter socioeconomic status, race, or ethnic identity. While we cannot guarantee that accessory apartments will be rented at or below market, studies from areas with large numbers of accessory apartments show that many units are rented below market rate and are affordable to families with modest incomes.
Moreover, accessory apartment size restrictions will limit the amount of rent that can be charged. Either way, renting an accessory apartment is more accessible to families than buying a home in the same neighborhood.
We believe that ZTA 19-01, with amendments unanimously approved by the Planning, Housing, and Economic Development committee, balances the desire of homeowners to build accessory apartments with concerns from the community around short-term rentals, parking, and storm water management.
- Short-term rentals, including Airbnb, are explicitly prohibited and homeowners are required to live in either the main unit or the accessory apartment. Both units cannot be rented at once.
- The amendments recommend waiving the additional parking requirement within one mile of a metro station. That said, additional off street parking is still required outside of the one mile metro radius at the same level as is currently required.
- Under the ZTA, detached accessory apartments continue to be treated as accessory structures and must comply with the same lot coverage ratios deemed acceptable, in terms of storm water management, for a garage or shed.
The expansion of accessory apartments will not solve the affordable housing crisis, but we believe it is a critical tool in providing increased housing opportunities in desirable neighborhoods. That’s why the Montgomery Housing Alliance Action in Montgomery, Coalition for Smarter Growth, Habitat for Humanity Metro Maryland, Housing Opportunities Commission, Interfaith Works, Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, Montgomery Housing Partnership, Rebuilding Together, and Victory Housing all strongly encourage residents and councilmembers to support ZTA 19-01.
Join Habitat for Humanity and the Coalition for Smarter Growth to voice your support for accessory apartments in Montgomery County!
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You can read the full Greater Greater Washington post here.
Testimony supporting amendments to Subdivision Staging Policy
June 7, 2019
Montgomery County Council
Council Office Building 100
Maryland Ave. Rockville, MD 20850
Resolution to Amend the 2016-2020 Subdivision Staging Policy (Support)
Testimony for June 11, 2019
Jane Lyons, Maryland Advocacy Manager
President Navarro and Councilmembers, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am here on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the leading organization in the D.C. region advocating for walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities. We support current efforts to lessen the negative impacts of the Subdivision Staging Policy’s (SPP) housing moratorium and echo the need for affordable housing. However, we ultimately urge the Council to replace the moratorium with policies that better address the County’s school construction, housing, and economic development needs.
The 2016 SSP projected that the county would grow by over 200,000 residents between then and 2045, with 14 percent of land absorbing 82 percent of new jobs, 76 percent of new households, and 73 percent of population growth. Preventing new housing, especially mixed-use, mixed-income, transit-oriented, and affordable housing in efficient locations close with good transit, stifles the county’s ability to meet the housing needs of current and future residents, as well as to grow the local economy and maintain the county’s fiscal health. We can have a county that has both good housing and good schools for all of our residents.
Further, new medium to higher density development has not been a major contributor to student generation. Single-family homes countywide generate almost double the number of students that multi-family homes generate, and single-family home turnover is the primary factor driving school population increases. Finally, school impact taxes paid by new development provide more than the total cost for each projected generated student. Medium to higher density development also provides significant property tax revenue. It does not make sense to punish new development that the county needs for impacts it does not cause.
For these reasons, we ask the Council go further to address the harm that the moratorium brings. Today’s resolution is an important first step to mitigating the harmful impact of the moratorium on affordable housing supply. However, the stringent requirements of the resolution are likely to help just one current housing proposal, the transit-oriented 850 Sligo Apartments in Silver Spring. Other important transit-oriented new housing developments, like Strathmore Square, are left in moratorium for at least another year, limiting the number of units that are being approved at this time. We’ve also heard that the uncertainty and potential limitation on buildout caused by the moratorium can put the private financing of projects like Strathmore Square at risk.
There are many alternatives to the moratorium for the Council to consider, including:
• Reinstating school facility payments in overcrowded clusters, while maintaining the current school impact tax. This would allow development to continue, but impose a slightly higher cost to do so. As clusters and individual schools became more overcrowded, the county could require a corresponding increase in school facility payments.
• Aligning the timelines of the CIP and annual school test. While the Capital Improvements Program (CIP) includes projects six years into the future, the annual school test in the SSP only looks at the next five years. This means that even if there is a project in the sixth year of the CIP that would remedy overcrowding, that school or individual cluster could still go into moratorium. To address this, the annual school test should consider projections six years into the future.
• Taxing teardowns more substantially. Teardowns do not currently pay impact fees, even though they are new construction and new families moving in can be expected to generate new students. This might also reduce the “mansionization” of our communities, which turns formerly modestly- sized homes into much larger homes, housing a similar household size.
• Exempting Metro Station Policy Areas from the annual school test. Building more homes, especially affordable homes, near transit is necessary for a sustainable future. We cannot afford to miss out on opportunities to grow in a more walkable way. Businesses and residents are looking to locate in more transit-oriented communities.
• Redistricting school boundaries. Although education policy is not our specialty, we encourage those who are experts to make more substantive recommendations on this topic. Redistricting has the potential to relieve overcrowding, as well as further goals of socioeconomic and racial integration.
• Reviewing school design standards. If schools are designed to occupy a smaller footprint by being three stories instead of one, or integrated into mixed-use development, and if playing fields can be shared with recreational centers and parks, then it might be easier to find sites for new schools.
• Pushing forward the 2020 SSP effective date to June 2020. The current timeline for the SSP update is November 2020, well after the next annual school test in July 2020. Changes should be made to the SSP by June 2020 to avoid another year of moratorium restricting the housing supply and economic development.
These are our suggestions to consider, but we strongly urge the Planning Department to offer other alternatives to the housing moratorium policy. Montgomery County can have great schools, plentiful housing, and a strong economy, but we must have policies that support that future. We look forward to being a part of these conversations throughout the 2020 SSP process. For now, this resolution is a first step.
Thank you for your time.
CSG in the News: ADUs gaining in popularity across the country
Cities’ interest in granny flats at ‘fever pitch’ amid U.S. housing crisis
by Carey L. Biron, MAY 20, 2019, Reuters
WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The U.S. capital is one of the most expensive cities in the country, but Derek Wright hopes to cover his housing costs with a novel strategy that local officials are keen to foster: He is becoming a small-scale landlord.
Very small-scale, that is. Wright is applying for a permit to turn his townhouse’s basement into a separate home, the rent from which he expects will cover more than half of his mortgage.
These types of projects are technically known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), but are also called “granny flats”, “mother-in-law suites” or “English basements”….
And they are gaining popularity around the country, said Cheryl Cort, policy director for the non-profit Coalition for Smarter Growth, as policymakers in expensive cities look to them as a way to boost affordable housing.
Granny flats offer a low-cost housing solution because the land is already paid for, she said, and they are often built in more central parts of the city.
They have long been allowed in Washington, but in 2016 city officials tweaked the application rules with the aim of making the process easier, said Cort.
The city struck down various prohibitions and made it so “a homeowner can build one as a matter of right, for the most part,” she added.
Ileana Schinder, the architect who worked with Fazio and Wright on the designs and city approvals for their projects, said she has overseen the construction of about 20 granny flats in Washington over the past few years — and interest is climbing.
Many of Schinder’s prospective clients have been young families looking for additional income so they can stay in the city, as well as older people who need the financial boost to continue living in their homes….
View full story here.
Together, we saved the D.C. Affordable Housing Preservation Fund
D.C. Council restores money to the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund!
On May 28, 2019, the D.C. Council voted to allocate $11.5 million for the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund – one of D.C.’s critical tools to preserve affordable housing and prevent displacement. When we contacted you on Friday asking you to take action, it was because the D.C. Council had amended the Mayor’s proposed fiscal year 2020 budget and reduced the funding for the Preservation Fund from $15 million to zero.
Nearly 100 of CSG activists rose to the challenge, and thanks to your letters and comments, by the time the Council reconvened on Tuesday, they had restored $7.5 million to the Preservation Fund! In a final switch, the D.C. Council voted to take $4 million out of the Housing Production Trust Fund and put it into the Preservation Fund, resulting in a final allocation of $11.5 million. Restoring funding was a huge lift and we could not have done it without you!
While CSG is disappointed that this additional funding came from the Housing Production Trust Fund, which helps to fund the production and rehabilitation of affordable units, the Preservation Fund provides the money for the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and District Opportunity to Purchase Act (DOPA). Giving tenants an opportunity to purchase their homes is a critical tool to prevent displacement, and we are confident this money will be put to good use. Last year, the Preservation Fund saved nearly 900 affordable homes across the entire city.
We are so grateful to everyone for taking action in the run up to a long weekend to ensure that this critical fund continues to support tenants and the District as they seek to buy buildings and preserve them as affordable housing.
Tell the D.C. Council to restore the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund – it’s our leading tool to combat displacement
Two reports recently deemed D.C. the most gentrifying city in America. Yet, D.C. Council’s draft FY2020 budget proposes to eliminate one of our most effective tools that prevents displacement. This tool, the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund, provides quick financing to tenant associations and the District to buy apartment buildings when they go up for sale. But now, the D.C. Council’s draft FY2020 budget would eliminate funding for this crucial preservation tool.
D.C. is an expensive city and increasingly unaffordable to many residents. But we can make a difference in the policies and investments that we make. One of our most effective tools to prevent displacement is the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund.
This vital tool leverages private dollars to provide timely financing to low-income tenants who are determined to remain in D.C. In just two years, the fund is already preserving nearly 900 homes all over the city. Building on this success, the Mayor’s FY2020 budget proposed $15 million for the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund, up from last year’s $10 million.
But the D.C. Council’s proposed budget would zero out this essential loan fund. The loss of this money will leave many tenant association and District deals that could preserve affordable housing and prevent the displacement of long-time residents unfunded.
Before the Council votes next Tuesday, May 28, let Chairman Mendelson and the D.C. Council know that you support the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund and want to ensure it continues to help D.C. residents stay in their homes and preserve affordable housing.
Want more information? See: DC is on track to cut this affordable housing preservation tool.
UPDATE: Due to all of our strong advocacy, on Friday, May 24, the D.C. Council budget added $7.5 million to the Preservation Fund. While this is an enormous improvement, we are still seeking funding at least on par with last year’s budget of $10 million, if not the Mayor’s proposed increase to $15 million. Click here to take action.
CSG in the News: DC hopes to increase housing supply 25% by 2030 – WTOP
DC hopes to increase housing supply 25% by 2030
By John Domen, May 4, 2019 8:22 am, WTOP
It’s not cheap to live in D.C. Whether you rent or hope to own, finding a place to live has become more expensive over the years because the population growth seen in the city this century has far outpaced the housing that’s available….
One of the approaches the city seems ready to focus on are “accessory dwelling units.”
…“There are large areas of the district that are part of the … zone, so they’re able to add accessory dwelling units to their property,” said Bush. “They both present the opportunity to increase the number of units of housing, and therefore decrease the cost of housing. But they also provide an opportunity to give another source of income to a homeowner that might be feeling the pinches as the cost of living in D.C. rises.”
…“There’s groups like the Coalition for Smarter Growth and others that have started to create some really interesting programs with homeowners and architects etc. to promote this, but I think there’s more we can do to make sure homeowners are taking advantage of this program,” Bush said.
View full story here.
CSG in the News: A Controversial Solution To D.C.’s Housing Crisis: Help The Middle Class
From WAMU: A Controversial Solution To D.C.’s Housing Crisis: Help The Middle Class, by Ally Schweitzer
The idea? Invest in housing for the middle class.
…Why has the mayor’s proposed workforce housing fund sparked controversy?
Mainly because there’s deep skepticism that middle-income people should be a priority when D.C. residents on the bottom of the economic ladder are much worse off.
The top 20 occupations in D.C. by employment totals, 2017. (Includes D.C. residents and commuters.) From a Coalition for Smarter Growth analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
First, the Coalition for Smarter Growth has criticized the city’s definition of “workforce,” saying it’s out of step with reality. According to a report published by the urbanist think tank, eight out of the city’s top 20 professions pay an annual median wage of less than $49,000, or 60 percent of AMI. For example, nearly 16,000 city workers are employed as janitors or cleaners — jobs that pay an annual median wage of $29,000, per CSG’s analysis. Meanwhile, teachers, social workers, and first responders don’t crack the top 20.”
Read CSG’s report and recommendations here.