HomeMy WebLinkAbout091015 Pederson, Deborah Pre-scoping - V Planning Commission Draft 4 September 10, 2015
I am glad to see the housing affordability problem described in this draft
as a crisis. To me, this means that our city needs to make serious efforts
to address the crisis,. I believe this would mean allocating a significant
amount of staff time, creating a citizen advisory board, and being willing
to forego revenue and devote funds to the solutions. I hope that the
next draft of this document will state these needs.
Infrastructure costs of development, along with high land prices
due to the desirability of locating in Port Townsend, mean that building
a home in Port Townsend is a very expensive proposition. This may
explain why so much of the growth in recent years has occurred outside
of the City. It also means that new homes in Port Townsend are
typically affordable only to relatively affluent people. In general, it isn't
feasible and it doesn't make sense to build a modest new home in Port
Townsend. Not many people know that Habitat's project near Seaport
Landing was required to spend so much for infrastructure—especially
stormwater retention—that the cost to build the homes was far higher
than the homes could be sold for to Habitat families. That means that
the difference has to be covered by donations from community
members, and that those donations cannot be used to build additional
homes. Is this what our community really wants?
Our city needs to address the crisis by investigating every possible
incentive for non-profits and private individuals to build modest
housing. These could include sharing the cost of infrastructure
improvements or being more flexible about the standards, relaxing ADU
regulations, or waiving fees.
Our city also needs to encourage any possible mechanisms for
incentivizing owner-occupied housing. Our city needs to encourage
any possible mechanism for keeping existing housing in the affordable
range, such as can be done with a Community Housing Trust.
We've had plenty of good ideas on the table since 1996, but the problem
has gotten worse. The updated plan needs to provide a clearer roadmap
to solving the crisis.
PC-19