City Council aims to boost affordable housing projects

After expressing support to have planners review projects faster if they contain affordable units, the City Council took one more step Monday in tackling the issue deemed this year’s biggest priority.

“The more you can speed up a review process, the better for the developer,” said Valerie Long, a real-estate lawyer who represents several local developers, in an interview. “Time is money.”

Potential changes to the city’s development review process, which the body discussed at its Monday meeting and will vote on later this month, include turning around projects with affordable units in 21 days, as opposed to the current allowance of 45 days.

“It’ll force the staff to move those things to the top,” said Jim Tolbert, director of Neighborhood Development Services.

Councilor comments during the ordinance’s first review were scant. Mayor Dave Norris and Councilor David Brown said, however, that “affordable” should be defined as a unit for someone making 80 percent or less of the area median income. The ordinance originally was set for 60 percent, but was amended after councilors expressed fear that this would not provide adequate opportunity for city residents.

Charlie Armstrong, a member of the city’s housing advisory committee and the vice president of land development for the local Southern Development, cautioned councilors against requiring too many affordable units in a project. The ordinance proposes that at least 15 percent of a project’s residential units be affordable.

Threshold ‘too high’

“There is definitely a threshold where the requirement is too high to make the incentive worthwhile,” Armstrong said.

During their retreat in October, councilors expressed an interest in streamlining the city’s site plan approval process to allow the Planning Commission to focus more on policy and long-term issues.

The changes, which were partly spurred by record-length meetings the commission had this summer, include simplifying preliminary site plans and requiring two members, not one, to agree to look at a site plan during the body’s monthly meetings.

Commissioner Cheri Lewis said in an interview that the site plan review changes would not significantly reduce the commission’s workload. According to meeting minutes from last January through September, the Planning Commission completed nine preliminary site plan reviews for projects.

Despite that, the number of project applications has slowed in recent months, Lewis said the city wants to make rules and treat applications in a way that transcends what the economy is like at a particular time.

“You never want to plan or run a government based on what the current market is,” Lewis said in an interview. She added, “We still do want expedited review because we want to encourage affordable housing, for example.”

The recommendations do not currently list changes for entrance corridor reviews, though city leaders and the Planning Commission have discussed possibly shedding the responsibility to staff. The city’s 12 entrance corridors, which include Emmet Street and Hydraulic Road, are some of Charlottesville’s busiest roads that lead to the downtown area.

“Originally that had been talked about and there was resistance from the Planning Commission,” city spokesman Ric Barrick said.

Discussion ahead

Tolbert said the commission wants to take more time to discuss that review before any permanent changes are made. Though entrance corridor applications are few, commissioners have expressed concern about leaving the responsibility in the hands of only a few planners.

“Everybody disagreed with that,” Lewis said, referring to solely administrative review.