Housing crisis proposal becomes an action plan
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
After taking a month to digest the dire housing predictions spelled out by former City Planner Don Craig, the Key West City Commission has unanimously given the planning department the go-ahead to begin implementing the far-reaching changes proposed by Craig and his staff to create more workforce housing.
Commissioners voted 7-0 to move ahead with the proposals made in Craig’s “white paper” on affordable housing, submitted to city officials on Sept. 4. Three of the central ideas in the paper include rezoning specific areas in the city to allow higher buildings than currently permitted under the Key West Land Development Regulations (LDR). Currently, height restrictions in the city range from 25 to 30 feet in some residential areas to 40 feet for some commercial properties
“We have to go up,” said Commissioner Tony Yaniz. “If it’s east of Kennedy [Blvd.], if it’s in certain areas away from the waterfront. We won’t touch the historical district. But we have to go up.”
A second proposed solution would petition state representatives to change the way Key West Land Authority funds can be used, including allowing direct subsidies of affordable housing construction.
Lastly, Craig proposed amending the city’s workforce housing ordinance to require any redevelopment of hotels and other commercial properties to potentially include some affordable units. Currently, only new development projects, not redevelopment of existing property, are required to offer a percentage of the redeveloped units as affordable. Since there is so little vacant land available for new development, much of the commercial construction in Key West falls under the redevelopment heading with no affordable requirements. Any change in that formula would reduce developers’ profit margins, a proposition likely to draw protests from members of that profession.
“If we don’t [act], the economy of this city is just going to die because we’re not going to have the people here,” said Commissioner Jimmy Weekley, who said the lack of affordable workforce housing impacts teachers, police and firefighters, and medical workers as well as people working in the service industry.
Before he left, Craig, whose last day as City Planner was Friday, Nov. 21, had already met with members of the Key West Land Authority Advisory Committee to present the white paper. The Land Authority currently has approximately $9.6 million in its coffers that can be used to purchase land for affordable housing but not for any development costs associated with that project. Petitioning state representatives to change that restriction to allow Land Authority funds to be used for construction would free up that money.
But Bryan Green, a member of the Land Authority Advisory Subcommittee, warned commissioners that changing Land Authority regulations is only part of the solution. At a base cost of approximately $250,000 per affordable unit in construction costs alone, $9.6 million would only fund 48 new units.
“It doesn’t even begin to scratch the 500 [units] we’re talking about that we actually need,” he said.
But finding a fix for the growing need for affordable workforce housing has to start somewhere, said Manual Castillo, Executive Director of the Key West Housing Authority.
“There’s no easy fix here. If we sit around looking and waiting for the perfect [white] paper or the perfect [housing] study to give us the roadmap, someone will be standing in this room when all of us are gone and the need will still arise,” he told commissioners.
Craig’s white paper also proposed the city create two new positions, an affordable housing officer to assist workers in finding and qualifying for housing, and an economic development officer, whose job would be to identify possible public/private partnerships for development of workforce housing.
“No one has that goal just to create affordable housing,” said Commissioner Teri Johnston. “We need somebody hired, trained and focused to move this forward or it’s going to languish for the next couple of years.”
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As Mr. Craig briefly mentioned in his white paper, many communities create or support Community Housing Development Organizations, non-profits with special access to federal funds for affordable housing. CHDOs can build or sponsor all kinds of housing, but Key West would probably benefit most from new construction or rehab rental housing, which CHDOs could dramatically reduce the cost of creating. Some communities also create Low income Tax Credit (LITC) housing, in connection with for-profit developers.
There are solutions, though not immediate, that could help reduce the housing burden on our citizens.