HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-24-22 Public Comment - M. Egge - Affordable Housing Work SessionFrom:Mark Egge
To:Agenda
Subject:Comment Re: Affordable Housing Work Session
Date:Thursday, February 24, 2022 7:38:38 PM
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Madam Mayor, Mr. Deputy Mayor, and City Commissioners—
The Housing Affordability Work Session memo prepared by Mr. Fine, Mr.Saunders and the City Manager lists a number of strategies that would
either enable or incentivize affordable housing. These include:
Smaller lot sizes
Reduced or eliminated off-street parking requirementsIncreased height restrictions
I'm writing with a simple suggestion: if homes that are more affordable to
build and purchase is the goal, why not just allow them?
Why allow reduced parking for a household making up to 120% of AMI but
not for a household making more than 120% of AMI? Why allow smaller
lot sizes only for homes below a certain price?
Rather than establishing a new Affordable Housing Ordinance (AHO), I
suggest simply updating our existing development code to be more
compatible with building affordable housing. This is what the Clarion report
argues Bozeman should do.
The effect of pegging incentive eligibility to a ratio of AMI will be to
exclude application of the incentives in the older parts of town where land
values are higher. Perhaps this is the point, but I don't believe it is.
Finally, please note that a decision to maintain existing elements of the
code that drive up the cost of housing, such as high parking
requirements, so as to create incentives for "affordable" housing ispretextual zoning. As this folks at Strong Towns say, "this is a bad way to
govern." Pretextual zoning erodes public trust and places Bozeman's rule-
making authority in the crosshairs of antagonistic anti-government state
lawmakers. (For more,see: https://www.planetizen.com/features/113615-pretext-problem-
pitfalls-planning-while-bargaining)
Thanks for your consideration.
Mark Egge
542 N Black Ave
Bozeman, MT 59715