Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton is moving forward on his campaign promise of creating new opportunities for affordable housing.
He revealed an eight point incentive plan that he says will help welcome residents at all income levels by providing housing options to suit their needs. Hamilton says it will encourage a sense of community while supporting urban density.
City Housing and Neighborhood Development Director Doris Sims will lead a task force to implement the strategies.
"We know we need housing for people in the area the mayor talked about which is workforce housing, and those are people that don't qualify for normal federal affordable housing programs that might be out there as well as for senior housing," Sims says.
The incentive plan includes building tiny homes, implementing cooperative housing, creating developer incentives, allocating housing funds and developing collaborations.
Middle Way House Community Services Coordinator Debra Morrow says their domestic violence transitional housing program lost federal funding in May while sending 89 percent of their population to permanent housing last year.
"I think we just don't forget what's already there that's working, we make sure we take care of it also," Morrow says.
The task force plans to implement long term housing strategies into the city's comprehensive master plan as it's reviewed and voted on in the coming months.
The administration's strategy focuses on eight major areas:
Accessory Dwelling Units
Allow up to 20 ADUs (a smaller dwelling on the same grounds as a primary residence) as a pilot through amending the UDO. Limited to owner-occupied residences.
Tiny Houses
Typically between 80 and 400 square feet, tiny houses are affordable and have small footprints. The administration proposes a pilot project of allowing up to 15 tiny houses in specific zoning areas.
Inclusionary Zoning
The administration recommends incentivizing private developers of market-rate housing to either include affordable units in their project, provide affordable units elsewhere or provide monetary support for affordable units created by others.
Cooperative Housing
Membership-based housing allows members to pool their resources to leverage buying power. This approach is currently very limited by zoning restrictions, so the administration will request expanding the area in which co-ops are permitted.
Long Term Affordability Covenants
The administration supports legal requirements that will require certain properties to remain affordable for a specific length of time, from 50 years to permanently.
Housing Fund
The administration recommends establishing a new fund as a tool to receive funds intended to support affordable housing initiatives.
Incentives
Tax abatements, Enterprise Zone Investment Deductions and Tax Increment Financing are all tools available to encourage the inclusion of affordable housing in developments and redevelopments.
Collaborations
Housing and Neighborhood Development Director Doris Sims will convene a new Affordable Housing Task Force with the goal of bringing together nonprofit and for profit developers, realtors, financial institutions, landowners, housing providers and interested residents to gather and evaluate housing-related data and to make recommendations to inform current efforts and development of the UDO in 2017.
