The Carrboro Town Council recently met to consider options on how to “move the needle” on its affordable housing goals. The town currently doesn’t have a specific affordable housing plan, and staff provided three recommendations for how to preserve existing affordable housing and produce more units.
At the March 25 meeting, Carrboro’s Housing Director Anne-Marie Vanaman said more than half of Orange County’s renters are cost-burdened, with homeowners facing similar challenges.
For example, the median home price is about $430,000, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. To afford that, Vanaman said a typical family of four needs an annual income of $132,500. But in Carrboro, the actual income for a family of the same size is only about $86,000, with the price for a home being even steeper.
“Looking at statistics within the month of January from one source, the median home sale for Carrboro was $611,000,” she said. “So clearly we have quite more of an issue that we’re facing in Carrboro.”
And Vanaman cited how construction and energy costs, a limited existing housing supply, and land constrictions are placing additional pressure on the town’s housing affordability.
Council Member Catherine Fray called the indicators a “blinking sign that the town is on fire” when it comes to the affordable housing issue, and the staff’s first recommendation for the council included hiring a contractor to develop a specific affordable housing plan that would compliment the town’s wider goals.
“I think that the comprehensive plan and the affordable housing chapter, while good, is very generalized, and I think that having for the first time an affordable housing plan — especially as the UDO rewrite is going on — would be very helpful for us to get solid numbers,” Vanaman said. “For instance, if we are doing down payment assistance, well, how much do we really need? Let’s look at the numbers. How much would be good?”
Staff initially suggested the council deliver the affordable housing plan by June of next year, but the housing director said March is also feasible, as per Council Member Cristóbal Palmer’s request that it align with the town’s implementation of the new Land Use Ordinance.
Another recommendation included increasing funding for the town’s affordable housing fund (AHSRF) and also the payment in lieu fee. Vanaman explained that the latter method is commonly done by using an affordability gap calculation. In Carrboro’s case, it could more than triple the fee required for developers as an alternative to building affordable units within their projects.
“And remember that we cannot enforce this,” Vanaman added. “We are voluntary inclusionary [zoning], so if someone walks away from it then they walk away from it, but that’s where something like conditional zoning would pop in [and provide] a little bit of leverage there. I think that the price needs to be large enough to give someone pause about just writing the check and considering the unit.”
The housing director explained how conditional zoning gives the town more sway in working with the developer to add affordable units, and it is something that could be addressed by the upcoming UDO rewrite.
Because affordable units are so expensive to build under the current ordinance, Mayor Pro Tem Danny Nowell advocated for the town to not push the recommendation until after that change happens and building units becomes cheaper than paying the fee.
“My fear is, in the interim, if we do this right now this budget season, we are driving people to do what they are zoned by right.” Nowell said. “And we will have a lag period of McMansions and estate farms, rather than getting even our currently half-measure of a too-small payment in lieu.”
For its final recommendation, staff suggested reallocating funds from a fallen-through town sponsored project for future land banking efforts in order to strengthen the town’s relationship with community partners and manufactured home parks, and also the preservation of naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) units.
The mayor pro tem said he is grateful for the recommendations, stating how they are giving the town the clarity and direction it has long lacked when it comes to affordable housing.
“This is a really big step,” Nowell said. “It’s a little bit dispiriting to contemplate the scope of this problem, and so it is a comfort to know that we have a two-year plan to [make it] better, and then much better, hopefully within the second year.”
To view the full Town Council meeting, click here.
Featured photo via the Town of Carrboro.
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