The Longmont Housing Authority will consider revising its policy for property tax exemptions at Tuesday’s meeting.
Staff is recommending that the LHA Board of Commissioners, composed of the members of Longmont City Council, adjust the policy established last year to consider when and how to partner with developers to remove affordable housing from property tax rolls.
Housing authorities are allowed to partner with private sector and nonprofit developers for affordable housing and routinely provide tax exempt status for this type of partnership. Carefully scrutinizing these requests is important as it can help get more affordable homes in the project or get units to be affordable to lower incomes.
Housing authorities often also charge for this service since it takes away income from local governments, which the housing authority can then use to further invest in affordable units.
According to a memo to the LHA board, staff has been approached by multiple potential partners since this policy was put into effect a year ago.
“Some of those projects have nuances that make them not a suitable fit under our current policy,” the memo said. “The recommended policy revisions add clarity to the threshold eligibility criteria, expand flexibility, clarify the procedure for applying for and creating the partnership, and add in protections and financial coverage for LHA.”
