Longmont’s ordinance aimed at carving out affordable homes and apartments from the city’s new developments is not hurting construction, a city official said Tuesday night.
“It is clear the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance is not slowing down development by any means,” Molly O’Donnell, the city housing and community development director told the city council.
O’Donnell delivered an annual “snapshot” of the progress being made in providing affordable housing to councilors.
Last year was the third full year of Longmont’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, which requires that 12% of units in new residential developments be affordable to low-and-moderate-income buyers. Longmont defines affordable housing as homes sold at a price that is affordable to households at or below 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) and rental units at or below 50% of the AMI.
During 2021, the city took critical steps toward the goal of 12% of all housing stock as affordable by 2035, or 5,400 units, O’Donnell said. The city also expects to collect $4.4 million in fee-in-lieu payments from developers that will go into the city’s affordable housing fund.
“We saw a modest addition of new units, however the development process has ramped up significantly since 2019-2020 and projections for the next several years show a large increase in new affordable housing units being built and/or fee-in-lieu being paid,” a city staff report states.
The staff report to the council included several program highlights in 2021 including:
- Number of permitted affordable housing units in 2021: 176. Those units are the Cinnamon Park Apartments, FarmHaus, Longmont Family Apartments and The Spoke.
- Number of affordable units that completed construction: 24
- Number of affordable units from the prior Inclusionary Zoning program lost: 4
- Total fee-in-lieu received in 2021: $169,407.
Cumulative to date IH Program highlights:
- Total number of permitted projects subject to IH: 23
- Total number of units constructed or in construction: 1,080
- Number of developments providing affordable units onsite: 14
- Number of affordable units constructed or in construction: 335
- Number of developments that have paid fee-in-lieu: 5
- Total fee-in-lieu received to date: $184,030.
Councilors debated raising the 12% mark to 20%, a move that would require a lot of study, City Manager Harold Dominguez said.
“There are so many different components to this,” Dominguez said.
