Staff Comment for Second Reading:
This amendment to the code was presented to the City commission for first reading on January 13th, 2020. Staff recommended that reference to affordable housing/inclusionary housing be removed. Therefore, the proposed ordinance has been amended accordingly.
Summary
This proposed land development code amendment promotes the objectives and policies of the City’s Comprehensive Plan through the Urban Planned Unit Development (UPUD) process, relevant extracts are below:
Objective A2. - Affordable housing. The City will address the affordable housing needs of very-low-income to moderate-income residents by continuing to promote affordable housing in the East Stuart Planning District and other areas through revised minimum lot size requirements and special financing made available through the SHIP program, Farmers Home Administration and other funding mechanisms.
Policy A2.1. Adoption of HUD standards and definitions. The following U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department definitions and standards for affordable housing and income categories shall be used by the City in its housing programs:
"Affordable housing" means healthy and safe housing that people with moderate to very low incomes can live in without paying more than 30 percent of their household income (not including utility payments).
"Very low income" means an income falling below 50 percent of the Stuart median income, as measured by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
"Low income" means an income falling between 50 percent and 80 percent of the Stuart median income, as measured by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
"Moderate income" means an income falling between 80 percent and 120 percent of the Stuart median income, as measured by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
"Workforce housing" means housing that is affordable to persons or families whose total household income does not exceed 140 percent of the area median income, adjusted for household size.
Policy A2.6. Housing opportunities. In order to expand the number and types of opportunities for affordable housing, the City will encourage new construction through density bonuses and other provisions provided through the land development regulations as well as through grants and special programs administered by the City.
Objective A7. In order to provide affordable housing to City residents, the City will continue to apply design and other development incentives contained in the Urban Code and East Stuart Overlay Zone Code.
Policy A7.1. The City will continue to provide a density bonus system and will work with developers to implement such programs.
Policy A5.4. City land development regulations and housing programs should support the provision of housing for very-low-income to moderate-income residents.
Objective B1. - Compact urban form. Discourage urban sprawl by facilitating urban redevelopment and infill development of properties and planning for urban infill and redevelopment of lands located within Stuart in order to achieve a compact urban form.
The Situation
There is a demonstrated need for a supply of a range of housing in the City (City of Stuart Housing Study). The inventory of required housing units ranges from “very-low income” to “workforce housing”. Recent housing and economic development studies have confirmed the demand and have recommended that action be taken to reduce the deficit. The City of Stuart Economic Development Strategy 2016-2017, states:
'Objective 2: Focus the development of new housing in areas adjacent to employment centers & transportation options.
Tactic 1: Determine which housing types and mixed-use concepts should be adjacent to major employment centers.
Tactic 2: Partner with housing developers to promote investment and redevelopment in these designated areas.
Tactic 3: Create incentive programs to ensure that any new developments in these areas provide housing that is attainable for area employees.'
The Issues
This proposal looks at two individually considered development parameters that are linked together and affect the affordability and supply of housing units in the City. Both parameters, density and parking, can be regulated through the Planned Unit Development Process. The amendments are considered to be appropriate within an urban area, as such they are proposed to be limited to the Community Redevelopment Area through the Urban Planned Unit Development process.
Density
The current Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Code provide a baseline maximum density of 15 units per acre. The Planned Unit Development process provides for a maximum density of 30 units per acre (most recent developments have achieved 20-22 units per acre). The additional density is granted by the City Commission.
Example: Under present methodology a one-bedroom dwelling unit is considered to have the same density as a three-bedroom unit. Therefore, as an example, a building having the same footprint could accommodate 6 one-bedroom 800 sq.ft units (Density = 6) or 2 three-bedroom 2,400 sq.ft units (Density = 2).
The Land Development Code already has a density bonus available. The Mixed-Use PUD allows for a residential unit variety bonus. Where not less than 50 percent of the total residential units on site are smaller than 1,500 square feet in size, then at the sole discretion of the city commission, a residential unit variety density bonus may be awarded. This methodology has not proven to be attractive to developers in the main because it does not offer a parking reduction for residential units.
Parking
The baseline parking code for residential units located the urban districts is set out in the urban code, which does not differentiate between unit sizes, any size residential unit requires 1.5 spaces. Using the example mentioned above, the 6 one-bedroom 800 sq.ft units would require 9 parking spaces total, whereas the 2 three-bedroom 2,400 sq.ft units would require 3 parking spaces total. Therefore, the required parking spaces are disproportionate to the amount of living space.
Build cost
The cost of building is passed onto the consumer. A study “Parking Requirement Impact on Housing Affordability”, Victoria Transport Policy Institute, September 2019, found that adding one off street parking space adds about 6% to the unit cost through land costs, construction and maintenance. The same study found that by increasing the land needed for parking less housing could be developed.
In our example the 6 one-bedroom units would require approximately 2,700 sq.ft of surface parking area, whereas the 2 three-bedroom 2,400 sq.ft units would only require 900 sq.ft of surface parking area, significantly reducing required land and associated costs.
The proposed code is therefore designed to address each of these issues.
Local Planning Agency:
This item was presented to the December 12th 2019 Local Planning Agency (LPA). The LPA recommended that the number of bathrooms for each unit should be restricted and that reference to the provision of attainable housing should be incorporated into the code.
Staff did not find any correlation between occupancy and the number of bathrooms provided. Therefore that provision was not recommended to be included.