Despite the city of Durango’s best efforts to persuade and incentivize developers to build more affordable housing, the Fair Share Program has not resulted in increased inventory. Fair Share needs teeth, and we’re glad to see recommendations to recalibrate the program to get more developers on board.
Fair Share has been around since 2009 and only one developer chose to build affordable units instead of paying a fee in lieu. This is all we need to know that we’re ready for real changes in this housing policy along with a shorter window of time to measure whether it’s working. A year? Two years? Certainly not 14 more years.
Clearly, that fee in lieu has been Fair Share’s downfall. It’s just too attractive for developers to pass on building affordable units. And who could blame them? We can’t expect developers to ease our housing woes from their own pockets. Especially when it makes better sense for them and their businesses to pay the fee, rather than expand building projects and all that entails.
To turn around our Southwest housing problem from one that is existential to solvable requires adjustments unique to our community.
At a public forum on Dec. 5 at the Durango Public Library, Durango Housing Innovation Manager Eva Henson and Molly Fitzpatrick, managing director for Root Policy Research, pitched thoughtful recommendations to include decreasing the number of affordable units required for a developer to build from 16% of total units to 12%.
This is a great start.
Also, that fee in lieu would be higher, calculated by using a cost of construction methodology versus the affordability gap methodology the city has been using.
At first glance, this new calculation seems fuzzy. But it makes better sense to directly factor in the real cost of constructing a unit rather than fees in lieu computed from the difference between market rates and affordable rates. This cost of construction methodology aligns more with the local real estate market and is closer to the mark.
Henson and Fitzpatrick’s recommendations take the reins on what can be controlled locally when so much about housing can’t be. Worldwide factors play in. Wildly. The costs of cement, lumber, wiring – you name it. Then transporting and shipping, the infrastructure required and rippling effects of war with no end in sight, no matter how removed they seem at this time.
Add this to the lack of decent ground to build on, high interest rates that put mortgages out of reach for so many, inflation and residual challenges post-pandemic, and we have an outdated formula that hasn’t created an acceptable affordable housing stock.
Other proposed changes include expanding the Fair Share Program to include rental developments, reduced parking requirements in residential developments, an affordable density bonus and priority development review for Fair Share participants, Henson said, as reported in The Durango Herald.
Proposed changes wouldn’t remove the land donation option for developers.
Of course, the Southwest is not alone in its hand-wringing over housing. We can’t think of one community in Colorado that has completely solved the problem. But we can’t lose sight of the greater goal of providing affordable housing, especially for our workforce.
The Fair Share Program is one tool in addressing housing needs and building inventory. We’re glad the city of Durango is focused on making it sharper, more pointed.
Recommendations will be presented to the Durango Planning Commission on Jan. 22, and go before City Council at its Feb. 6 meeting, with a first reading of an ordinance planned for Feb. 20. Please, share your thoughts with councilors.
