Adrian for Laurel

The City first adopted affordable housing legislation in 2023, and following three months of conversations, updates to that law are expected to be presented for First Public Hearing at Monday’s Council Meeting.

The law passed in 2023 required new developments in the City with 50 or more residential units to set aside 8% of them to sell at an affordable price.

Amendments to that law were proposed by the Administration in November, many of which dealt with ensuring the affordable units remained similar in appearance, size, amenities, and other features as their market-priced counterparts.

Other amendments, which have evolved over the conversations, include:

1. Who is eligible to purchase affordable units? – The existing law provides that eligible applicants must have incomes at or below 60% of the area median. The Administration first proposed changing that to a range of 30% to 90%, and over a number of conversations, Council consensus evolved that to a figure of 80% or below.

2. What is the price of affordable units? – The existing law contains a mis-statement: It reads that affordable units are priced at 30% of the market rate. But through the conversations, it was realized the original intent was to price at a 30% reduction from the market rate. (This also more closely corresponds to price differentials in other jurisdictions). So the amended language contains the edit, and I proposed an amendment to the preamble to clarify the legislative history.

3. What is the re-sale price of an affordable unit? – The existing law is silent on this question, and the original amendments proposed by the Administration didn’t contain language to address either. I proposed an amendment that purchasers be able to sell their unit at their purchase price plus an inflation adjustment as a way of enabling them to participate in the appreciation of their home value over time. This is especially important since the affordable home provisions apply for a 30-year period.

4. How is the ability to refinance affected for affordable units? – The Administration originally proposed a refinance limit of the mortgage balance at the time of refinance, plus 25%. To my mind, this would have the unintended effect of penalizing someone who paid down their mortgage (e.g., over 20 years) and now needed to tap their home equity for a roof replacement or other significant home maintenance work. So I proposed the refinance limit be at least up to the original borrowings, and later as other provisions changed, concurred with Councilmember Kole’s proposal to link it to the re-sale value as newly defined by #3 above.

5. What size of housing developments trigger the affordable housing laws? – The existing law triggers the affordable housing laws for developments of 50 or more, and the Administration proposed reducing this level to 20 or more. This amendment has remained unchanged through conversations.

There’s a few other odds-and-ends in the legislation, which you can review in full as part of the meeting packet for the Council Meeting for Monday, Jan 12.

And please reach out to me with any thoughts, questions, suggestions, etc. so I can take those into consideration as we go through the remaining steps of the legislative process. As it stands, Ordinance 2052 is expected to have a First Hearing on Jan 12 and then be voted on following its Second Hearing on Jan 26.

(N.B., Also see my blog post titled “Ideas for bringing about Affordable Housing in Laurel”