Manhattan city commissioners on Tuesday approved several policy changes that make it easier for the city to give incentives to developers building workforce housing.
Qualifying projects must be located within the residential development incentive zone, which was created based on the base zoning district, rental vs. owner-occupancy and the Aggieville and downtown plans.
The city will use the $8 million in workforce housing sales tax revenue to provide grants, loans, or fee waivers for private workforce housing projects.
Commissioner Peter Oppelt said he supports any way for Manhattan to get more affordable housing.
“Any help that we can get is a benefit,” he said. “We do need to spend this wisely, but also, we are dealing with market forces that are so far out of our control. We’re doing what we can with what we’ve got.”
The projects must meet basic eligibility requirements, such as site ownership and a net gain of two or more units.
Commissioner Karen McCulloh said she also supports the efforts.
“We want people to have housing, and we want them on the tax rolls as soon as possible, and otherwise, the rest of Manhattan is sort of picking up the price,” she said. “I’m all for creating this housing, but I think we have to be really careful and not abate all of Manhattan already, already doesn’t have a lot of places that pay property tax, and so I think that’s something we want to be careful with.”
The commissioners didn’t take action on the issue Tuesday but only discussed it.
Commissioners agreed to look at housing projects individually to determine their merit before granting leniencies.
The city will use a scoring matrix to evaluate the applications previously presented to the commission in May. The commission can use this scoring matrix as a guide but will have the flexibility to make the final decision on projects.
