Agenda 10-01-19 Item 12-6 - Information Item - Memorandum - Response to Petition Regarding Development of Affordable Housing within Orange County

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2 initiatives, such as payment-in-lieu or mandatory provision of affordable housing, may not be viable unless enabling legislation is received by the State authorizing the County to engage in same. BACKGROUND: The provision of affordable housing has become a major area of concern for local governments across the nation. To address this concern, local governments typically adopt policies designed to encourage/promote development of what is defined as affordable housing, a practice commonly referred to as inclusionary zoning. Inclusionary zoning involves using a local government's zoning power to encourage private developers to construct/make available land for affordable housing units. INCLUSIONARY ZONING: From a practical standpoint, there are potentially 3 categories of inclusionary zoning, summarized as follows: • Voluntary Programs: Developers are provided some form of incentive (i.e. density bonuses, relaxed development controls, etc.) to provide affordable housing units. Incentives and requirements are defined by ordinance. • Conditional Programs: Involve the imposition of condition(s) as part of the review of a site specific development project. Examples could include the BOCC requiring a condition on a Conditional Zoning (i.e. Master Plan Development, etc.) project for the provision of affordable housing. Under North Carolina law, conditions or site-specific standards imposed must either address conformance with the comprehensive plan or be designed to address identified impacts of a given project. • Mandatory Programs: All proposed residential developments are required to provide a specific, previously established, percentage of parcels allowing for the development of affordable housing. The viability of such programs continues to remain uncertain. There is no enabling legislation in North Carolina supporting mandatory programs as a regulatory tool. For more information on the inclusionary zoning issue, staff recommends reviewing the following article, A Primer on Inclusionary Zoning, produced by the UNC School of Government, which can be accessed utilizing the following link: https://canons.sog.unc.edu/a-primer-on-inclusionarv-zoning/. ORANGE COUNTY AFFORDABLE HOUSING POLICY: Section 6.18 Affordable Housing of the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) establishes a voluntary program providing incentives encouraging development of affordable housing, summarized as follows: a. A 25% density bonus for projects proposing duplex or multi-family units in accordance with the following: i. A minimum of 40% of the units are to be rented to families earning less than 60% of Orange County median income, adjusted for family size, as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), hereinafter, "median income",