City officials discussed updates to the Affordable Housing Fund, proposing increased per-unit funding limits and new low-cost pre-development loans to help residential projects overcome rising construction costs. They also reviewed mandatory zoning and Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) code changes under House Bill 1491, which requires 50-year affordable housing inclusions and offers density bonuses for new developments near transit stations. However, staff expressed concern that this state mandate acts as a partially funded inclusionary zoning policy that could inadvertently suppress high-density residential building along those transit corridors.
Building_development + Forests_green_space
City Council Workshops · Aug 10, 2026 · 49:37–51:56 · Watch on CVTV ↗
Keywords: Affordable Housing density comprehensive plan zoning affordable housing parks timber Parks
What was said
48:35 to offer exemptions up to 12 years. So the 20-year is what they've granted to us. So the actual requirements are that all residential development within this quarter mile walk shed of bus rapid transit stations must include one of these three scenarios. So 10% of the units must be affordable for 50 years at rents affordable to households at 60% of area median income, or AMI, or 20% of the units are affordable at 80% AMI for 50 years, or 10% of the units are affordable at 80% AMI if at least 10% of the units are two bedrooms or larger. So it allows you to meet that affordability requirement with the larger unit size. And then so what that means is that we then, in all the impacted cities, we have to go through and identify every single parcel
49:34 that meets this quarter mile definition and add that required affordability to our zoning code. So that's the Title 20 change that we've talked about.
49:48 On the incentive side, what the statute authorized, as I mentioned, is that it allows us to offer a 20-year property tax exemption through our existing multifamily tax exemption program. And then it adds some other incentives, which some of them we already allow. But it requires you to reduce impact fees for these projects, the projects that have the 50-year affordability, allow higher density on all these parcels. And then on top of that, it authorizes additional density for affordable housing or mass timber projects. As you can see in the parentheses, it's all the impacted parcels, and then it requires you to remove parking minimums for all the impacted parcels.
50:47 As you know from the years you've spent working through our comp plan, we've actually checked off pretty much all of these things, and we'll get into kind of the differences between where we're at and what this is requiring. But what we have is really a new requirement, and the main additional tool that was given to us is the 20-year tax exemption since the other incentives really are things that we're already offering or now offering through the comp plan. So that brings me to this point here, which is HB 1491 is really a form of inclusionary zoning, and that's a big topic that's been discussed for many years. And inclusionary zoning is exactly what we've just described. You're mandating affordability within certain types of residential development,
51:44 and the real conversation around inclusionary zoning is whether it's funded, meaning whether the cost of providing that affordability is offset by financial incentives. And in places that have had inclusionary zoning, and these areas have been studied, the areas that have had successful inclusionary zoning, meaning they've been able to add the affordability requirement without reducing the amount of development, they really are fully funded, meaning they figured out a way to match the cost of affordability with the financial incentives. Our analysis of HB 1491 is that it's only partially funded, which means it's kind of almost as good as not funding it because it will actually decrease overall development in the impacted areas
52:41 and will push development away from the transit stations where they really do want to see development happen. So if you can imagine any of our vine stations, if a developer is looking at parcels near a vine station,
Evidence (3 matches)
direct keyword 50:31–50:44 parks, timber, Parks
llow. But it requires you to reduce impact fees for these projects, the projects that have the 50-year affordability, allow higher density on all these parcels. And then on top of that, it authorizes additional density for affordable housing or mass timber projects. As you can see in the parentheses, it's all the impacted parcels, and then it requires you to remove parking minimums for all the impacted parcels. As you know from the years you've spent working through our comp plan, we've actually
direct keyword 49:37–49:56 Affordable Housing, density, comprehensive plan, zoning, affordable housing
requirement with the larger unit size. And then so what that means is that we then, in all the impacted cities, we have to go through and identify every single parcel that meets this quarter mile definition and add that required affordability to our zoning code. So that's the Title 20 change that we've talked about. On the incentive side, what the statute authorized, as I mentioned, is that it allows us to offer a 20-year property tax exemption through our existing multifamily tax exemption prog
direct keyword 51:44–51:56 Affordable Housing, density, comprehensive plan, zoning, affordable housing
and that's a big topic that's been discussed for many years. And inclusionary zoning is exactly what we've just described. You're mandating affordability within certain types of residential development, and the real conversation around inclusionary zoning is whether it's funded, meaning whether the cost of providing that affordability is offset by financial incentives. And in places that have had inclusionary zoning, and these areas have been studied, the areas that have had successful inclusio