City officials reported a sharp decline in residential and commercial building permits, noting that high construction costs and inflation have largely stalled major multi-family developments and affordable housing production. To address this housing deficit, the city is relying on the upcoming Comprehensive Plan to unlock smaller-scale middle housing, while also implementing regulatory relief like single-stairwell apartment codes and deferred development fees. In response, council members discussed exploring additional strategies to stimulate construction, such as pre-approving ADU plans, utilizing community land trusts, and increasing local investments to offset a lack of state subsidies.
Building_development
City Council Workshops · Apr 06, 2026 · 1:13:40–1:13:48 · Watch on CVTV ↗
Keywords: PUD UGA affordable housing comprehensive plan zoning building permits density infrastructure
What was said
1:12:40 'Cause we are underproducing and we are seeing troubling market dynamics. But I'm not seeing a sense of urgency in terms of taking actions on, that's one illustrative example, but there could be other things that are in our housing action plan. And I agree with Council Member Perez's comment about doing things that are actually going to result in outcomes rather than just doing things because it feels good to do things. And so at the very least, speaking very specifically about that, but in a broader context of what's in the housing action plan knowing how we're prioritizing things and establishing timelines on them so that each time we have this conversation, myself or others aren't having to ask the question like this and hear the same answer over again, which is it's in our housing action plan, but there's really no meaningful update. And it's been something we've been talking about for a while. And so something a little bit more concrete than that would be helpful. In addition to that,
1:13:36 there was talk about unlocking potential within the city with the zoning changes that are gonna come with the comp plan. And that those are probably going to be some of our high opportunity housing production areas for the foreseeable future, assuming that the development environment remains the same. And so to the extent that that's true, understanding very specifically in this bullet point, what are some areas of opportunity that could help stimulate that in terms of creating efficiencies, lowering costs, improving timelines and removing regulations. Not a huge fan of sports metaphors, but this is an apt one. This would be the Gretzky comment about skate where the puck is going, not where the puck is, right? So we know where we are. We know what we've done in the current environment. We have an idea what the environment is likely to change given what we're doing with our code. Are we changing our policies to stimulate? That should be a question that we're asking and if there's opportunities that are acting on them.
1:14:33 I think on bullet point number two, absolutely. If there's things that we can do from a valuation standpoint that helps projects pencils, we should be doing that. I'm not eager to lower density expectations at the moment. We are in the forever business. And so a little bit of time now for a greater bang
Evidence (1 match)
direct keyword 1:13:40–1:13:48 PUD, UGA, affordable housing, comprehensive plan, zoning, building permits, density, infrastructure
really no meaningful update. And it's been something we've been talking about for a while. And so something a little bit more concrete than that would be helpful. In addition to that, there was talk about unlocking potential within the city with the zoning changes that are gonna come with the comp plan. And that those are probably going to be some of our high opportunity housing production areas for the foreseeable future, assuming that the development environment remains the same. And so to the