Proposed Affordable Housing Law Stirs Up Controversy in Miami-Dade County

The latest version of a proposed law that would require real estate developers to build affordable housing for middle-income buyers will be debated at a hearing, the Miami Herald reports.

The controversial plan has drawn a new group of critics — homeowners and community councils throughout Miami-Dade County, concerned that all zoning decisions would be taken out of their hands, jeopardizing neighborhoods and property values they’ve worked tirelessly to improve.

The “workforce housing” ordinance will have its first public hearing today in front of a county commission committee that deals with land-use issues. The law would require developers of most projects built in unincorporated Miami-Dade County to set aside a percentage of units to be sold below market rate so that workers making 65-140 percent of the area’s median income could afford them.

Miami-Dade County’s median income is $46,350. That amount makes it nearly impossible for many to afford the Florida mortgage needed to buy even a small condo unit.

The law would be one strategy to address the South Florida housing market crunch, one not only being felt by the poorest of the poor, but that has crept into the middle class.

THE RISING COST OF HOUSING

The cost of housing is increasingly viewed as a key obstacle to economic development in South Florida. Elsewhere in the country — Montgomery County, Md., for example — inclusionary zoning has proved effective at providing housing for middle-income workers. Tallahassee passed a similar law last year. But it has not been tried in South Florida.

Under the county’s proposal, the number of homes sold at the discounted price would be either 5 percent of the project’s total or 12.5 percent, depending on whether the builder takes a “density bonus” that would allow more affordable housing units to be built on the property than zoning rules would normally permit.

A study by Florida International University’s Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy warned that developers would have no incentive or requirement to build more affordable housing for those at the lower end of the scale.

The report recommended more specific, tiered income targets, calling for a certain percentage of units for different levels of salary ranges.

For instance, developers could be required to provide housing within a project for those making 65-80 percent of median income, for those making between 80-110 percent and for those making between 110-140 percent of median income.

TIERING POLICY SUGGESTED

However, neither this proposal — nor a different version that went before the committee earlier this year — addressed the tiering suggestion raised in the FIU report.

Among the key changes in the revised proposal is a provision that has added another layer of opposition, drawing the anger of community councils and neighborhood groups: the creation of a workforce housing zoning appeal board.

Under the proposal, the “workforce board,” would consist of three council members — possibly appointed by councils — and developers, Florida home mortgage and banking industry professionals, and affordable housing advocates appointed by the County Commission.

Many community council members across Miami-Dade County feel threatened by a loss of power. Homeowners fear unchecked development, the situation for which community councils were created in 1996 to remedy.

“The whole idea was to make the zoning more accessible, more efficient, more responsible to the needs of the citizens and this would do the exact opposite,” said Mary Williams, a concerned East Kendall homeowner.