CTroyMathis
21 December 2002, 02:51 PM
City rules hurt low-income housing
By O.K. Carter
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Fire had destroyed the home on Hillcrest Drive in east Arlington, and though the structure was razed, the site rapidly became a sort of unofficial mini-dump: an old sofa, an abandoned refrigerator that looked a lot like a kid trap, bags of trash and old car batteries.
"We kept having to go back every two or three weeks and clean it up," recollected Charles Peeler, chairman of the organization that eventually bought the lot: Metro Housing Partnership.
Metro Housing is a nonprofit corporation with a mostly Arlington board that either builds new houses from scratch or buys and refurbishes houses for low- or moderate-income families.
For the burned-out Hillcrest property, it was a new, custom-built 1,130-square-foot brick home. It's now occupied by a low-income family of four, the envy of this neighborhood of aging 40- and 50-year-old homes.
Metro recently bought two more east Arlington residential lots from the Arlington school district -- both foreclosed properties -- and is looking to buy four more lots in south-central Arlington off Mayfield Road.
"Before 2003 is done we'd like to build maybe a dozen new homes for low-income residents in Arlington," Peeler says.
And therein lies the snag for Metro, or really a couple of snags.
Snag I: City development fees of roughly $2,400 a house. Though the city is considering waiving or lowering the fees, there's some resistance because of the potential loss of revenues.
Snag II: The city recently upgraded its minimum square foot requirement for newly platted property to 1,500 square feet, along with other construction upgrades. Peeler endorses the higher construction standards, but the price tag on a house of 1,500 square feet exceeds what low-or moderate-income residents can qualify for or afford.
"If we build a dozen new houses as infill in older neighborhoods, we'll end up with $29,000 in impact fees," Peeler points out. "Not only will this increase payments to the families that end up in the new homes, it will affect how many homes we can build."
Infill development that involves property platted and zoned for smaller houses before the minimum lot size was changed wouldn't be affected. But residential lots requiring new platting or replatting would.
Most of the funds that Metro borrows to construct such homes ultimately come from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Federal money is involved.
"We're just putting federal tax dollars into city coffers," Peeler says. "It doesn't make sense."
Too, the houses that Metro wants to build would incorporate all the upgrades required by changes to city codes with the exception of size.
"We'd like to build 1,200 to 1,300 square feet, slightly less than minimum size," Peeler said. "Larger than that and we're out of the housing-for-low-income-families business."
If new or revised platting is necessary, under a limited set of circumstances, Metro could appeal to the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment. But that's another $200 per appeal, plus a consultant study would likely be required, along with other paperwork -- all added to the cost of supposedly low-income housing.
"We're trying to really benefit the community, but we're having to jump through multiple layers of bureaucracy to do it," an exasperated Peeler says.
And maybe that's the way it'll end up being, though a minority on the council seems to be leaning toward waiving the development fees. The topic has been tabled for the time being.
Or it could be that the powers-that-be at City Hall prefer to discourage further low-income housing construction -- social engineering of sorts. If the latter is the case it'll never be verbalized as such, but rather will be reflected in more red tape morass and an insistence on keeping the fees.
By O.K. Carter
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Fire had destroyed the home on Hillcrest Drive in east Arlington, and though the structure was razed, the site rapidly became a sort of unofficial mini-dump: an old sofa, an abandoned refrigerator that looked a lot like a kid trap, bags of trash and old car batteries.
"We kept having to go back every two or three weeks and clean it up," recollected Charles Peeler, chairman of the organization that eventually bought the lot: Metro Housing Partnership.
Metro Housing is a nonprofit corporation with a mostly Arlington board that either builds new houses from scratch or buys and refurbishes houses for low- or moderate-income families.
For the burned-out Hillcrest property, it was a new, custom-built 1,130-square-foot brick home. It's now occupied by a low-income family of four, the envy of this neighborhood of aging 40- and 50-year-old homes.
Metro recently bought two more east Arlington residential lots from the Arlington school district -- both foreclosed properties -- and is looking to buy four more lots in south-central Arlington off Mayfield Road.
"Before 2003 is done we'd like to build maybe a dozen new homes for low-income residents in Arlington," Peeler says.
And therein lies the snag for Metro, or really a couple of snags.
Snag I: City development fees of roughly $2,400 a house. Though the city is considering waiving or lowering the fees, there's some resistance because of the potential loss of revenues.
Snag II: The city recently upgraded its minimum square foot requirement for newly platted property to 1,500 square feet, along with other construction upgrades. Peeler endorses the higher construction standards, but the price tag on a house of 1,500 square feet exceeds what low-or moderate-income residents can qualify for or afford.
"If we build a dozen new houses as infill in older neighborhoods, we'll end up with $29,000 in impact fees," Peeler points out. "Not only will this increase payments to the families that end up in the new homes, it will affect how many homes we can build."
Infill development that involves property platted and zoned for smaller houses before the minimum lot size was changed wouldn't be affected. But residential lots requiring new platting or replatting would.
Most of the funds that Metro borrows to construct such homes ultimately come from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Federal money is involved.
"We're just putting federal tax dollars into city coffers," Peeler says. "It doesn't make sense."
Too, the houses that Metro wants to build would incorporate all the upgrades required by changes to city codes with the exception of size.
"We'd like to build 1,200 to 1,300 square feet, slightly less than minimum size," Peeler said. "Larger than that and we're out of the housing-for-low-income-families business."
If new or revised platting is necessary, under a limited set of circumstances, Metro could appeal to the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment. But that's another $200 per appeal, plus a consultant study would likely be required, along with other paperwork -- all added to the cost of supposedly low-income housing.
"We're trying to really benefit the community, but we're having to jump through multiple layers of bureaucracy to do it," an exasperated Peeler says.
And maybe that's the way it'll end up being, though a minority on the council seems to be leaning toward waiving the development fees. The topic has been tabled for the time being.
Or it could be that the powers-that-be at City Hall prefer to discourage further low-income housing construction -- social engineering of sorts. If the latter is the case it'll never be verbalized as such, but rather will be reflected in more red tape morass and an insistence on keeping the fees.