I've been too busy the last few weeks to keep up with the postings on this list, let alone comment on stuff. But I'm aware that suspicion has blossomed on these pages about the City's intentions with regard to the location of affordable housing and supportive housing. Being the City staffer who is doing the analysis and presentation on the proposed modifications to the City's comprehensive plan (The Minneapolis Plan) and zoning code, I thought I'd let you know how it looks from here.
First, my personal perspective. I think that policies that relate to not further concentrating poverty in our poverty-impacted neighborhoods are extremely important, and I'm glad people are tuning in to them. We also have to understand, though, that there is often a financing gap involved with a development project in poverty-impacted neighborhoods, and it is difficult right now to get funding for projects that do not have an affordable housing component. So that's the balancing act we're working with. While we don't want to further concentrate poverty in Minneapolis, we still want to invite reinvestment into these neighborhoods. That's where I'm at. But more importantly, where are our City fathers and mothers on this issue? Bottom line: I'm not seeing any backing off there either. Note: 1) policies that attempt to locate more affordable housing in non-impacted neighborhoods showed up in the City's previous comprehensive plan (Plan for the 80s), the Housing Principles, The Minneapolis Plan, and the Affordable Housing Resolutions. This policy thrust has been the most consistent and enduring of the 16 policy areas I identified in the City's primary policy documents of the last two decade. 2) Proposed comprehensive plan language endorsed by the Zoning and Planning Committee today continues to support this policy. Exact policy language: "Diversify the locational distribution of affordable housing." 3) The Affordable Housing resolutions adopted by the City Council in 1999 and modified in 2001 appropriately turns this policy intent into concrete goals, stating, "To avoid concentration of poverty, the emphasis in impacted areas shall be on the preservation, rehabilitation and stabilization of existing affordable housing. In the non-impacted areas, the emphasis shall be on construction and positive conversion of new affordable housing. The City establishes as a goal that at least 50% of new City-produced affordable housing units will be in the areas of the city where it is presently lacking." It is true that the proposed amendments to The Minneapolis Plan strip some of the specificity out of its language with regard to this policy. And this is probably where some of the suspicion is coming from. That reflects a judgement on the part of staff (me and others) and policy makers that specific targets and performance measures are more appropriately identified in our implementation policies such as the Affordable Housing Resolutions rather than the comprehensive plan. Implementation policies are the subject of more frequent evaluation and fine-tuning, while the policy thrusts of the comprehensive plan should in general be more enduring. Another problem with the specific comprehensive plan goals that are proposed to be removed is that they got the numbers wrong. They can be read to cap affordable housing units at 20% of the units in a project regardless of where the project is located. I would encourage those of you who are tuned in to this issue to continue to tune in. It is certainly possible to strengthen the proposed language of The Minneapolis Plan a bit (although I will continue to advise against re-instituting specific goals in The Minneapolis Plan), but I'd pay closer attention to the next revision of, or successor document to, the Affordable Housing Resolution. If the specific goals set in that document are significantly weakened, that would constitute a change in policy direction. For those who love to read the details themselves, you can find the exact language of the proposed modifications to the comprehensive plan and zoning code, along with the staff reports on these items and other good stuff, on the Housing Policy page of the Planning Department website: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/citywork/planning/housing/index.html Hope this helps. Tom Leighton City Planner Seward _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@;mnforum.org Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
