Neighborhood Preservation/Redevelopment Opportunities
Development will become more challenging as raw land disappears and the focus within the city shifts to redevelopment. Thus, it will become increasingly important to preserve the character of existing neighborhoods and identify areas that have potential for redevelopment. The techniques below are ways the city can begin to address the challenges it faces with providing diverse housing opportunities with an aging housing stock.
Historic Districts
The renovation of larger, older homes is a viable option to bring young, middle-income families back into the southern part of the city. The creation of historic districts will help preserve older homes, stabilize neighborhoods and protect the investment of families who restore old houses. The North End/ Huntington Heights Historic District and Hilton Village are the existing Historic Districts within the city.
However, other areas may have potential for historic designation. For example, the Southeast Community has other concentrations of older homes that are worth exploring as possible historic districts such as the Chesapeake Avenue area.
Conservation Districts
A neighborhood conservation district is a zoning tool that preserves an area’s distinctive atmosphere or character through architectural guidelines, development standards and special zoning provisions including land uses and setbacks. Without protective zoning, exterior alterations and new construction could take place in an area that are not in keeping with the architectural features of the neighborhood.
A neighborhood conservation district can help stabilize a neighborhood by preserving its architectural features. Increased neighborhood pride often results from this recognition as a unique and special place. Increased property owner/resident involvement in neighborhood issues is often another positive result of conservation district regulations.
Inclusionary Zoning
Inclusionary Zoning is a set of regulations that requires developers to produce affordable housing units along with the development of market rate units. Typically, the local government specifies the income limits and sales prices for the affordable units. Developers are usually provided benefits such as density bonuses to offset the cost of developing the affordable units. A density bonus allows a developer to construct more units than would typically be allowed under current zoning. The thought is that by building additional units, the developer can offset the impact of keeping some units affordable. The customary requirement is that affordable housing units are 15% of the total number of units in a new development, but the city may customize its own requirements.
One of the key components of inclusionary zoning is that the affordable units must be indistinguishable from the market rate units on the exterior. Also, the affordable units must be spread throughout the development and not clustered in one area. This model is used all across the United States and many cities have found that it helps reduce concentrations of low-income housing and helps fill a need for low and moderate-income housing. In cities with rapidly escalating housing costs, such as Fairfax, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland, inclusionary zoning has been used to provide workforce housing for professions such as teachers and police officers. It is up to the City to determine what income level will be targeted with the affordable housing units. Inclusionary zoning can be a powerful tool to insure that as new development occurs all income levels are being provided with decent and safe housing.
Housing Trust Fund
Housing trust funds were created in the mid-1970’s and today there are more than 350 housing trust funds in cities, counties, and states. A housing trust fund is a distinct fund established by legislation, ordinance, or resolution to permanently dedicate a source of public revenue to support the production and preservation of affordable housing. In Virginia, the cities of Alexandria and Manassas and the counties of Arlington and Fairfax use housing trust funds as a means to ensure the continued development of affordable and workforce housing.
The key characteristic of a housing trust fund is that is receives ongoing revenues from dedicated sources of public funding such as taxes, fees, or loan repayments. Typically, an existing revenue source, such as a real estate transfer tax, is increased and the increase is then committed to the housing trust fund.
The City can design its own housing trust fund program to determine the source of the revenue and the use of the funds, which provides a unique opportunity to address specific needs within the community. The fund is typically used to support low and very low-income households, but the mission can be expanded to include moderate income or even homeless special needs groups. In most cases, the fund is administered by the same agency that handles the federal housing programs.
Programs supported by a housing trust fund can be in the form of grants for home ownership, such as down payment assistance, grants for urgent repairs for owner occupied dwellings, and even grants to enable development of affordable housing. The foregoing is a sample of some of the programs a housing trust fund has been used successfully for in other localities. As mentioned previously, programs can be tailored to address specific needs, which would most likely be increasing home ownership, as stated in the goals listed at the end of this chapter.
Receivership Legislation
A receivership program can be a powerful tool to combat vacant and neglected properties that are negatively impacting a neighborhood. The program begins by identifying properties that have been vacant for a specified amount of time, such as one year. The city would then contact the property owner and anyone with an interest in the property to determine the status of the property and work with the property owner to remedy the situation. If the owner cannot be found or no response is received, the city will notify the property owner that if substantial cleanup and/or renovation work is not started within a certain time period, the property will be placed with a receiver. The Circuit Court appoints a receiver, typically a non-profit housing developer, to bring the property to standard condition. Once that occurs, the property is typically sold to a low-income home buyer. The proceeds from the sale are used to pay for the renovations and the remainder goes to the property owner.
This program does not seek to deprive a property owner of their rights and aims to first assist property owners with remedying the problem. Currently, there are receivership programs in many states, but not in Virginia. Virginia First Cities, a non-profit advocacy organization of which the city is a member, is lobbying to have receivership legislation adopted by the Virginia legislature.