Here’s a Colorado Public Radio story about one of numerous ways Colorado’s elected leaders have failed to effectively address the affordable housing crisis.
Compare that to what Florida did with the ‘Live Local Act’ — which you can download here, (55 pages.)
The ‘Live Local Act’, the new Florida law is described by University of South Florida public radio as “an historic investment in affordable housing through a series of tax breaks, incentives for development and up to $811 million in funding.”
The legal director of the Florida Housing Coalition (FHC) says, “The overwhelming purpose of the Live Local Act is to build more homes, period. You know, that’s what we need in Florida. There is really no argument anymore that we have an affordable housing problem. And so the purpose of the act — and that’s reflected in the several great policy tools in there — is to get more homes built.”
To save you having to read the entire law, here are the provisions which have the greatest impact on creating new affordable housing — again, from the FHC:
“What this bill would do, starting July 1, is it would say that if you have an affordable housing development, and you propose that development on any site, in your city or county that is zoned for commercial, industrial or mixed use, then basically local government is limited, in some respects, from saying no to those projects.
“Right now, if you wanted to build an affordable housing development in an area zoned commercial, for example, sometimes the city or county in their zoning codes might say, well, housing isn’t an allowed use here. (So) if you want to actually build affordable housing in this part of town, you have to go through a rezoning, you have to go through a comprehensive plan amendment process, you know, things that could take months to even years to get done.”
One provision of the new law relates to public transportation. Multi-family developments, such as apartment complexes, have always been required to provide sufficient parking spaces for the residents. This means a significant percentage of the property has to be devoted to parking lots, thus reducing the number of units that can be constructed.
The new law amends an existing statute to permit more units to be built on a parcel by adding the following:
A county must consider reducing parking requirements for a proposed development authorized under this subsection if the development is located within one-half mile of a major transit stop, as defined in the county’s land development code, and the major transit stop is accessible from the development.
Another new provision provides that for land owned by a county, sale of that land to developers who will build affordable housing can be facilitated – while the county can retain control of it to assure the land is used for that purpose,
Counties are encouraged to adopt best practices for surplus land programs, including, but not limited to:
(a) Establishing eligibility criteria for the receipt or purchase of surplus land by developers;
(b) Making the process for requesting surplus lands publicly available; and
(c) Ensuring long-term affordability through ground leases by retaining the right of first refusal to purchase property that would be sold or offered at market rate and by requiring reversion of property not used for affordable housing within a certain time frame.
Multi-family developments reserved for low income housing that are owned by qualifying non-profits, are eligible for exemption from ad valorem taxes:
Land that is owned entirely by a nonprofit entity that is a corporation not for profit, qualified as charitable under s. 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and in compliance with Rev. Proc. 96-32, 1996-1 C.B. 717, and is leased for a minimum of 99 years for the purpose of, and is predominantly used for, providing housing to natural persons or families meeting the extremely-low-income, very-low-income, low-income, or moderate-income limits specified in [Florida Statute] ss 420.0004 is exempt from ad valorem taxation. For purposes of this paragraph, land is predominantly used for qualifying purposes if the square footage of the improvements on the land used to provide qualifying housing is greater than 50 percent of the square footage of all improvements on the land.
To be eligible for exemption a property must be maintained in compliance with all building, health and safety codes.
The new law also addresses one of the most insidious contributors to reduction of affordable housing — rent controls. They are prohibited.
Stanford University Hoover Institute economics Professor Thomas Sowell explains the adverse impact on affordable housing that results from rent controls. In his book Basic Economics he illustrates, through extensive historic research, that every time rent controls have been imposed by government, the number of available, affordable, housing units is reduced significantly — and that when controls are subsequently lifted, availability increases.
Sowell writes, the empirical evidence is conclusive: “Not only is the supply of new apartment construction less after control laws are imposed, even the supply of existing housing tends to decline, as landlords provide less maintenance and repair under rent control…”
Florida’s ‘Live Local Act’ both incentivizes private investment in affordable housing — and prohibits detrimental effects of government over-regulation. In other words, it encourages (rather than discourages) the free market to solve the problem.
Just another reason why so many people are fleeing Democrat states and relocating to the free state of Florida. We get stuff done!
Gary Beatty lives between Florida and Pagosa Springs. He retired after 30 years as a prosecutor for the State of Florida, has a doctorate in law, is Board Certified in Criminal Trial law by the Florida Supreme Court, and is now a law professor.