Affordable Housing LUMOTA
Affordable Housing LUMOTA
Project Background:
Chapel Hill strives to become a more complete community. Recent analysis suggests that many Chapel Hill residents struggle to keep up with growing housing costs. The demand for affordable housing has been higher than the supply for decades.
One of many factors that contributes to the Town’s shortage of affordable housing is the costly and time-consuming development review process. Staff proposes a text amendment to the Chapel Hill Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO) that streamlines the development review process and updates certain development standards related to affordable housing.
Challenges with the Development Review Process:
The Town’s development review process generally involves three phases:
(1) entitlement;
(2) final plans; and
(3) permitting.
During the entitlement phase, the Town determines what sort of buildings and uses will be allowed on a property. During the final plans and permitting phases, the Town takes a close look at building plans and other materials submitted by a developer to make sure that what the developer is going to build complies with their entitlement and with the Town’s development regulations.
In Chapel Hill, the entitlement phase tends to involve a process known as conditional zoning, which can last over a year. For affordable housing developers, conditional zoning can be especially risky because the process requires them to spend significant amounts of time and money before having any guarantee that they will be allowed to build what they had envisioned.
A Community Priority Process for Affordable Housing:
The proposed text amendment establishes a Community Priority Process for Affordable Housing that will allow affordable housing developers to secure entitlements in less than six months. The text amendment will also update certain development regulations that often impose a significant burden on affordable housing developers.
In addition to complementing the Town’s Complete Community Initiative, these text amendments will help the town achieve the goals of the Chapel Hill 2020 Comprehensive Plan and the Future Land Use Map.