Agenda - Council Work Session - 06/11/2013

Home

City of Ramsey 2030 Comprehensive Plan Update Chapter 7: Housing Plan In 2006, Anoka County recorded 844 properties in foreclosure. Ramsey has a fairly small percentage of the County's foreclosed property 7% or 63 homes. However in the first half of 2007, the number of foreclosures in the county is above the total for 2006 at 863, with Ramsey having 66 properties (7.6% of the total). What does this mean to Ramsey? It is possible that some housing values may decline and some homes may go unoccupied and not be maintained properly for a period of time, potentially putting additional burden on code enforcement staff and increasing the potential for neighborhood housing decline. These potential newly vacant homes could be an opportunity for affordable housing purchases. Conversely, the vacant homes may also attract investment buyers who in turn rent the homes for a short period until the market resurges. In a slow market, investment buyers tend to purchase homes of lower value ($200,000 or less) and rent without additional investment in maintenance and/or cosmetic improvements. Land Supply Available land for development will have a large impact on housing supply and demand within Ramsey. "Available Land" can be defined in a variety of ways. By examining the larger parcels in Ramsey, we can determine the areas that may be under development pressure. Also, by examining building permit and subdivision trends, we can estimate how many more housing units will be built in the next few years. In 2006, there were over 4,000 acres of parcels that are at least 10 acres in size and zoned residential. This provides a significant opportunity for residential development in the future. Of the 4,000 acres of large parcels currently in Ramsey, over 800 acres (20%) were subdivided OR began the subdivision process in 2005 and 50 acres (1.3%) in 2006. Recently, there has been a general slowdown of requests for subdivisions. In addition, many of the recent development inquiries include land for new rental housing. In 2005, the City of Ramsey approved approximately 500 new residential lots through the subdivision process and in 2006 there was approval for 100 units. There are an additional 1,200 units that are in some stage of the approval process. This is an unprecedented amount of growth for the City, and compares to cities like Woodbury and Maple Grove in the amount of new residential lots. Based upon household growth projections provided by the Metropolitan Council through 2030, Ramsey would need an additional 998 acres available for new housing which is 32% of the total acres available for subdivision. However, the 998 acres assumed that 67% is for low -density development and 33% is for median to high density development with the majority of the development occurring between 2010 -2020. This translates into a total of 6,085 units of which 2,000 would be low density single family units and 4,085 would be medium to high density multifamily housing units. Metropolitan Council Livable Communities Act: Affordability Goals In January of 2006, the Metropolitan Council released goals for the production of new affordable housing in the metropolitan region for the years 2011-2020. The goals focus on households earning at or below 60% of the AMI to more effectively target lower income households with limited financial resources. In 2007 dollars, a household of four with an income at or below 60% AMI earns up to $47,100 and can afford to purchase a home at or less than $152,000 or pay fair market rent up to $1,177. This will be very difficult to achieve for ownership housing in developing suburbs such as Ramsey. The Metropolitan Council has established a need for 1,140 new affordable housing units to be developed in Ramsey between 2011 — 2020 based upon existing growth projections. New affordable units are defined as City of Ramsey 2030 Comprehensive Plan Page 7-8