Agenda - Planning Commission - 09/04/2014

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Last revised July 24, 2014 Housing Performance Scores (Scores) The Council currently uses Housing Performance Scores to give priority for Livable Communities Act funding to communities that are maintaining or expanding their supply of affordable housing and using fiscal, planning, and regulatory tools to promote affordable housing. Local governments use a variety of tools to encourage affordable housing ranging from providing local funding to affordable housing projects to granting flexibility in zoning to reduce the cost of housing development. Emerging from this Housing Policy Plan will be a new set of scoring criteria the Council will create to develop local Scores annually. Jurisdictions vary widely in their fiscal, technical and human resource capacity, existing built environments, cost and availability of land, and existing level of developer interest, and the Housing Performance Scores should recognize these differences. For the legitimacy of the Scores, all cities and townships should believe they have a real possibility of achieving a high Housing Performance Score. Additionally, the Housing Performance Scores can serve as a platform for the Council and cities to inventory programs and activities and contemplate new means of addressing local housing needs given available resources. Fiscal and zoning tools used by cities in 2012 Cities using the tool Tax Increment Financing (TIF) 66 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) 52 Rental housing maintenance code 49 Collaboration with Community Land Trust (CLT) 45 or other non -profits Owner -occupied housing maintenance code 44 Set -back reductions 39 Livable Communities Act (LCA) 34 Reduced lot sizes or widths 30 Parking variances 22 Framework for developing new Housing Performance Scores • Use the following broad categories for the Scores: o Tools available at the local level. o Tools or resources used in the last five years. o Number of affordable housing units or affordable housing opportunities created in the last five years. o Existing stock of affordable housing. o Local participation in state, regional, or county housing programs whether as an administrator, lender, funding allocator, pass -through entity, or funding applicant. o Applications (whether funded or unfunded) submitted to the Consolidated Request for Proposals (the "Super RFP"), county -issued RFPs, or other major competitive funding processes. • Align counts of existing affordable housing (including naturally occurring affordable housing) with the 30%, 30-50% and 50-80% of area median income bands defined in the Allocation of Affordable Housing Need. • Expand the list of scoring opportunities to reflect the full and evolving range of housing activities, programs, and tools used by local jurisdictions, including new elements such as: o Strategies to preserve naturally -occurring affordable housing. 2040 HOUSING POLICY PLAN I METROPOLITAN COUNCIL DRAFT RELEASED FOR PUBLIC COMMENT Part III: Council Policies and Roles I Page 53