|
 E-mail Story Print Friendly Send E-mailTo Kiera Hay BY Recent stories by Kiera Hay $$ NewsLibrary Archives search for Kiera Hay '95-now  Reprint story
Journal North North 26113133jn1afford.n072608.htm
|
Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Housing Rules May Go Further
By Kiera Hay
Journal Staff Writer
Santa Fe city councilors are moving toward extending the city's affordable housing rules to another piece of housing development — time-share or "fractional ownership" projects.
The city's Finance Committee voted unanimously Monday to approve a resolution to amend the city's affordable housing ordinance to include "vacation time-share projects" among the developments that must price nearly one-third of their units according to income-based affordable housing guidelines.
"We're not looking at it as being really controversial," city housing and community development director Kathy McCormick said. She said the idea has been kicking around City Hall for the last few years.
The proposal goes before the City Council on Wednesday for a final vote.
According to city law, 30 percent of the total number of houses in any new development or rezoned area must be sold at lower, so-called affordable prices spelled out in the ordinance.
But the law doesn't apply to commercial properties, under which vacation time shares fall in the current city code.
Santa Fe has determined that, while time-share properties do have a commercial component through their management and operational structures, people "live there and have an ownership interest, so it's a residential use," assistant city attorney Kelley Brennan said.
"I just think it's been a sort of a nagging issue to be resolved," she said.
City Councilor Patti Bushee, who, along with councilors Chris Calvert and Rosemary Romero, is sponsoring the amendment, called the affordable housing ordinance a "living document."
"I think that we will be continually tweaking our housing ordinance to reflect the current state of affairs," she said.
Also wrapped up in the issue has been how to classify fractional-ownership residences, in which multiple buyers purchase a deeded interest in a unit ranging from a one-half to a one-thirteenth share. The proposed changes in the affordable housing ordinance to cover time shares would also cover fractionals.
Fractionals, still relatively rare in New Mexico but gaining in popularity, have never been explicitly defined by land-use code, but tend to be viewed as similar to time shares, and therefore are arguably commercial rather than residential.
The question came to the forefront when Greer Enterprises submitted plans for its 47,000-square-foot Villas at the Lensic project to the city in December. Located at the corner of Sandoval and W. San Francisco Street downtown, the development will be composed of retail space and 12 fractional residences.
A city internal memo distributed last December noted, "If in fact the Lensic Project with a fractional housing component is determined to be a commercial project we will not be able to obtain an affordable housing contribution."
The Villas at the Lensic, which has been approved by the city's Planning Commission and Historic Design Review Board but has yet to come before the City Council, wasn't the motivation for changing the affordable housing ordinance, McCormick said, but the prominent project did provide "focus."
She said the city has been in communication with Greer Enterprises over the proposed changes, as an amended law would require Greer to provide affordable units, something it has not indicated it plans to do. Greer's response has been "favorable," McCormick said.
Karl Sommer, an attorney for the project, did not return a message left by the Journal.
Some fear the exclusion of time shares from the 30 percent affordable housing law could all but ensure affordable housing is excluded from downtown Santa Fe. Noted McCormick, "Builders would come in and talk to the city and then turn to fractionals."
But questions remain about how much the amended ordinance, if passed, will really increase the number of affordable dwellings.
"I don't know how significant an impact this will have," McCormick admitted.
Developers can opt to pay the city a fee in lieu of building affordable units, though McCormick said she hoped the costs associated with that alternative — $109,000 for every affordable dwelling not created — would act as a deterrent. Any money collected would go into the city's affordable housing trust.
Such a request would also have to be approved by the City Council, and only if the developer can prove an "extreme hardship" exists. In May 2007, First National Bank and Greer Enterprises were allowed to pay such a fee in lieu of offering affordable units in a Lincoln Avenue project.