LOVELAND — The city’s Affordable Housing Commission plans to rewrite the city’s affordable housing code to make it more flexible to various housing needs as they arise.
Commission staff liaison Alison Hade said the city advisory group is researching what other communities are doing and looking at various best practices.
The rewrite might not have a direct correlation to additional affordable housing options in Loveland, but Hade said she hopes the commission can come up with a system that’s streamlined, “so that anybody looking for some form of an incentive for the city of Loveland is first vetted through the Affordable Housing Commission and then the City Council.”
The goal, she said, is to have the process be more predictable. Commissioners will research what has worked for other communities, study the issue and discuss options with the Loveland Housing Authority for the next five months. Then they hope to bring a rewrite to the City Council for approval.
Hade said the question will be what the city is willing to do as a partner.
“The city is not going to take a lead, but the city may be willing to create some sort of partnership with organizations, depending on what it is they want to produce,” she said.
She cited more home availability in the 30 to 40 percent average median income range as one housing aspect city councilors said they wanted to see more of in Loveland. And for right now, the only group in Loveland that does work on those affordable housing units is the Loveland Housing Authority.
Developers can obtain incentives from the city if they designate some of their units in a complex as affordable housing.
“Our code has provisions on affordable housing, and it allows for fee waivers, controlling building fees … if the developer agrees to a certain percentage of affordable housing,” City Attorney Tami Yellico said.
There are some instances, she said, where the city has held fees at a certain level for a number of years as long as a developer meets the affordable housing agreement.
Loveland has the ability to make some of these provisions, Yellico said, because of its status as a home-rule city.
However, communities across northern Colorado are trying to find solutions for more affordable housing options for their residents.
Senate Bill 16-059 aimed to provide solutions for the housing crisis by giving more authority to local governments, but it failed in the Finance Committee last week.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Westminster, said in the hearing that nothing prevents local governments from having a conversation with developers about building workplace housing, for example, when coming to a city. But, because of state law, local governments don’t have the authority to require such an arrangement.
Supporters of the bill say the high cost of housing hurts residents’ economic security, but opponents say the bill was proposing to take rights away from the private sector and could never hold up to a legal battle.
Hade said there’s no simple answer to solving the housing issues facing so many communities, including Loveland, but leaders will have to get creative.
“I think that anything could help,” Hade said. But at the same time, she said, it “really has to be politically palpable.”
