Gainesville Neighborhood Voices
Informed neighbors shaping our city’s future.

Resources (Copy)

Resources

 The issues confronting Gainesville’s neighborhoods are varied, complex and unlikely to be resolved with simple solutions. Here we present a snapshot of several shared challenges with explainers, links to online resources and state law citations.

 

Affordable Housing

 While everyone agrees that Gainesville lacks sufficient affordable housing, there is no concensus on solutions. For example, flexible zoning and accessory dwelling units, both touted as steps to increasing affordable housing in the City of Gainesville’s Housing Action Plan, remain controversial and unproven. An overview of several key issues:

 Inclusionary Zoning

 A balanced primer about inclusionary zoning by Bloomberg CityLab. 

 While inclusionary zoning may add some affordable housing units, it may also have the perverse impact of driving up the price of housing overall, concludes this 2019 study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Inclusionary zoning is not a panacea for solving a community's housing challenges, says this comprehensive study by the Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy at New York University.

Inclusionary zoning may create more affordable housing -- but there is no rigorous research demonstrating it reduces racial disparities or improves economic outcomes for residents, reports this 2019 Urban Institute study.

 Accessory dwelling units (ADUs)

A comprehensive 2014 assessment of ADUs’ impact on affordable housing that reveals many of the nuances of this approach. Among other observations, this post notes that while ADUs may create affordable housing, that outcome is not guaranteed and in fact has not occurred in some communities such as Portland, Oregon.

A fall 2020 proposed ADU ordinance in Chicago meets resistance from Windy City residents who question its impact on affordable housing. 

A report on two case studies, Washington DC and Portland Oregon, by an October 2020 Urban Institute report found that the supply of ADUs increased when the larger mix of laws, regulations and practices were considered and barriers and risks to development were addressed.

Florida’s ADU law: See Florida Statute 163.31771 Accessory dwelling units. Note definitions for applicable income levels are provided in FS 420.0004.  The most recent amendments to the statute in 2020 deleted the provision that a local government find there is a shortage of affordable rentals within its jurisdiction as a possible precondition for adopting an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units in any area zoned for single family residential use. See Section 4 of Laws of Florida, Chapter 2020-27.  

 Community Land Trusts

Florida’s Community Land Trust law: See Florida Statute 193.018. Land owned by a community land trust used to provide affordable housing; assessment; structural improvements, condominium parcels, and cooperative parcels.  A community land trust can be used to acquire land “to be held in perpetuity for the primary purpose of providing affordable homeownership.”

 Linkage fees

Florida’s linkage fee laws. See Florida Statute 166.04151 Affordable housing.  This statute authorizes a municipality to promulgate ordinances or other measures allowing land use mechanisms such as inclusionary housing or linkage fee ordinances for the purpose of expanding affordable housing supply. The linkage fee provision was included in Section 6 of Laws of Florida, Chapter 2020-27 which added the following provision:  a local inclusionary housing ordinance requiring a developer to provide a specified number of affordable housing units or contribute to a housing fund must provide incentives to fully offset all costs incurred for its affordable housing contribution or linkage fee.

Other funding mechanisms for affordable housing  

Florida Housing Finance Corporation. “Florida Housing Finance Corporation (Florida Housing) is a public corporation of the State of Florida and is the state’s housing finance agency. As a financial institution, the Corporation administers state and federal resources to help provide affordable homeownership and rental housing options for citizens in the Florida.” 

Gentrification

 Residents of historically Black neighborhoods near the University of Florida, including Porters Quarters, Fifth Avenue and Seminary Lane, have long expressing concerns about ongoing gentrification -- principally from the construction of more expensive student housing. Learn more about this issue via the following links:

“The Devaluation of Black Neighborhoods, the Case of Residential Property,” Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings.  

“The Neighborhood is Mostly Black.  The Home Buyers are Mostly White,” New York Times, April 27, 2019

The pace of gentrification can be determined by the movement of high-income buyers into low-income neighborhoods, concludes this 2020 Urban Institute analysis, using 2018 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and 2018 American Community Survey data.  

In this 2017 article “Meeting and Beating the Challenge of Off-Campus Student Housing,” Dwight Merriam describes the economic advantage to property owners of student rentals in single-family neighborhoods and includes a description of some of the actions that have been taken in college towns to limit the conversion of single-family homes to rentals.

Zoning and Land Use

So called “up-zoning,” or changing the zoning code to allow taller or denser buildings, is not the panacea for decreasing interpersonal inequality in cities. In fact, public subsidies are required for the construction of affordable housing, according to a study from Utrecht University. 

Proximity to green space can increase the value of housing and potentially displace long-term, low-income homeowners.  Therefore, the retention of existing residents should be an explicit objective of any green space projects, reports this 2018 book, summarized in this Scientific American article. 

Infrastructure

Article referencing a 2011 report by the Preservation Green Lab and the National Trust for Historic Preservation which compares the reuse of buildings and new construction using Life Cycle Analysis and finds that the environmental savings are generally greater in reused buildings than in new construction. 

Laws and regulations

Housing Development Toolkit, September 2016 (Obama “toolkit” includes many options)

Alachua County Land Development Code

Alachua County Comprehensive Plan 

City of Gainesville Land Development Code

City of Gainesville Comprehensive Plan 

-Florida Statute 163.3177 Required and optional elements of comprehensive plan; studies and surveys

Florida Statute 163.31771 Accessory dwelling units.  Note definitions for applicable income levels are provided in FS 420.0004.  The most recent amendments to the statute in 2020 deleted the provision that a local government find there is a shortage of affordable rentals within its jurisdiction as a possible precondition for adopting an ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units in any area zoned for single family residential use. See Section 4 of Laws of Florida, Chapter 2020-27.  

Florida Statute 166.04151 Affordable housing.  This statute authorizes a municipality to promulgate ordinances or other measures allowing land use mechanisms such as inclusionary housing or linkage fee ordinances for the purpose of expanding affordable housing supply. The linkage fee provision was included in Section 6 of Laws of Florida, Chapter 2020-27.  In addition, Section 6 added the following provision:  a local inclusionary housing ordinance requiring a developer to provide a specified number of affordable housing units or contribute to a housing fund must provide incentives to fully offset all costs incurred for its affordable housing contribution or linkage fee.

 Florida Statute 193.018 Land owned by a community land trust used to provide affordable housing; assessment; structural improvements, condominium parcels, and cooperative parcels.  

Bill Summary of CS/CS/HB 7103 — Community Development and Housing (Chapter 2020-27)