Salt Lake Council hashing out housing policy

The Salt Lake City Council still has a handful of issues to hash out before it revamps its citywide housing policy.

The policy revisions — which were discussed at a work-session meeting Tuesday after being in the works for almost four years — would make a number of tweaks to the guidelines dictating housing developments in the city. Among the most debated aspects of the policy are those related to affordable housing.

One of those provisions would be to deny city funding to any housing project that would be made up entirely of affordable units — be they rental apartments or condos for purchase.

The idea isn't to limit the availability of affordable housing, proponents say, but to encourage neighborhoods' becoming more diverse along economic lines.

Councilwoman Nancy Saxton , who touts the restriction because it furthers "the goal of disseminating affordable housing throughout the city," believes compromise language — which would allow funding for housing units made up entirely of affordable units if developers can show they satisfy the "spirit and intent" of the policy — is too nebulous.

An idea that has been floated would allow a heavier concentration of affordable housing in areas where the median income is on the higher end compared with the city as a whole, but Saxton sees that as untenable.

"The stumbling block for me is if we go into an area where there is a higher income, then I probably wouldn't mind having 100 percent" affordable housing, Saxton said. "The problem is as we move into higher-income areas they're probably not going to want 100 percent affordable housing."

Among those who have sent comments to the council opposing the restriction on funding 100 percent affordable housing projects is Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, who wrote in a letter that that proposal "makes no sense."

The restriction, he wrote, "would prevent the working class from renting apartments or purchasing condominiums. It would also prevent many affordable housing projects from being constructed as financing would be difficult to obtain for affordable projects which have units that exceed the market-rate rents in the city."

A straw poll showed that the council remained split 3-3 on the question, leaving it open for future discussion. Councilman Soren Simonsen was not at Tuesday's meeting.

Also still open is the question of whether all housing being built in transit-oriented development zones — city-funded or not — would be encouraged, through incentives like a speedier approval process, to include affordable housing.

Only Councilman Eric Jergensen supported requiring affordable housing in TOD zones, but the question of offering incentives garnered three supportive straw-poll votes.