Members of the Columbia Downtown Housing Corporation said Wednesday that an affordable housing plan from Columbia master developer Howard Hughes was a positive step toward ensuring a range of housing options for the city center, but needs finessing before they decide whether to endorse it.
"The ball is moving down the field, but I don't think we're in the endzone," said the Rev. Robert Turner, a corporation member.
Howard Hughes' proposal, which company representatives unveiled June 8, would bring 992 affordable units to downtown Columbia through a combination of strategies, including integrating a small amount of affordable units into all future residential developments downtown, as well as building new apartments that would contain between 50 and 100 percent affordable units.
The proposal was a response to a CDHC report released this spring that called for legislative action to guarantee that affordable housing is built as downtown Columbia develops. The group's suggested plan would require 15 percent of the remaining housing developed downtown -- about 700 units -- to be affordable to people making between 40 and 80 percent of Howard County's median income, which is $109,865, according to the last U.S. Census.
Howard Hughes' alternative plan is more financially feasible for the company, according to Howard Hughes Vice President of Development Greg Fitchitt. The developer is asking that the affordable units, and any market rate units built as part of a moderate income project, constitute a bonus density that doesn't count towards the 5,500-unit limit currently imposed on downtown development.
The proposal also suggests lowering the required parking ratio for smaller projects to a per-bedroom, not per-unit rate.
While housing corporation members lauded the increase in affordable housing suggested by Howard Hughes, they had concerns about the details of the project.
Specifics about how section 8 project vouchers would be used in the project, and whether land for several of the proposed projects -- some of which is county-owned -- would become available to the developer for construction remained nebulous Wednesday.
Corporation member Roy Appletree also said he had hoped the affordable housing strategy would incorporate more moderate-income units for families on the lower end of the salary spectrum. The CDHC's plan split up their affordable housing requirements into tiers -- housing affordable to people making 40, 60 and 80 percent of the area median income.
"This proposal doesn't really get to that [40 percent] group," Appletree said.
Andrea Ingram, a corporation member and director of the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center in Columbia, noted that many of her own employees wouldn't be able to afford housing at the 80 percent, or even the 60 and 40 percent, rental rates.
"I think you have to look at what affordable means to different people," she said.
Howard Hughes' plan would, however, include a small amount of housing for people who make just 30 percent of the Baltimore-Towson area median income, which is lower than Howard County's at $89,600. These units would be funded by federal section 8 housing vouchers and would be interspersed among the downtown Columbia developments, but they would displace affordable housing units elsewhere in the county.
Housing Department Director Tom Carbo told corporation members that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the section 8 program, was likely to support moving some units to Columbia because the decision would deconcentrate affordable housing elsewhere.
"Generally, HUD's in favor of finding ways to transfer units from concentrated areas and move them to high opportunity areas," he said.
Some CDHC members were also reluctant to embrace a plan that includes several projects that would be 100 percent moderate income, rather than mixed income, where some units are moderately priced and others are priced at market rate.
Turner reminded corporation members that the group had opposed an earlier Howard Hughes proposal to build one residential building comprised entirely of affordable units in the Crescent development near Merriweather Post Pavilion.
"We said at the time that wasn't prudent," he said. "What changed?"
Fitchitt emphasized the greater number of affordable units Howard Hughes' plan would bring to downtown.
"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good," he said.
Corporation members agreed to meet in a smaller committee and later, as a whole group, on June 24 to hash out the details. The corporation and Howard Hughes are hoping to reach an agreement that they can present to the council at its worksession on July 13.