Tuesday night's Board of Alders meeting.
The Board of Alders unanimously adopted a rent-capping amendment to the city’s new “inclusionary zoning” (IZ) ordinance, completing a three-month update process sparked by an apparent defect in the original version of the law.
Local legislators took that vote Tuesday night during the latest bimonthly meeting of the full Board of Alders. The in-person meeting took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
The alders voted unanimously in support of an ordinance text amendment to the IZ law that the full board first passed in January, and that went into effect on Feb. 18.
The amendment makes clear that the city has the authority to limit rents — and not just income levels of eligible tenants — in certain set-aside apartments in new and significantly rehabbed market-rate apartment complexes.
In this amendment, East Rock Alder and Legislation Committee Chair Charles Decker said during Tuesday’s meeting, “the definition of affordable housing unit was changed to be more precise,” the IZ law now defines “exactly the rent level” for set-aside apartments, and there is “clarifying language securing access” to certain set-aside apartments for Section 8 voucher holders.
City staff began the update process in early February, after a member of the public — Kevin McCarthy — pointed out in a City Plan Commission meeting that the IZ law as passed capped incomes, but not rents, in set-aside “affordable” apartments. City staff ultimately submitted an amendment to clarify that the law’s original intention and purpose is to limit rents for certain apartments occupied by low- to moderate-income tenants.
Click here, here and here to read about the IZ law, and here, here, here and here to read about the amendment process.
Some of the changes included in the amendment that passed on Tuesday night are:
• The “Definitions” section of the law now includes a definition of “IZ Affordable Unit” as: “a residential dwelling unit, which is a required or voluntarily set aside unit under this Section 50 and which is restricted for occupancy by households that have a combined total annual income for all members that does not exceed fifty percent (50%) of the New Haven Area Median Income as defined by HUD at the time of initial occupancy; and for which the costs for rent and utilities do not exceed thirty percent (30%) of household income.”
• The “Inclusionary Housing Set-Aside” section of the law now states that, for the 5 percent of dwelling units that must be prioritized for Section 8 voucher holders in applicable developments in the downtown “Core Market,” “Such Housing Choice Voucher units shall be offered such that the cost for rent and utilities do not exceed fair market rents as determined by HUD.”
• The City Plan director is required to “review all Applicable Developments at the time of application for site plan review to verify compliance with income and rental limits as required for the IZ Affordable Units.”
• The Livable City Initiative director is required to “review leasing plans and rent rolls to verify ongoing compliance with income and rental limits of the IZ Affordable Units.”
• The IZ appeal process shall go through the Board of Zoning Appeals and the state Superior Court.
Click here to read in full the IZ amendment adopted by the alders on Tuesday night.
Call it what it is, NHI--- a combination in restraint of trade. This is an illegal and unconstitutional infringement on the small businesspeople who are aka landlords. Where is the landlord association to take it to court?