A series of revisions to the county's inclusionary housing ordinance are bound for the Blaine County Commission after the county Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved them in a vote last Thursday.
Because the P&Z is only a recommending body, the final say on the revisions is in the hands of the three-member County Commission.
Among the changes the P&Z approved in its preliminary vote last week is a proposal to lower the range of income categories that are eligible to be considered by the Blaine County Housing Authority to purchase affordable housing in the county. The current range sets the eligible income categories at three through six. Under the proposed changes, the range would be lowered to income categories two through five.
Income categories are calculated annually on the basis of percentage of average median income for Blaine County by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As an example, as set in the proposed changes to the county's inclusionary housing ordinance, households earning more than 40 percent, but less than 60 percent of the median household income in the county are designated income category two.
Households earning more than 100 percent, but not more than 120 percent of the median household income in the county are designated income category five.
Since the Blaine County inclusionary housing ordinance was originally passed, county officials have come to consider the existing range of income categories too high, Blaine County Regional Planner Jeff Adams told the P&Z.
"We're not getting coverage on down on the lower end of the scale," Adams said.
Another proposed change included in the revised inclusionary housing ordinance would clarify the relationship between Blaine County and the Blaine County Housing Authority. Adams said the change would make more explicit the housing authority's relationship with the county and what it is responsible for.
Specifically, the preliminary changes state that the county commission would look to the housing authority to review and administer affordable housing built in Blaine County.
"The board wants more direction from them (the housing authority)," he said.
The changes would also provide for a short plat exclusion for the Carey area, Adams said.
Such an exclusion, of which there is already a similar exclusion covering the Yale area in southern Blaine County near the Snake River, would help alleviate the burden on small landowners trying to subdivide their land to maintain family farms, Adams said. In Blaine County, a short plat is used to subdivide property into four or less lots.
As things stand right now, many farmers in the Carey area are finding the requirements of the county inclusionary housing ordinance too burdensome, Adams said.
"We've had one (landowner) say they're not going to subdivide because of that," he said.
Another change in the proposed inclusionary housing ordinance revisions would require the recording of affordable housing deed restrictions on county plats to make them more legally binding.
Adams said the county commission will likely consider the changes to the inclusionary housing ordinance sometime later this year.
"They're pretty backed up right now," he said.
In other county affordable housing news:
· The Board of the Blaine County Housing Authority tentatively approved a draft settlement that would release developer Henry Dean from his obligation to provide 12 community housing units at the Agave Place development, at the north end of Buttercup Road.
In exchange, Dean, the developer of The Valley Club's West Nine expansion, the 43-unit market rate project whose approval by the county in May 2005 resulted in the construction of the 12 Agave Place units nearby, would have to provide 11 community housing units elsewhere. He would be required to provide the lesser number of affordable housing units because one of the Agave Place units has already sold.
The Housing Authority board made several revisions to the draft settlement based on feedback it received from the Blaine County Commission last week. The changes stipulate that Dean must pay a $60,000 penalty for every replacement unit not delivered within the 42-month time frame laid out in the settlement.
The County Commission still must vote on the plan. Dean, who is traveling outside of the country this week, wasn't available for comment.
