The Bellevue City Council voted to repeal the city's inclusionary housing ordinance last week in response to a similar decision made by the Blaine County Commission in April. Both repeals were based on a 4th District Court ruling in April, which called into question the legality of requiring developers to offer a percentage of homes below the market rate to lower-income home buyers.
"Sun Valley is following Bellevue in the repeal process," said Sun Valley Community Development Director Mark Hofman. "We are thinking about an incentive-based ordinance, which would offer increased density or height allowances, rather than a mandatory requirement."
Blaine County's inclusionary housing ordinance, approved by the County Commission less than two years ago in June 2006, required all future developments in the unincorporated areas of the county to include 20 percent affordable housing. The commission chose to repeal the ordinance following a review of a Feb. 19 decision by 4th District Judge Thomas F. Neville, which declared illegal a nearly identical ordinance in the city of McCall.
Neville ruled that the resort community's affordable housing requirement is unconstitutional and amounts to an illegal tax.
Several municipalities in Blaine County had similar inclusionary housing requirements, until recently. Ketchum repealed a workforce-linked housing ordinance in 2007 and currently has an incentive-based program in the city's code. Hailey has a section of the city's subdivision ordinance, which provides for affordable housing.
It is still unclear whether Bellevue officials will readdress the issue of affordable housing by establishing new ordinances.
