While we’ve been paying attention to the bills that have been released up to this point in the legislative session, there are apparently some more coming, a couple of which will be pretty major, innovative moves in the housing affordability endeavor.  The concepts for these bills were talked about at the League’s Legislative Policy Committee meeting on Monday, and I think we need to bring everyone up to speed on them.

The first was discussed by Steve Waldrip, the Governor’s Senior Advisor on Housing Innovation.  You may recall that at the same time that Governor Cox announced the appointment of Steve Waldrip, he also announced his starter homes initiative (Utah First Homes Program).  The proposal described on Monday by Waldrip would direct that some money from the Public Treasurers Investment Fund (where many governmental entities around the state park their money until it is needed) be set aside for financial institutions to apply for and use to finance loans for starter home projects.  Specific criteria would need to be met, and coordination with local governments key to get the kinds of projects entitled to meet the goals.  Here are some of the details of the proposal from a slide used during the discussion Monday:

PTIF proposed action:

1) authorize State Treasurer to invest up to $1 billion as deposits in banks/credit unions for “qualified projects”

2) “Qualified project” = housing proposal with a) % sold at “first home” levels (affordability) b) owner-occupancy req’ts c) all types of units (SF-D, townhomes, condos)

3) Banks/CUs could request deposits for a % of the “qualified project” cost

4) PTIF $ deposited at Fed Funds Rate – XX basis points

5) Lender loans to builder at + YY bps over

The second is a concept I think is pretty creative and innovative, and is at least worth a try to see if it can produce.  It’s likely going to be tagged with the acronym “FHIZ,” which stands for First Home Investment Zone.  Similar in concept to the recently established HTRZs (Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zones), this one would allow a community, at its own option and discretion, to set up a FHIZ somewhere within the community (not just adjacent to transit stations).  The proposal would have to include certain characteristics (still to be defined) such as a mixed use center (to encourage walkability), minimum densities, owner-occupancy, price restrictions, and others.  The area can include properties outside the center, again with certain restrictions.  The idea is to encourage new development with affordable housing and certain characteristics of design and function.  Proposals would be reviewed and approved by an HTRZ committee, and once designated, the community would be able to collect a designated tax increment to help fund needed infrastructure and services within the zone.  Lots of details still to be worked out on this, but it’s definitely an interesting idea!  The current provisions for the HTRZ committee, by the way, make it a pretty large group with lots of different government entities represented (Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zone Committee).  Here’s a summary of the current thinking on this from the slide used by Cameron Diehl during Monday’s LPC meeting:

First Home Investment Zone objectives: medium density town center AND owner-occupied, affordable units outside center

1) City option to propose

2) HTRZ committee approves it & awards % of TIF from taxing entities to fund infrastructure

3) Proposal must include:

1. a) density req’ts (housing units inside & outside center count for it)

2. b) 51% of developable acreage for housing

3. c) significant % must be owner-occupied d) % must be affordable