Prescott committee presents workforce-housing policy; council urged to give direction

The Prescott Workforce Housing Committee presented a draft workforce-housing policy to the Prescott City Council at a study session on May 27, 2025, outlining incentives for developers, rental and homeownership tools, and accountability measures and asking the council for direction on next steps.

The committee’s draft “proposes a range of tools and strategies to address this complex issue,” Amber Fraser, staff liaison in the city manager’s office, told the council, asking members to provide comments or redlines for the committee to consider.

The council heard from Nicole Kennedy, chair of the Workforce Housing Committee, and committee member Randy Goodman, a developer and former firefighter, who framed the package around incentives that would lower developer costs and require long-term deed restrictions or agreements to preserve units as workforce housing.

“Guys, we have a crisis is what we have,” Randy Goodman said, describing hiring challenges in public safety and private employers; he told the council that at a recent meeting with the assistant police chief the city had 16 openings and four applicants. Goodman and other committee members urged expedited plan review, backloading or deferral of many front‑end fees, density bonuses, preapproved plans, and use of city‑owned sites as ways to make workforce projects financially feasible.

Kennedy described the…