City and County officials map next steps after joint housing study; $1 million seed and new staff position proposed

Joanne Nelson, director of the BendPak Community Services department, told a joint session of the Boone County Commission and the Columbia City Council on Jan. 10 that the jurisdictions are moving from study to action on housing policy and programs. "This has been a long, hard battle, but it's not over," Nelson said, opening the work session.

The meeting focused on implementing recommendations from a comprehensive housing study prepared for the city and county, including proposals to make permitting and development review more predictable, establish a local affordable housing trust fund, create a housing preservation inventory, and explore tools such as tax-increment financing and a land bank. Becky Thompson, director of the city's Housing and Neighborhood Services Department, said staff aim to prioritize the consultant's recommendations and asked elected officials for guidance on which items to advance first.

The nut of the discussion centered on three priorities staff described as feasible in the short term (0–2 years): clarifying and streamlining development review steps, standing up a city affordable housing trust fund seeded with $1 million in the 2025 city budget, and creating an inventory of subsidized affordable housing to track imminent affordability expirations.

Officials and staff outlined specific implementation steps. Thompson described work to produce visual process flowcharts for development review steps that she said would help external applicants and internal staff identify bottlenecks and discretionary approvals that could become administrative. "The hope is that this is not only a…