Commission approves impact‑fee credits and multiple housing funding items for affordable projects; approvals tied to state tax credit awards

Palm Beach County commissioners approved a package of housing actions that included impact‑fee assistance for a proposed 92‑unit affordable rental development in Lake Worth and several other related amendments to housing funds.

Jonathan Brown of the county Department of Housing and Economic Development presented an impact fee assistance award recommendation for Pinnacle on 6 LLC that would provide impact‑fee credits totaling $283,902 for a 92‑unit project. The project, as presented, would serve households at targeted incomes of 30%, 40% and 80% of area median income and would carry a 30‑year affordability period. County staff listed the total estimated project cost at just over $40,000,000.

Neil Schiller, attorney for the developer, told commissioners the project’s financing stack includes an expected Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC) award; the developer also identified a local contribution from the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) of $786,000. Brown said the county’s impact‑fee pool has about $3,370,272 available for assistance and further projects would be brought forward as applications arrive in the eligible fee zones.

Commissioners pressed staff and the developer on dependencies and per‑unit cost. County staff reported the impact fee assistance equates to about $3,085 per unit. Commissioner Maria Sachs asked what happens at the end of the 30‑year affordability period; staff said the affordability requirement is the county’s minimum compliance term and that property owners could continue affordability voluntarily but are not required to do so after that date.

Commissioner Woodward, referencing other recent projects, asked whether state tax‑credit requirements (low‑income housing tax credits) would force lower maximum AMI targets; staff said tax credit awards would drive tenant income targeting and that a failure to secure credits could cause the project to be restructured or not move forward.

Separately, the board approved a budget amendment and other housing items (agenda items 5B2, 5B3, 5B4 and 5B5) that allocate impact‑fee fund interest and bond loan requests for other affordable projects. Item 5B2 amended the budget by roughly $7.6 million in one action; subsequent items provided funding or loan commitments for other projects and adjusted impact fee interest allocations. Several of these items carried votes of 6‑0 or 7‑0 as noted in the record.

The Pinnacle project approval was contingent on developer success in securing state funding; staff and the developer said that if the project does not win state awards the local contributions and county impact‑fee assistance would not be required and the project would not proceed in the proposed form.

Commissioners asked staff to continue coordinating local CRA funds, county impact‑fee credits and state funding rounds to maximize the number of affordable units developed across the county.