Interns present 'missing middle' housing tools; council approves Liberty and Beacon pilot agreements

Saratoga Springs City Council received a presentation from two summer planning interns on policy tools to address the city’s “missing middle” housing gap — starter homeownership and workforce housing for incomes above traditional subsidized tiers.

Intern Kara and Franchesca summarized research into three tools: a revolving loan fund to finance mixed-income developments, community land trusts to create long-term shared‑equity ownership and preserve affordability, and land-bank-style policy levers to allow public acquisition or control of land for housing. They cited examples in Montgomery County, Md., Kingston (Taproot), and regional community land trusts and noted practical limits in Saratoga: the city’s strong real‑estate market and few blighted properties make a conventional land bank a poor fit. The interns suggested policy options that would not require new entities but would replicate land-bank functions through city programs or partnerships.

The interns also flagged a short-term possibility: a developer request from the Navy for 200 rental units. They proposed the city could retain land ownership (community land trust model) and lease to a developer or tenanting entity to assure long-term affordability if the site later returned to private use.

After the presentation the council considered two housing-related agenda items. First, the council voted to adopt an amended resolution and pilot agreement for Liberty Affordable Housing Incorporated. The amendment increased the project’s unit count from 212 to 216 and raised the maximum allowable AMI for certain units to 130% (the revised unit mix included units at 30% AMI, 60% AMI, 90% AMI and 130% AMI). A roll-call vote showed Mayor Safford, Commissioners Marshall, Cole and Moran voting yes; Commissioner Sangmi was absent. The motion passed unanimously among those present.

Second, the council approved a revised pilot and payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) proposal from Beacon Excelsior Park LLC for a revised plan that reduced units from 65 to 50 and removed planned ground-floor commercial space. The sponsor said the changes responded to neighborhood concerns; the resolution passed on council vote.

Council members and staff said the projects try to balance financing realities and local affordability needs; the Liberty amendment reflects a federal funding shortfall that required Liberty to restructure unit mixes and raise some AMI levels to preserve the project’s financial feasibility. Several council members said they would welcome further work to translate the interns’ policy models — especially revolving loan funds or land trust arrangements — into county‑ or region‑level partnership opportunities.

The council asked staff to continue coordinating with county entities and local development corporations to explore funding and land‑acquisition pathways that could support the missing‑middle housing models presented by the interns.