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Blowing Rock council opens study of workforce housing; directs staff to explore overlay incentives
Summary
Council discussed workforce housing options, focusing on private-sector tools and overlay-district incentives, and asked planning staff and the planning board to research models and return recommendations; no mandatory inclusionary zoning was adopted.
The Blowing Rock Town Council held an extended discussion on April 8 about workforce housing options and directed town staff and the planning board to research potential overlay-district incentives and other tools for encouraging workforce or “middle‑income” housing. The council did not adopt mandatory inclusionary zoning and gave no formal vote to require developers to set aside units.
Why it matters: The town’s median home prices and current land‑use rules make housing affordability for middle‑income workers a local policy concern; the council asked staff to study options that could help employees and essential workers live closer to Blowing Rock.
Town manager and planning staff framed workforce housing as housing targeted at households earning roughly 60%–120% of area median income (AMI), a band often described as the “middle mile” between HUD-subsidized affordable housing and market-rate units. Staff said Watauga County’s AMI (most recent figure cited in the…
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