Richardson board hears housing needs assessment; staff weighs CDBG, opportunity zones, missing‑middle zoning and housing finance tools

Assistant City Manager Danette Garcia presented a housing needs assessment to the Richardson Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No.1 board on March 5, 2026, outlining priorities, study methods and near‑term strategies the city will pursue.

Garcia said the study — begun in 2024 and conducted with consultants Grow America and the Reinvestment Fund — used stakeholder interviews, a market‑value analysis and consultant “drive‑alongs” to validate on‑the‑ground conditions. “We identified a group of stakeholders that helped us,” Garcia said, and the consultants presented initial findings to council in October 2025 and a follow‑up briefing in December 2025.

The assessment identified three primary needs for Richardson: “older low income homeowners need the opportunity to safely age in place,” more reasonably priced for‑sale homes to accommodate families with children, and better maintained rental housing for lower‑wage workers, Garcia said.

To address those needs, Garcia presented four near‑term strategies staff will examine with council: accepting Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, applying for Opportunity Zone designation for qualifying census tracts, updating zoning to allow missing‑middle housing (townhomes, duplexes, fourplexes and smaller apartment types), and exploring creation of a Housing Finance Corporation (HFC) and/or Public Facility Corporation (PFC).

On CDBG, Garcia said Richardson has not accepted CDBG funds in the past and that accepting them would bring both money and administrative burden. “Our allocation is approximately about $780,000,” she said, explaining statutory limits including up to 20% for administration and a 15% cap for public services while requiring roughly 70% of activities to principally benefit low‑ and moderate‑income persons. Board members noted the program’s reporting and compliance requirements and asked whether the county might administer the program for Richardson; staff said the county does administer for jurisdictions under 50,000 population and that the city would receive an administration allocation if it administered the grant directly.

Garcia described Opportunity Zones as a federal incentive to attract private capital into distressed areas; she outlined statutory tract qualifiers (median family income thresholds and poverty rates) and said staff is preparing an application for the nomination window that opens July 1, 2026, with the program taking effect Jan. 1, 2027. “We’re working on our application right now,” Garcia said.

On zoning, Garcia said the Envision Richardson comprehensive plan identified missing‑middle housing as a priority and that current zoning does not accommodate many of those housing types. Staff will study zoning and development standard changes and brief council on options.

The board also discussed HFCs and PFCs as potential financing vehicles. Garcia explained the mechanics — including tax‑exempt bond issuance and potential property‑tax or sales‑tax exemptions — and cautioned that such entities are complex and typically involve outside partners, bond counsel and specialized accounting. Board members raised past proposals of long‑term exemptions and emphasized the need for council oversight; staff said there are no active HFC projects in Richardson at present.

Garcia said staff will return to council and the board with deeper briefings: an Opportunity Zone briefing planned for spring/summer 2026, missing‑middle conversations in spring 2026, a CDBG briefing in summer 2026 and an HFC/PFC briefing to council later in 2026.

Why this matters: the tools discussed — federal CDBG grants, Opportunity Zone nominations, zoning changes for missing‑middle housing and entity structures such as HFCs/PFCs — would influence what housing gets built, who it serves and the city’s long‑term tax and financing posture. Board members repeatedly stressed balancing potential funding gains with administrative burden and the broad taxing‑entity impacts of any long‑term tax exemptions.

What’s next: staff will prepare more detailed analyses and take them to council for policy decisions and to guide any required ordinance or program changes.