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Milwaukie staff outline housing tools: SDC waivers, covenants, revolving funds and Sparrow DDA
Summary
City staff reviewed housing actions including SDC-waiver options, affordable-housing covenants (not yet used by developers), a draft DDA for the Sparrow project, and early discussions with Metro about an accelerator fund that could provide soft-cost grants.
City staff briefed the council on a suite of housing-affordability tools at the June 16 work session, including SDC-waiver strategies, affordable-housing covenants, revolving-homebuyer assistance ideas and early-stage engagement with Metro on an accelerator fund.
Staff recapped the February discussion about system-development-charge (SDC) waivers tied to accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and said one practical backfill option would be to use CT dollars; staff noted other city projects also draw on CT funds so tradeoffs exist. "Backfilling with CT dollars was probably the most meaningful way to do it and the easiest way to do it," a staff member said.
Staff also said the city had implemented affordable-housing covenants but that no developer had yet taken advantage of them. A draft development agreement (DDA) for the Sparrow project is completed in draft form and will require further negotiation; staff said Sparrow and related projects will require substantial time and financing to advance.
On regional funding, staff described a meeting with Metro officials about the housing production accelerator fund. Staff said Metro framed the program largely for soft costs rather than land acquisition in many uses, and discussed project-scale awards in the $500,000 to $1,000,000 range (Metro-level totals discussed were characterized at about $5,000,000 and still early-stage). Councilors asked whether such funds could be used to backfill SDCs or infrastructure and heard staff say the accelerator funds design may limit some uses.
Staff also described precedent for direct grants to developers through the city's CET program and said direct grant models can be administratively complex and require risk mitigation and management. Councilors asked staff to return with more details on revolving-homebuyer assistance partnerships and to continue discussions on aligning local stacks of funding for Hillside, Sparrow and other projects.
No motions or votes were recorded on these items during the work session; staff said they will return with more detailed proposals for subsequent study sessions.
