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Staff highlights utilities, land costs and financing as key barriers to housing
Summary
During the audit presentation staff said utility capacity, rising land prices (citing a recent example of $75,000 an acre) and tight financing are constraining new housing production and often require incentives to make projects feasible.
Staff emphasized that zoning is only one barrier to housing and identified infrastructure availability (water, sewer, stormwater), rising land costs and financing as central obstacles. "Utility availabilities...those infrastructure costs can get quite expensive," staff said, and gave a land-cost example: "one of the recent ones I heard about... is 75,000 an acre." Staff added developers are increasingly saying they cannot build housing "under 300,000 right now" without support or incentives.
Staff noted that because of these cost pressures, developers commonly require incentives (tax abatements, redevelopment tools) to make projects financially feasible. The presentation flagged that recent changes to property tax rules will affect town revenues over the next few years and could alter the calculus for incentive use.
