Planning staff: South Ogden in compliance on modern income housing but will refine implementation

Planning staff reported the city received a letter of compliance from the state after submitting strategies under the modern income housing requirement and walked commissioners through the strategies the state counted.

Lisa Murphy told the commission the city submitted five strategies and the state counted three; the city received a letter of compliance on Oct. 24. Murphy said the city is a fourth-class city (about 17,018 residents) and that the modern income housing element must be filed by an Aug. 1 deadline. She described the first strategy (strategy P) as efforts to create or subsidize modern income housing via redevelopment or Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) pursuit for a city-owned parcel at 40th and Evelyn; staff said in April 2024 council discussed housing plans for that parcel with estimated build costs of about $250,000 to $280,000 per unit in that conceptual discussion.

Murphy also described strategy K (preserve existing/subsidized units via landlord incentives or deed restrictions) and said a student-prepared report exists and staff plans to present it to the planning commission and city council for possible pursuit. She noted the city had already adopted an ordinance (Dec. 5, 2023) allowing internal and detached ADUs and a March 19, 2024 modification to setbacks, which counted toward the reporting period.

Murphy warned the commission that failure to submit an adequate modern income housing element can trigger fines: "If we fail to report on those 3, we get fined $250 a day. And if we do that again, this for a consecutive year, it doubles to $500 a day," she said. She added the penalty money is returned to a modern income housing fund. Commissioners asked for additional detail on counts of qualifying units and next steps on infill and implementation.