TITLE: Title
Public Hearing on Land Use Ordinance Amendments Relating to Affordable Housing
PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is for the Board of Aldermen to consider amending the Land Use Ordinance relating to affordable housing. A draft ordinance has been prepared. The Board must receive public comments before taking action on the draft ordinance.
body
DEPARTMENT: Planning
CONTACT INFORMATION: Christina Moon - 919-918-7325; Patricia McGuire - 919-918-7327; Mike Brough - 919-929-3905
INFORMATION: Over the last couple of years, the Community Home Trust (CHT) has met with officials and staff of the Town of Carrboro, the Town of Chapel Hill, and Orange County to seek out strategies that would make the home trust model more sustainable. As noted in the memo from Robert Dowling, (Attachment C) one of the primary issues CHT faces is a limited number of lenders who will make loans on CHT homes. The ability to attract other lenders requires that a fee simple interest can be obtained in the event of a foreclosure.
The main concern on the part of lenders relates to the potential for foreclosed homes to have restrictions that could limit their ability to resell. To address this issue, the CHT has asked the towns to amend their affordable housing policies to allow lenders to have a fee simple unrestricted interest in homes. Technically, such a change would create the potential for an affordable home, lost through foreclosure, to be sold at market rate-and thereby removed from the affordable housing stock. To date, however, the Community Home Trust has not lost a home to foreclosure; they have been able to purchase properties at risk prior to foreclosure. The benefits of enlarging the number of lenders willing to provide mortgages to Community Home Trust buyers appears to outweigh the potential loss of an affordable unit.
A draft ordinance has been prepared (Attachment B) that, if adopted, would amend Section 15-182.4, Residential Density Bo...
Click here for full text