The Common Council ad hoc committee dedicated to crafting an inclusionary zoning law for Hudson met on Wednesday. The work of the committee is still in its early stages, but what is currently being contemplated is requiring any building of four units or more, which is new construction on a vacant lot or the redevelopment of a derelict building, to make 25 percent of its units affordable. What is meant by affordable has not yet been defined, nor has the inducement that would be offered to developers to meet this requirement. A 25 percent reduction in the assessed value of the building was suggested as a possibility. It was noted that the meeting that real property tax law allows an assessment to be altered based on income loss from apartments set aside for affordable units.
Jeff Baker, counsel to the Council, advised, "You need an understanding from the industry about what kind of set-aside they can live with and what kind of incentive they would need." Defining what he meant by "the industry" Baker explained, "These are not people who are developing affordable housing; these are people who are developing market rate housing." Alderman Rebecca Wolff (First Ward), who is one of the moving forces behind this legislative initiative, reported during the meeting on a conversation she had had with Bruce Levine, the developer who built Crosswinds, which is considered workforce housing.
Now that Galvan has decided to rethink its proposal for 708 State Street to make it workforce housing instead of market rate, the only proposal for market rate housing Hudson has seen in the past thirty years is the very preliminary proposal made by the Galvan Foundation, in the partnership with Benchmark Development, to build a mixed used, market rate building at 11 Warren Street, the site of the failed 1970s strip mall.
I must have been asleep at the wheel, but didn't CC abolish committees? Now they have an ad hoc committee to address inclusionary zoning. Do we know who's on this committee and when it was established?
ReplyDeleteStanding committees were abolished in favor of ad hoc committees. https://gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/2021/02/news-from-common-council-meeting-part-4.html The ad hoc committee on inclusionary zoning consists of Rebecca Wolff and John Rosenthal, with Tom DePietro and Jeff Baker, counsel to the Council, also attending. DePietro announced the need for such a committee in February, and it has met a couple of times since then.
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DeleteTom Depietro, when justifying his abolishment of standing committees, said that the department meetings had become "free-for-alls." Which is to say, too many residents (no more than 2 or 3 usually) spoke up at meetings trying to stay involved and trying to keep department heads accountable. This is how tyrants and dictators operate, and how democracy dies.
DeleteTom's skin is so thin you can see right through it. Dropping Council members who speak out during meetings, muting participants from public comment, and using public forums as a platform to forward his own self-aggrandizing agenda. It would be comical it wasn't so destructive to the fabric of the community.
Delete....and let's not forget he tried to push someone down a flight of stairs
Deletewho challenged him in a public meeting. How in God's name does someone this destructive and unhinged run our city government?
and run it so poorly?
Deletepower hungry and a sociopath, how lucky for Hudson
There's always seems to be confusion about the term "affordable housing". But what is "market rate" housing? I hear people conflating "market rate" with "organic growth", one of the most misleading terms I've ever come across.
ReplyDeleteAnd what is 'workforce' housing? All very confusing.
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