Task Force focuses on ‘fees in lieu of’ affordable housing

PINE PLAINS — Affordable Housing Task Force Chairman Jack McQuade made a presentation to the Town Board at its monthly meeting on Thursday, Feb. 16, to discuss the issue of “fee in lieu of,” an important concept to how Pine Plains may ultimately structure its affordable housing bylaws.“We’ve been trying to determine the ‘fee in lieu of’ issues as part of the affordable housing section of the new zoning law,” McQuade said. He used Monopoly game pieces and money to illustrate different scenarios of how the strategy could work.One example was laid out with a 10-unit subdivision, which would be required to have 10 percent affordable housing, meaning one unit would fall within that requirement. Therefore, there would be 11 homes, one of which would qualify as affordable.“With the ‘fee in lieu of’ it became very complicated, and we’ve been grappling with it for the past year,” McQuade said. “The way we’ve been interpreting it is that if the developer had a 10-unit subdivision and was required to provide affordable housing under the law, he could pay a ‘fee in lieu of’ [building the affordable housing] and then it would be the town’s responsibility to take that fee and use it somehow to develop affordable housing.”But there is an issue with the Task Force’s interpretation.“The contention was that the way we were reading it was even with the fee used by the developer he would still get a bonus unit,” McQuade said. “It was my feeling that a bonus should be a reward for doing more, not less, and that the way we saw it was if a fee was used there would be no bonus units. And so that’s what we’ve been going back and forth with planners and the town attorney over, to try to come to a consensus about how the law is written and what it means and how it fits in with our feelings.”The sentiment was shared by all members of the Task Force, according to its chair. Town Board members did not act on the issue at the Feb. 16 meeting or make their opinions publicly known. In fact, McQuade will have to return to give a formal presentation to the board and make recommendations on how to draft an affordable housing law for the town.“We’re waiting for the planners to supply us with the fee schedule and that’s being worked on,” McQuade said, adding that’s the next step in the process. He also said the Task Force will be meeting with Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky next week, to make it clear how the group feels about the bonus issue as well as to get feedback from Replansky on the matter.Tackling a complex issueWhile McQuade made the presentation to the Town Board last week, some members of the public rose from their chairs and approached the board table to witness the action taking place with the Monopoly pieces. It was the second time McQuade used the game pieces to make his point. In October of last year he did so for the previous Town Board; he said he thought it would be beneficial to do the same for the newly elected board members who took office at the start of the New Year.“I hope it helped,” he said. “It’s been a very complicated issue and we’ve been grappling with it for a long time. For the new board members I just hope it made them see things a little more clearly.”One of the most difficult ideas to express when dealing with the subject of affordable housing, according to McQuade, is that there are different methods of achieving affordable housing — the fee in lieu of is just one of those methods. It is up to the discretion of the Town Board whether it wants to accept the fee; the board can also tell the developer to build the units or not.“With the fees it’s a little complicated, because the fee is not what the whole affordable housing should cost, it’s just the difference between what it would cost to build an affordable house and what an eligible family would pay — the restricted sales price — and the difference between what the cost to build is and the restricted sales price would be,” McQuade said. “And the town would be getting the fee.”He added the town can hire nonprofit housing companies that have experience in creating affordable housing and would take the fee money and develop the project from start to finish. As the Task Force moves forward it will consider its options of working with consultants, planners and possibly with nonprofit developers. The ultimate goal is to see that affordable housing is built.Workforce housingMeanwhile, McQuade said there was one last point he wanted to stress: The town is pursuing affordable, workforce housing — not low-income housing (often called Section 8 housing).“We’ve had some comments from our survey [last year] where residents were uncomfortable thinking that we were trying to promote Section 8 housing and that it was going to ruin our town. That’s not what we’re talking about,” he said. “It’s medium-income housing, not low-income housing.“We want to find housing for EMTs, teachers, nurses and others in the workforce in our community,” the chairman added. “This is for people that we depend on so much, but who can’t afford to live here. It’s workforce housing that we’re trying to develop.”