Milford City Council recently received a memo from City Planner Rob Pierce regarding Delaware State Housing Authority’s offer for technical assistance. DSHA is offering help to municipalities who are looking at zoning and land use reform. The assistance is due to a Senate Joint Resolution requiring DSHA to create a pilot program in order to expand housing options in order to allow higher-density residential development, promote diverse housing types and enhance sustainability as well as walkability.
“We anticipate the technical assistance provider to work directly with participating local government and select zoning land use reforms, perform assessments of existing comprehensive plans, zoning and future land use maps as well as permitting processes,” Pierce said. “They will look at production trends and gaps, identify regulations that prevent increased housing production and mixed-use developments as well as suggest revised zoning ordinances.”
The city must apply for the assistance by October 31 and identify which aspect of the pilot program they wish to include. There was a list of eight recommended items for DSHA to review in the memo. They included allowing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and/or missing “middle” housing types in residential zones as well as allowing manufactured or mobile home placed on permanent foundations where single-family dwellings are permitted.
Other items included creating pre-reviewed design plans for missing middle housing types, increasing buildable density for housing by reducing minimum lot sizes and bulk standards, increase building heights for multifamily housing and/or mixed-use developments and establishing an inclusionary zoning program to address affordable and workforce housing needs. The technical assistance will also aid the city in allowing higher density, mixed-use with residential in commercial zones or employments centers as well as reduce parking requirements in areas zoned for residential and mixed-use to promote walkable communities. The last option would also provide more affordable development opportunities.
“Staff has included all items recommended by DSHA in the resolution,” the memo from Pierce read. “City Council may remove one or more of the items from the resolution by motion is there is something council does not want to explore.”
Councilwoman Katrina Wilson asked if what they were offering was in the parameters of what the city already had or if they were offering additional options.
“Currently, like for ADU’s, we allow them by conditional use,” Pierce said. “We also allow manufactured or mobile homes on foundations. We don’t have pre-review design plans, so we would have to take a look at what our current densities are to see if there are things they would recommend going forward. That is the same with building heights, higher density and parking standards. They would just determine if they are restrictive. What we don’t have anywhere in our zoning or subdivision code is a provision for inclusionary zoning, which requires set asides by developers to meet certain income thresholds for housing types.”
The deadline to apply for the assistance from DSHA is October 31. Pierce explained that the resolution said that if recommended changes are not adopted, council would need to provide documentation of the public engagement requirement and the reasons the changes were not adopted.
“To me, being transparent to the public because in a time of rapid growth, we can explain things need to be adjusted and why the recommendations may not be a good idea,” City Manager Christopher Coleman said. “But you can rationalize to the public exactly what the reason is behind these decisions. You would also have the Delaware State Housing Authority and an independent party working with the municipality.”
It was recommended that a workshop be held after the acceptance of the resolution to explain how the process works after the first of the year. Council voted to approve the application with a vote of seven to zero with Councilwoman Lori Connor absent.
