At the Wednesday, January 20 Lancaster county commissioners meeting, officials from the Planning Commission and the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership (LHOP) announced the release of a 72-page study entitled, “An Analysis of Regulatory Barriers to Housing Affordability”. The report seeks to assess where municipal regulations may be unduly inhibiting the availability of affordable housing in Lancaster County.
According to Ray D’Agostino, Executive Director of LHOP, the study is driven by a priority established in the Lancaster County Comprehensive Plan. In its housing component, the plan dictates that “an adequate supply, and diversity, of housing opportunities will be available in Lancaster County to give current and future residents greater choice in housing type and tenure, location, and price for a place to call home.”
D’Agostino said that another major impetus for the new report was a recommendation from recent countywide housing summits that such a study “be undertaken quickly.”
“In 2004,” D’Agostino said, “26% of all households in the county were cost-burdened—meaning they were spending more than 30% of their gross income on housing costs. In 2007, that number rose to 31%. In December of 2009, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia revealed that Lancaster is identified as one of the largest areas in the state with having a shortage of affordable and available rental units for extremely low-income households.”
While not entirely blaming local regulations for this shortage, D’Agostino said that the study does seek to find instances at which local regulations could be altered to better accommodate the expansion of affordable housing. “A cost-benefit analysis is really what we’re talking about here,” he said.
Based on a survey of zoning requirements in 20 municipalities—urban, suburban, semi-rural, and rural—in Lancaster County, as well as focus groups including municipal officials and area developers, the report cited five types of regulation that may, at times, interfere with affordable housing. The following is excerpted from the study:
INFRASTRUCTURE
- Mismatch between land that is zoned for the development of multi-family housing types and land that is serviced by the infrastructure necessary to support multi-family housing types.
- Disparity between requirements related to the provision of sidewalk, street, and parking, and actual demand.
PROCESS AND STANDARDS
- Variation in definitions, contents, organization, and methods for measuring different standards among municipal zoning ordinances.
- Common requirement of special exception/conditional use process for accessory dwelling units, townhouses, and multi-family housing types.
LOT AND AREA REQUIREMENTS
- Duplicative or contradictory effect of width, depth, setback, lot coverage, and lot area requirements for one use or within one district.
- Disagreement of density requirements and land capacity.
FEES
- Uneven impact of per-unit fees on high and low density development, and multi-family and single-family housing.
- Disparity in review fees and fees-in-lieu of parkland dedication in different municipalities.
LAND AVAILABILITY AND OCCUPANCY REQUIREMENTS
- Limited availability of land for the development of townhouses, multi-family housing types, manufactured housing parks, and conversion/accessory dwelling units.
- Limitations on the occupancy and habitable floor area of dwelling units, particularly accessory dwelling units.
The study itself does not recommend any specific policy changes to balance the need for regulation with the need for affordable housing. However, according to the report, the Planning Commission is currently drafting a “menu” of recommended regulatory options and changes for Lancaster’s municipalities.
To read “An Analysis of Regulatory Barriers to Housing Affordability” in its entirety, click here.
