Resources

Reducing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing in Broward County

February 3, 2020

In December of 2019, the HUD-led White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing engaged ULI to convene a focus group to identify tenets in zoning and land use regulations across Broward County and its municipalities that increase the cost of the development of affordable housing.

Reducing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing in Broward County

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Location:
Broward, Florida

City / Client:
HUD

Date:
December, 2019

Topics:
Affordable / Workforce Housing
Land Use
Zoning

In December of 2019, ULI Southeast Florida/Caribbean convened a focus group of of Broward County’s affordable housing stakeholder experts —including developers, attorneys,
planners, and housing advocates to meet with senior HUD staff in order to identify and assess regulatory barriers to affordable housing in the county.

The roundtable was tasked with:

  1. Identifying existing regulatory barriers that restrict the productions of affordable housing.
  2. Identifying existing best practices that aid in affordable housing development.
  3. Recommending policies that can facilitate and spur the development of more affordable housing units.

Recommendations to Facilitate Affordable Housing:

The focus group’s primary recommendations to ease burdens negatively impacting the development of affordable housing in Broward County were:

  1. Streamline the development approval process and establish more concise timelines for developers:
    1. Establish consistency in planning, zoning, & permitting procedures county-wide
    2. Allow expedited review for projects containing affordable housing
  2. Promote the development of affordable housing by:
    1. Expediting permit review for projects containing affordable housing
    2. Pursuing increased density along transit corridors, fast-tracking TOD projects
    3. Eliminating certain size and use restrictions that artificially drive up the price of development
  3. Increasing government ability to address housing needs
    1. Create municipal housing trust funds
    2. Make affordable housing the top development priority for vacant municipal land
    3. Increase City-County coordination on AMI level gaps