20061018 Workforce Housing in Carroll County

20061018 Workforce Housing in Carroll County

Workforce Housing Issues in Carroll County
October 18th, 2006

Kelsey Volkmann of the Baltimore Examiner wrote a piece the other day on the challenges of a dwindling inventory of workforce housing in Carroll County.

This issue has been much discussed in the last number of years.

I’ve always felt that one of the major impediments to developing additional workforce housing in Carroll County was government red-tape and zoning. I still feel that way. Often workforce housing requires a higher density in a given development and zoning laws and, to get real about it, much of the Carroll County public is in no mood for higher densities.

The key issue not covered by the article is that Carrollinians have no interest in any housing in Carroll County these days. To be certain, I have no doubt that there is a bias in Carroll County against workforce housing. But to be candid, many of the folks that are moving into many of these half-million dollar mansions in Carroll County are presenting as quite “elitist.”

One of the latest cutting edge models is a mixed use overlay that allows for housing to be included in a commercial development. The idea, which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been discussed, is to put housing above the stores in retail and commercial developments, read: shopping centers.

The beauty of it is that facilitates home ownership, albeit a condo-type housing, but it is nevertheless, home ownership, where the jobs are and the commercial portion of the development helps bring down the construction costs and makes the housing more affordable.

Of course, the challenge in Carroll County is the knee-jerk reaction to ANY development in Carroll County, residential, commercial, employment-base or whatever.

And actually, unless a developer brings overwhelming return for the community, in terms of additional water, open space and recreation, school pad sites or some such infrastructure improvement, I guess I’m not interested in the houses either.

Now commercial tax base and employment opportunities, that’s a different story…

Anyway, Ms. Volkmann’s story can be found here.

It begins: “Both the waiting list for housing vouchers and the demand for affordable housing continues to grow in Carroll County, but stereotypes about work force housing will have to be shattered before it is embraced, housing advocates say.

People “visualize ... 70-year-old black women who are going to come in from Baltimore and shoot up the neighborhood with AK-47s,” said James Upchurch, president of Interfaith Housing Alliance Inc., a nonprofit that has built affordable housing in Westminster, Hampstead, Union Bridge and Taneytown. “But the typical person is more likely to be their Aunt Milly.””

One of the key paragraphs, for me, was: “The key to work force housing is making zoning “inclusionary” — where developers are encouraged to build a certain percentage of affordable housing in each development — a model first adopted in Montgomery County 30 years ago, [James Upchurch, president of Interfaith Housing Alliance Inc.,] said.”

Read the rest of “Affordable housing faces hurdle of bias;” it is well worth the time.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org http://www.thetentacle.com/ Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report http://www.thewestminstereagle.com/ www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/