Fayetteville debates housing resolutions
FAYETTEVILLE — The City Council has two resolutions about housing to consider Tuesday that share some commonalities but call for different approaches to solving the affordability issue.
Neither resolution would have regulatory teeth if passed but would ask the city administration to take certain actions.
The first resolution, sponsored by council members D’Andre Jones and Sarah Moore, would declare a housing crisis in the city and call for the creation of a task force and a housing coordinator position to address the issue.
The second resolution, sponsored by Mike Wiederkehr, Scott Berna, Sarah Bunch, Teresa Turk and Holly Hertzberg, touts the city’s past and current efforts to alleviate housing affordability issues and asks for higher developer fees to pay for a new planning staff position.
The resolutions each represent a statement of intent, said Blake Pennington, the city’s senior assistant city attorney. The measures they call for are not binding, but they provide policy direction, he said.
Each resolution has eight parts.
DUELING LINGO
Both have two parts in common. The city would partner with neighboring communities to come up with strategies and call upon state and federal officials to increase funding for housing projects.
The resolutions differ on the other six parts.
In the first one sponsored by Jones and Moore, the city could declare a housing crisis and recognize an urgent need for comprehensive solutions to address housing affordability, availability and accessibility.
The resolution also would have the city commit to establishing a housing crisis task force. The task force would be formed by the end of June, consisting of representatives from government agencies, nonprofits, renter groups, developers, landlords and residents. The task force would be active for at least a year.
The resolution asks the mayor to create a housing coordinator position. The new position would coordinate efforts to address housing insecurity, collaborate with partners and implement recommendations from the task force once approved by the City Council.
The city would commit to working with the housing coordinator and task force on strategies to increase the number of affordable housing units, streamline the permitting process and explore innovative approaches to address housing insecurity.
The city would pledge to establish metrics for success and regularly evaluate progress and adapt strategies as needed, and market the efforts to the public.
The second resolution sponsored by Wiederkehr and four other members says cities can’t subsidize the private production of homes, but the city desires a variety of housing types and price points for residents.
It also says housing prices are one half of the affordability equation and wages are the other. It lists the $2 million in American Rescue Plan money the City Council appropriated for free child care services and another $2 million dedicated to job training available to residents. The preamble of the resolution also lists a number of measures the city has taken to help alleviate housing affordability issues and housing insecurity.
The resolution mentions how the city is in the middle of a study assessing the fees it charges to developers to review and process projects. The fees have not been adjusted in 17 years, and the city could use any additional revenue to put toward expediting permits and reviews.
In another section, it says a way to do that might be to create a position such as an additional city engineer, deputy director of development services, planner, building inspector or plan checker using the additional revenue from increased fees. Such a decision would be up to the mayor to implement.
Lastly, the resolution pledges to responsibly use the resources within the city’s control to balance the long-term well-being of residents with the need for housing and to consider the needs of low-income residents.
Bentonville formed a housing affordability work group in late 2021 that produced a report with a series of policy recommendations. The eight-member group consisted of two City Council members, city staff, and representatives from the community, development companies and nonprofits.
The 66-page document outlining various policies was released in January 2023. Bill Burckart, Bentonville council member who served on the group, said its recommendations have helped guide administrative decisions on zoning, development review and residential density.
The tricky part, he said, has been implementing those policies.
“We’re working on our implementation, and while it’s taken longer than I had desired to get the action done, it just takes time and I’m still working as diligently as possible to get ours implemented,” Burckart said.
DREDGING UP SUPPORT
The resolution sponsored by Jones and Moore stemmed from a series of town hall meetings with residents, said Billy Cook, a member of community group Arkansas Renters United. Jones and Moore attended the meetings, and council member Bob Stafford attended one in February. As residents gave testimonials of their experiences with rising rents and suboptimal living conditions, the question came up about solutions, he said.
The first step to solving a crisis is acknowledging it, Cook said. The fact that much of the resolution’s contents came from residents discussing the issue serves as a testament to the severity of the problem, he said.
Cook acknowledged past and current efforts the city has taken on to take on the issue but said more could still be done.
“No one wants to chastise the city staff who are working. It’s elected officials who have the responsibility to listen to their constituents,” he said. “City staff, they’re just trying to do their jobs, and we should make the City Council do theirs.”
Cook said he felt both resolutions represent two halves of the same whole. The first doesn’t go into the history of the city’s efforts on housing but calls for action, he said. The second goes into the history but lacks actionable policies, he said.
If passed, the City Council and administration would need to take additional steps to enact the policies outlined in the resolution. Cook said the residents he’s been working with are ready for the long haul.
A rally is planned in front of City Hall at 5:30 p.m. Monday for residents to share their stories of housing affordability issues and housing insecurity. A petition also is circulating online on change. org to support the first resolution. As of Friday evening, the petition had more than 1,100 signatures.
Wiederkehr said he was surprised to see the resolution from Jones and Moore and felt it ignored the city’s past and current efforts on the issue. He said he originally sought to craft an amendment but realized it would be more appropriate as a separate resolution.
Wiederkehr said he felt the first resolution succinctly described the issue but appealed more to emotion than tangible solutions. He said he was concerned the resolution could lead to the city taxing its resources while planning staff already have several initiatives under way to help combat the problem.
Wiederkehr also said he feared the first resolution would bolster a narrative that simply building more housing on a lot-by-lot basis would preclude out-of-state investors from buying up property and disrupting the market. Creating affordable housing is a complex process, and the city still lacks available land to build on, he said.
He said he sought co-sponsors because the first resolution had two sponsors. After consulting with the City Attorney’s Office, Wiederkehr said he sent drafts of the resolution to the other four members asking for a co-sponsor. All four ended up signing on, he said.