Workforce Housing Ordinance Online
New Castle County has workforce housing links on the land use page. The text of the law is there as well. I really need to do an annotated version of the it, but for now, immerse yourself. The handouts to developers are pretty easy to spot, they’re everywhere.
There is a council meeting on Tuesday night at 7PM and a land use meeting before that at 3:30.
Tags: Workforce Housing
There’s alot of good info there to digest and measure these proposals against.
You planning to go to either of these meetings?
Yes, but not sure which…
Can’t make it to the land use meeting. They’re usually pretty blah. The actual Council meetings are generally quite fun, especially when the public comments section opens.
This ordinance has giveaways that seem to apply not only to “workforce” (what a nasty, patronizing term) projects but to ALL development projects.
Here are two:
At page 8 (40.07.326): “A traffic impact study shall only be required if requested by DelDOT.” I’m not sure if this is a substantial change but it doesn’t sound good. Then: “Up to fifty (50) workforce dwelling units may be excluded from the traffic impact study.” This seems obviously bad (!).
The definition of “Forest, Mature,” has been seriously curtailed at page 15 (40.33.300).
Sad thing is, nobody is really monitoring what the county government is up to, so people find out about these scams either after the fact, or just before the final vote.
Used to be that the Civic League for New Castle County served as a watchdog…..
workforce= “people we will never pay enough to afford a regular house”
I was on the phone to the president of the Civic League the other day tendering my resignation from the Executive Committee.
Dan actually said that CLNCC was not a watchdog organization when I asked that they fund some kind of lobbyist to keep a closer eye on county affairs.
There are some good people on the Civic League but when its President is found to be working so closely with county government that there was a secretive meeting with Chris Coons just prior to the primary election to “discuss” what Coons could do for northern countians about Stoltz development (read Pam Scott-Paul Clarky) traffic concerns I have a problem with that.
Where was the CLNCC President when the Coons-Clark workforce housing ordinance issues called for civic leadership prior to the election?
At any rate, all freaking county public business meetings are important and should be live-cammed and pod-casted for the public good.
Also, where is the Powers-Bell promise to propose a stay on the workforce housing ordinance? Any word?
If you notice on the NCCDE link above, Pam Scott-Saul Ewing have a cute little program that they run straight out of LU ever since Coons took over the county: Blueprint for Growth seminars.
Mike, the problem with LU is that the technical stuff is certainly blah until you start getting the bills. Gordon should have done more than just say that Coons raised taxes, he should have pointed out why and where.
It sure wasn’t the housing market. That has remained very solid in DE /NCC up until this year and I imagine that the county gets its cut even in a foreclosure transfer.
There are two ordinances to be concerned with here. One is linked above, 007-150 but I am told that 007-148 is a part of it too.
Geek, would you consider tagging these county posts so we can get around easily in the topic?
🙂
Nancy, Done.
Thanks, I down loaded this ordinance yesterday (I couldn’t find 148 because I was looking for 007-148 and I think it is under 07-148 instead).
The very first whereas is a strawman that the pro-growth lobby stressed along with Coons’ LU dept., which was running the Comp Plan Update, that unincoporated NCC is an appropriate place for density and low cost housing necessarily.
Municipalities are all over the county. What rationale doesn’t provide for density to be planned for towns and cities which already contain the infrastructure to handle this kind of density etc.?
The entire Comp Plan Update was a ploy such that the slow-growth UDC would be amended so that the now-land owner developer deals below the canal could rake in the most bang for their buck by forcing the rest of us to suffer the infrastructure costs of building density on cornfields.
A few where as’s into the ordinance you will also note that Coons’ Anne “million dollar pension” Farley’s Community Housing is mentioned as per affordable housing stock. Too bad that this ordinance isn’t flexible enough for the realities of the 2008 economy and the ready availability of foreclosure properties and the reality of the huge increases in construction costs e.g. the limited access concrete Bayberry Beltway, Route 301.