Townhome Development at One Westport Hopes to Begin in Coming Months
southbmore.com/2022/07/11/townhome-developmen...
southbmore.comPosted Jul 12, 2022, 4:02 PM UTC
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southbmore.comI support building some density near transit stops 🤷♀️
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The Projects: Part Duex
Building two 150 unit affordable housing towers (parcel A) and tucking them on the very southern edge of the "community" with an urban forest separating them from the market rate portion of the development is like a master class on how not to develop. But it's cool, it'll still qualify for that sweet Section 42 tax dodge.
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While it is a tax break, it is the only way to make these projects work. The developer does not reap the tax benefit themselves, an investor will buy those credit (big banks, etc). It is actually a great program and private industry has proven much better at providing affordable housing compared to government "projects" of the past, IMO.
As for separating them, there is certainly an argument that it is wrong but from a marketability standpoint, makes 100% sense. The LIHTC projects, especially 9%'ers take a serious beating
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At least they’re adding low market rate housing at all. That more than I can say for a huge portion of development around the rest of the waterfront neighborhoods
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I didn't know you were an expert in urban planning or housing policy. Thanks for the hot take.
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Do you disagree?
I do work closely with planners and developers, and I have my opinions on housing policy (like any informed citizen should).
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I do. I don't think its as clearcut as you are making it out to be. In sum, see my other comment below.
Well, first off I think you are falsely equating this project with traditional 20th century public housing projects like Perkins or Latrobe Homes. This is a private venture with market rate housing options within the overall "complex".
Second, it is a significantly debated topic whether the people and the culture of poverty they bring with it causes these developments to fail or whether it is other factors like lack of sustained maintenance or opportunities only provided to more affluent residents.
I just don't think you can flat out call thai project a failure because one building has market rate units and the other has affordable housing and they are separated by a couple hundred feet (which doesn't even get into the fact that affordable =/ "poor people").
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Not a hot take. Siloing the poor is seen as a failed policy because they see better outcomes when interspersed in middle income neighborhoods.
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It's actually a heavily debated topic in academia whether it is a people-focus vs place-focus solution, ultimately equating to whether the people in those communities succeed and live in a safe environment.
*Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2009
In some cases, it has been theorized that it is the lack of continued investment and maintenance of the stereotypical public housing projects of the mid-20th century which causes them to fail (in all sense of the word).
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Do the middle income neighborhoods see better outcomes?
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I do think mixing the units between buildings would have been a better approach but financing makes that difficult. But still, given the context of the development and the reality that the "affordable housing" will probably have a significant portion of units at like 80% AMI, I don't really see how this is siloing anyone
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We’ve got thousands of unoccupied homes on this city. This will never make sense to me.
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Building these is around half the cost of making a vacant habitable or demoing one of those properties and rebuilding. Does it make sense now?
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It's waterfront real estate next to a neighborhood with like 60% vacancy. It might cost more but the right thing to do is redevelop all of Westport not just one side of the train station.
Even if they couldn't justify 10+ story buildings the waterfront side really should be all multifamily commerical or office space.
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I agree, I wish this development was way higher density. But my point was OP is confused about very simple math on redevelopment.
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Not without real numbers. No.
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Well then I guess if you're interested in it making sense to you, you could look up the average unit construction costs for new multifamily vs the rehab costs for vacant single family homes in Baltimore, and then it would make sense to you.
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Wow, in that second to last rendering you can see all the way to the Philly skyline from Westport! lol