Opinion/Brown: The biggest barrier to affordable housing in RI? Local planning boards
Kristina L. Brown is program officer of Housing & Economic Policy at United Way of Rhode Island. She lives in Cranston.On Jan. 18, Gov. Dan McKee delivered his State of the State address and outlined significant investments in housing. For decades, Rhode Island has failed to produce enough housing for existing and future residents due to underinvestment and barriers to development. According to a gap analysis by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Rhode Island is short 22,000 units to meet today’s needs.
As the governor said, “How can we expect our sons and daughters to stay in Rhode Island if they don’t have housing they can afford to live in?”
Last session, Governor McKee, Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, and President Dominick Ruggerio made major strides in allocating resources to housing. While these funds are not enough to reverse decades of underinvestment, they are important investments in moving our state forward. But the question remains: Will these funds be successful at creating new units and stabilizing our housing market?
Ask anyone in housing development, and you will find a significant barrier to developing new housing, both affordable and market-rate units. That barrier is local planning and zoning commissions.
All development proposals are vetted and approved through the municipal planning processes because Rhode Islanders believe residents should have a say in the development of their communities. That decision is supposed to be informed by municipalities’ comprehensive plan; a plan adopted after reviewing data, involving stakeholders, and defining a future vision. But at the end of the day, local planning and zoning commissions continue to make decisions on projects that go against the goals outlined in their own plan and restrict housing development in our state.
For instance, there is a proposal before the City Council in Cranston to build an AutoZone and a gas station on land designated for “mixed-use development,” i.e. residential and commercial. Recognizing the need for more housing in Cranston, the city planning department made it feasible through zoning designation to build housing on this parcel. The planning and zoning commission, however, has approved the AutoZone and gas station proposal, which are uses that cannot be paired with housing. By allowing zoning variances for the auto uses, the planning and zoning commission is ignoring the vision of the comprehensive plan and pitting short-term tax revenues against the need cited in their plan for achieving Cranston’s housing goals.
Why is this significant to addressing Rhode Island’s housing gap? Without the buy-in of members of local planning and zoning commissions, we will continue to see buildable parcels go to projects that do not include housing. As the smallest state in the union, we need to be building housing on every suitable parcel. Municipalities should be working to identify where housing can be built in their communities and what they’d like it to look like, creating a vision for housing development that matches the needs of their residents.
According to HousingWorks RI, only 6 of our 39 municipalities meet the statutory goal of having 10% of their housing stock affordable, and there are no municipalities where a family earning the median household income of $67,000 can afford to buy a home.
Affordable housing is needed in every community in our state if we are to reach our economic recovery goals, and the time is now for local decision-makers to lead. Board members must act intentionally to ensure that the next generation can raise their children in their home community and aging residents have ample affordable housing options to downsize in the communities they love.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Opinion: Local planning boards a barrier to affordable housing in RI
