Housing Affordability
As the City of Lawrence works to update the Comprehensive Planning Guide Horizon 2020, now being called Horizon 2040, the Lawrence Board of REALTORS® remains concerned about increasing costs for home owners. New mandates on developers to produce a “Community Benefit” at annexation will only further exacerbate housing affordability in Lawrence and Douglas County. The Lawrence Board of REALTORS® Governmental Affairs Committee with Governmental Affairs Director Danielle Davey, are working hard to communicate the LBOR’s concerns about Housing Affordability in Lawrence & Douglas County.
Click here to read the LBOR White Paper on Housing Affordability in Horizon Plan 2040.
Click here to read a letter submitted to the Chair of the Lawrence Affordable Housing Advisory Board from the Lawrence Board of REALTORS® and Lawrence Home Builders Association on April 5, 2019.
The City of Lawrence is crafting language for a new Comprehensive Planning Guide that will replace Horizon 2020, now named Horizon 2040. This new plan separates areas for growth into 3 tiers; Tier 1 includes all available building lots currently in the City limits (infill); Tier 2 is the area immediately adjacent to the City limits that has been identified by the City as the urban growth area; and Tier 3 is that area outside of the City limits and beyond the urban growth area.
The new plan, Horizon 2040, will require development in Tier 2 to include a “Community Benefit” as a condition of annexation. The required “Community Benefit” could include price-fixed units, a land donation, or a cash donation to the City’s Housing Trust Fund in order to be annexed and receive basic city services.
The LBOR Governmental Affairs Committee & Board of Directors has prepared an Editorial to explain how this proposed policy will negatively impact housing affordability for all in Lawrence and Douglas County.
View the LBOR Comments on the Draft Comprehensive Plan for Unincorporated Douglas County & The City of Lawrence here!