Industry News
California
The California Assembly is considering a bill that mandates building affordable housing in the Sacramento area. To date, the bill has passed out of two committees and is on its way to the Assembly floor.

AB 1426 would require 10% of new housing in the 18 cities in the Sacramento area to be affordable for low-income workers, and could become a statewide model. Governments that don't meet the standard could lose some of their ability to to stop affordable apartment complexes proposed by private or nonprofit developers.

While the city and county of Sacramento support the bill, officials from some suburban cities oppose it, saying it holds them to a standard that will be impossible to meet.  The Califormia Building Industry Association support the efforts to increase affordable housing, but has concerns with some of the provisions in the legislation.

Source: Sacramento Bee, May 25, 2003

Florida
The Builders Association of South Florida is killing two birds with one stone by developing affordable housing on former brownfields. The association is working with the Broward Alliance for Neighborhood Development to build 30 to 60 single-family homes on vacant lots in Hollywood, FL.

The project is part of a neighborhood revitalization initiative, which will take place over the next three years, and the homes will be built for low- and moderate-income families. Construction on the first homes is scheduled to begin this summer.

Source: Miami Herald, June 1, 2003

Georgia
In traffic congested Atlanta, Governor Sonny Perdue used a public hearing of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority as a forum for announcing his first congestion relief initiative: coordinating metro Atlanta's 3,000 traffic lights.  The initiative will be run by a joint task force and will be implemented by the end of 2004.

Similar efforts have produced significant results in other areas; however, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial called it a marginal fix, at best, and said it will do little to reduce steadily rising traffic volume. 

Perdue anticipates that this and other “simple” projects will ensure benefits within a short amount of time.

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 15, 2003

Maryland
Governments throughout the Baltimore area are struggling to find ways to pay for the extra classrooms and roads needed when development occurs. While limits on growth were once a common solution, leaders are starting to worry about over-reliance on restrictions.

The state Department of Planning infrastructure director Jim Noonan argues that local governments should not use their adequate public facilities laws to block development, but should spend more money to improve facilities.

Tom Ballentine, government affairs director for the Home Builders Association of Maryland, says a false notion about growth not paying for itself makes some counties impose excessive impact fees, as evidenced by traffic that is growing faster than the pace of new home construction.

Source: Baltimore Sun, May 19, 2003

National
A new survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors finds that redeveloping brownfields could generate more than 575,000 new jobs and as much as $1.9 billion annually in new tax revenue for America's cities.

According to the survey, 153 cities have already successfully redeveloped 922 sites, totaling 10,594 acres. The report finds that 205 cities have 24,987 brownfield sites awaiting redevelopment.

In the survey, the most frequently identified impediment to redevelopment of these sites is lack of clean-up funds (82 percent), liability issues (59 percent) and the need for environmental assessments (51 percent). Three-quarters of respondents said that additional resources are needed to attract greater private-sector investment.

Charlotte Mayor Patrick McCrory endorses the efforts to redevelop brownfields: “It is pro-environment, pro-business, pro-neighborhood, and pro-smart growth.”

Source: U.S. Conference of Mayors, June 9, 2003
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