by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
The Sanibel Planning Commission discussed proposed amendments to the Land Development Code on Tuesday, Sept. 22, as they apply to Below Market Rate Housing, the city’s affordable housing program administered by the non-profit Community Housing & Resources. This review followed the award of a nearly $10 million grant to CHR to build a controversial 39-unit building on Periwinkle Way at the site of the former Fish House Restaurant.
The grantor, Federal Housing & Urban Development, working through the Lee County Board of County Commissioners, found provisions in Sanibel’s program that could violate the Federal Fair Housing Act, a federal law passed in 1968 that prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, financing, and advertising of housing based on protected characteristics.
Sanibel residents are particularly concerned about whether grant requirements could open some affordable housing units to the wider Lee County population. The potential revisions to the Code (section 102-102) would primarily change applicant qualifications and rankings for BMRH units to reorient the program’s main objective toward providing units to workers on Sanibel and Captiva.
Because of unusually high property values in the City, its location entirely within the coastal high-hazard area, and its nearness to “build-out,” very few sites are available for additional housing, including private-sector-provided affordable housing. Consequently, if the City is unable to meet Sanibel-determined affordable housing needs on-Island through its BMRH program, the City will request that Lee County incorporate the unmet need in the County’s affordable housing program.
Providing affordable housing off-Island would mean some lower-income community members may be denied the opportunity to participate as full voting residents. Additionally, children of lower-income community members may be denied the opportunity to attend the “Blue Ribbon” Sanibel School. Senior members of our community with limited assets and lower incomes may be denied the opportunity to remain among friends and the community they love.
And requiring lower-income community members to move to other jurisdictions to benefit from the City’s Below Market Rate Housing program would contradict the City’s Vision Statement of maintaining an economically diverse community and defeat the BMRH program’s purpose.
The City’s plan actively pursues ways to ensure equal access to an open housing market for all persons regardless of age, race, religion, gender, color, national origin, marital status, disability, or place of birth.
Except applicants for below-market-rate housing that the city has designated as senior housing, all applicants for below-market-rate housing units must meet one of the following criteria:
(1) One or more household members is employed full-time on Sanibel or has received a full-time employment offer on Sanibel, and the household member has been accepted or is ready, willing, and able to accept such offer. For purposes of this section, full-time employment shall be considered employment of at least 35 hours per week. Within this category of workforce applicants, applicants shall be further prioritized as follows:
(2) [Where applicable] One or more household members is employed full-time by or has received a full-time employment offer from an entity that maintains a business on Sanibel and has transferred land or housing to the housing foundation for use as below market rate housing. Employees of the donating business shall receive preference in the housing that results from the donation. One or more household members is employed full-time by or has received a full-time employment offer from the city for a role that is essential to public health, welfare, and safety functions. The city identifies essential roles in its annual operating budget.
(3) One or more household members is employed full-time by or has received a full-time employment offer from the city or another Sanibel governmental body for any role.
(4) One or more household members is employed full-time by or has received a full-time employment offer for any role on Sanibel.
(5) One or more members of the household is a person with a handicap, as defined by 42 U.S.C.§ 3602, who is currently living on Sanibel or who has an employment history on Sanibel.
Discussion by Planning Commission members included:
• A desire to limit workforce consideration only to Sanibel-based employment
• Limiting the preference category for seniors (two-bedroom units in Casa Mariposa are under-utilized)
• Families with minor children should get priority
• Instead of a unit being vacant for 31 days before reaching outside Sanibel for a tenant, it should be 90 days – but even then, a Sanibel worker, perhaps with fewer work hours or part-time
• The emphasis should be on workforce housing for Sanibel, not seniors, and not the disabled
• There could be a focus on disabled people or seniors who can work
• You can grandfather seniors
• Just as we are concerned about people who do not work on Sanibel, the same thing applies to elderly or disabled people who are not employed; we are not providing retirement housing or disabled housing; we’re providing workforce housing with an emphasis on Sanibel workforce housing
• Some members (by a 4-3 consensus) wanted to strike completely the provision allowing seniors to apply, predicting it would open up the program to be a care facility it was not equipped to deal with
The Commission’s consensus was 4-3 in favor of strictly Sanibel workforce housing.
As summarized in City Attorney John Agnew’s report:
Sec. 102-102(b):
a. Explicitly stating that “full-time employment” is the equivalent of 35 or more hours per week;
b. Limiting workforce considerations only to Sanibel-based employment, not also Captiva-based employment for a Sanibel-based business;
c. Eliminating the preference category for seniors, in favor of simply referencing designated senior housing, would be by resolution or ordinance;
d. Providing that, all else being equal, a household that includes a minor child shall have housing priority over a household that does not include a minor child; and
e. Providing that if a habitable unit remained vacant for 90 days, the housing foundation shall offer the unit in accordance with the same criteria and priority but replacing the full-time employment requirement with a part-time employment requirement, defined to be 20 or more hours per week.
City Council will also take up this matter.
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