Builders Association of South Florida Document IJ1BASF.
BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA
BUILDING GREAT CITIES
WWW.BASFONLINE.ORG
111 NW 183rd Street, Suite 111, Miami Gardens, FL 33169 305-556-6300(D)954-399-9233(B)954-639-7107(F)
Incentives to produce more affordably-priced homes in Miami-Dade County
The Builders Association of South Florida (BASF) shares the common goal with Miami-Dade
County, in finding ways to produce more affordably priced homes, without government subsidy. BASF's
Affordable Housing Task Force met recently and prepared the following common goals and incentives for this
purpose.
• The proposed incentives focus on waiving existing County/City fees, reducing future real estate
taxes or other builder-incurred expenses, which, when combined, can provide meaningful
incentives to private sector builders to construct workforce homes and apartments.
• With the right package of incentives, this would replace the County's need to raise new taxes to
provide sufficient funds for these subsidies, or find additional funds elsewhere, from either State
or Federal sources. Families whose incomes would range from 65% to 140% of average median
income would qualify for these homes or apartments.
Objective and Common Goal: Produce new workforce housing, to add a private sector component to the
County's existing building program that serves low and very low income residents. BASF's Affordable
Housing Task Force recommends the following incentives to help reach this important community goal:
• Reduce existing parking requirements, including for structured parking-
o E.g.: In all CBDs and Urban Centers, eliminate all parking reqmts; retain 1.5 spaces beyond CBDs/Urban
Center zones.
o Comment: This has just been done in City of Miami and in certain County locations (Barriero)
• Waive all impact fees.
• Waive all other County and City fees, including permit review fees, connection fees and approval
fees.
• Reduce covenant restriction from 30 years to 10 years for retaining unit for sale to qualified
families. Will help create wealth for families,when they sell the home.
• Reduce property taxes for rental buildings built with tax-exempt bonds:
• Once landowner restricts the income on these buildings (becs. it received tax-exempt bond
financing), then, County should tax that building on "after cash flow" basis, not on NOI (net
operating income).
• This will tax the building at a lower rate, which then reduces the amount of potential government
incentives needed to build the building.
• Since there is little/no additional funding available for this purpose, this is a paper transaction, and
in fact since the parcel was previously undeveloped, the tax receipts are now flowing from the
project,but not at much higher rate.
• Meets the public policy purpose as well.
(continued on page 2)
• To provide additional density for the construction of affordable units, include and use same
formula and provisions as stated in the County's existing Severable Use Rights (SUR) program.
• Establish all incentives as part of a menu approach, so that builder can use the incentives based on
each individual project. Since land is increasingly scarce, each project will be quite different from the next.
Cookie-cutter approach will not work in current market conditions.
• For Market rate projects, permit a builder to "buy" density and put revenue into the Affordable
Housing Trust Fund.
• Include a buy-out provision, or "Pay and Go' fee into a community-run/non-profit entity,
with a proven track record, to permit reliable group(s) to build more housing, (e.g. Habitat for
Humanity)
• County must develop mortgage financing for workforce units. (including first and second
mortgage funding)
o Currently, there are no government-insured or private-sector insured mortgage lending
programs. (None through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or FHA).
o Is County's second-mortgage program still available? If so,what is current funding level?
• Require County to release all vacant parcels they have for the construction of workforce
housing
• Once County adopts incentive package, consider proposing this package on county-wide basis so
that all municipalities can offer the same benefits to their residents.
BASF members and staff are ready to work together with the County Commission Chair, Commissioners,
the Mayor and Administration to review, refine and implement these and other incentives to reach the goal of
producing affordably priced homes and apartments for Miami-Dade's workforce residents.
February 11,2016
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