YIMBY tactics at play in council member’s affordable housing proposal

A City Council member has laid out a three-pronged approach to density bonuses and other incentives for the development of affordable housing that could also be seen as a road map for future development of San Antonio.

Councilmember Teri Castillo has targeted the Alamo City’s downtown, transit links and institutions of higher-education as hubs for future development, the San Antonio Business Journal reported.

Her plan’s title, “Stay SA,”reflects the goal of fostering growth in San Antonio while also keeping the city affordable for current residents. 

The goals of the incentives are to reduce costs and red tape on the development and production of affordable housing.

The three components of the plan are:

• An “affordability unlocked” bonus, borrowed in concept from Austin, where some restrictions would be waived on mixed-income or purely affordable residential developments.
• An “equitable transit-oriented development,” or eTOD, bonus, which would target areas in the vicinity of VIA rapid-transit stations. 
• A “university neighborhood density bonus,” which would apply to areas around the 30 or so campuses of higher education institutions such as the University of Texas-San Antonio, St. Mary’s University, and the Baptist University of the Americas, among others.

Castillo said the plan targeting transit, for example, would boost a project’s chances of landing federal grants, which get priority consideration from the Federal Transit Administration if they incorporate units for rent at 60 percent or below the area median income within a half mile of a transit station.

The programs focused on higher education could help draw faculty and staff as well as students, she said.

Castillo wants city staff to develop a program targeting the downtown Public Improvement District, an area managed by the nonprofit Centro San Antonio. That request is now in the hands of her colleagues on the Governance Committee.

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