The topic of housing will take center stage at a city commission study session tonight (Monday), with experts including Housing North Executive Director Yarrow Brown, Traverse City Housing Commission Executive Director Tony Lentych, and Woda Cooper Companies Senior Vice President Craig Patterson set to meet with commissioners to discuss affordable housing development in Traverse City. Traverse Connect President and CEO Warren Call will also discuss renewing the city’s $50,000 contract for economic development services for another year – with the goal of specifically focusing on housing in 2023.

Tonight’s discussion with housing experts will “touch on current projects, available tools for development, and some of the challenges surrounding development,” according to City Manager Marty Colburn. Noting that the issues of housing and homelessness have been identified as top priorities by city commissioners, Colburn says the meeting will “allow for a healthy dialogue on what is happening in and around the Traverse City area and some of the tools that we have to be supportive.” In the commission’s list of goals and objectives for 2022-23, increasing opportunities for “more diverse housing through public and private options” is at the top of the list.

Among the tools referenced by Colburn that are available to address housing are a package of bills just passed in Michigan that “address various obstacles to workforce and attainable housing development in areas including land use, financing, and taxation,” according to Housing North. As one example, communities like Traverse City can now extend tax breaks to affordable housing projects without those projects having to qualify for state or federal tax credits, as was previously required. That offers more flexibility for communities to incentivize building workforce housing, according to Housing North.

Warren Call of Traverse Connect plans to highlight those tools in his pitch tonight for the city renewing its $50,000 annual contract for economic development services for 2023. The draft contract – which commissioners will vote to approve on February 21 – states that Traverse Connect will focus on three key areas over the next year. Two of those include Michigan Creative Coast’s entrepreneur and talent attraction program as well as economic and community development service contracting for Traverse City (including making site visits to target employers, publishing a data dashboard on economic growth, and coordinating with other municipalities and partners on projects like addressing childcare).

The third focus area is regional workforce housing. According to the contract terms, Traverse Connect will “convene a series of events, workshops, and focus group discussions with local partners engaged in regional workforce housing issues including the city, Housing North, Grand Traverse County, local townships, education providers, philanthropy, state officials, and private sector employers.” The organization will also compile a report that summarizes best practices from other communities of similar sizes and economies as Traverse City to help city leaders “implement a tailored approach to workforce housing solutions.” The contract calls for Traverse Connect to provide recommendations for the “management and tax leveraging of local long-term and short-term rental properties,” as well as approaches for creating a “bigger pool of affordable housing stock” and for building new properties that incentivize developers while still maintaining affordability.

In a memo to commissioners, Traverse Connect leaders said they worked as part of the Housing Michigan Coalition with Housing North and other partners to get the recent housing legislative bills passed. “While this legislation is a big step forward, successful growth in attainable housing stock for the City of Traverse City and other local communities depends on deploying and utilizing the new tools effectively in our neighborhoods,” they wrote. “Collaboration and partnership between nonprofits, private sector developers, and local governments will be key to success. Traverse Connect proposes that implementing these new housing tools be a key focus for the 2023 professional services contract between the city and Traverse Connect.”

More housing-related issues are likely to come soon before the city commission. A new ad hoc committee of commissioners will meet this morning at 9:30am to begin discussions about using three city-owned properties on Beitner Street and Woodmere Avenue for housing. That committee will draft a request-for-proposals (RFP) that will be used to solicit bids from developers with the goal of developing workforce housing on some or all of the sites. When ready, the draft RFP will come to commissioners for review and approval before being publicly posted. The city went through a similar RFP process for parking Lot O on the corner of Cass and State streets, which ultimately led to a successful bid from HomeStretch Nonprofit Housing Corporation to purchase the property to build a 60-unit affordable housing development.

City planning commissioners last week also adopted three key goals for 2023, including finishing and adopting the city’s new master plan and mobility action plan, creating a long-discussed riparian buffer zone ordinance, and expanding housing opportunities. Planning commissioners agreed to explore and possibly approval several zoning changes this year to encourage more housing density. The list includes eliminating the annual cap on accessory dwelling units (currently set at 15), as well as allowing ADUs on lots with duplexes and no longer requiring owner occupancy.

Other changes could include allowing up to four total dwelling units in the R-2 district and allowing duplexes and/or triplexes on corner lots in the R-1a/b districts that are 1.5 times the minimum lot size, or simply allowing duplexes by right in the districts. In addition, the planning commission will look at permitting two principal dwellings on lots that are twice the minimum lot size (requiring the lots to be divided and with appropriate setbacks), and reducing the minimum lot size from five acres to one acre for cluster housing. Any zoning changes made by the planning commission this year will come to the city commission for final approval.