After a *10-hour* hearing on January 28, the Pittsburgh Planning Commission voted 8-0 to recommend Mayor Gainey’s package of zoning proposals, which includes various zoning reforms (increased Transit Oriented Development density, reduced lot sizes, relaxed parking requirements, and accessory dwelling units) and citywide IZ based on the overlay district ordinance that RHLS helped draft in 2019.
The commission also voted to give a negative recommendation for a competing IZ bill that would severely weaken IZ requirements, require neighborhoods to opt in, and require the city or its related authorities to subsidize any lost revenue that developers incur.
The mayor has pushed for a citywide inclusionary zoning policy that would be in effect in all 90 of the city’s neighborhoods. His measure would require new and renovated housing developments with 20 or more units to designate at least 10% of them as affordable housing for households earning no more than 50% (rental) or 80% (for sale) of the area median income. That’s $40,500 a year and $65,000 a year for a family of 2.
What is inclusionary zoning? An inclusionary housing program requires or incentivizes developers to sell or rent a portion of new residential units to lower-income residents. This policy will help keep a growing housing market from pricing out low-income residents who want to stay in their neighborhood. Critics argue that it is unfair to require a developer to sell or rent at below-market rate, but inclusionary zoning policies generally include some provisions to the developers to offset the cost, Mayor Gainey’s proposal includes a 10-year tax break of up to $250,000 per unit per year, relaxed limits on height and density, and relief from rent limits if the owner accepts housing choice vouchers.
RHLS Senior Staff Attorney Bob Damewood, has been instrumental in the push for inclusionary zoning in Pittsburgh. He authored a report in 2015 (updated in 2022), that reviewed local conditions, legal authority and national practices in order to facilitate the development of an effective, implementable citywide inclusionary affordable housing policy for the City of Pittsburgh.
Bob has worked with affordable housing advocates for years to strengthen and expand Pittsburgh’s incentivized mandatory IZ policy citywide. Two advocacy organizations, Lawrenceville United and Pittsburgh United, convinced the city to adopt an “incentivized mandatory” inclusionary zoning overlay district (IZOD) in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood along with voluntary IZ tax incentives citywide in 2019. Bob provided legal support for this effort. Since then, Pittsburgh’s housing market has grown more expensive and thousands of long-time residents have been displaced. Making these new proposals all the more necessary.
The incentivized mandatory approach used in the Lawrenceville IZOD has worked, with 116 affordable units permitted, under construction, or built since the policy went into effect.
Additional incentives proposed under Mayor Gainey’s bill that are designed to spur housing development include allowing developers to build on smaller lots and eliminate minimum parking requirements in areas served by transit.