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January 10, 2025
Statement from Councilmember Kristin Mink on the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative
I have heard from and met extensively with constituents up and down District 5 about the Attainable Housing Strategies (AHS) recommended by the Planning Board. The AHS report lays out sweeping zoning changes aimed at combating our housing crisis. However, residents in District 5 and across the County have raised deep concerns, including significant doubts that the zoning changes would even produce housing at the affordability levels we most need.
I share this doubt. In nearby Arlington County, a 2022 study put estimates for one- to two-bedroom 6-plexes and 8-plexes replacing a single-family home at a whopping $520,000 - $670,000 per unit. Estimates for duplex units came in over $1 million.
A trickle of these over the coming years will not make a meaningful dent in our housing crisis, and would continue to leave low- and middle-income families behind. It’s quite clear that this is not where residents want us focusing our energy at this time, and it’s also not the best tool at our disposal.
We should be prioritizing high-yield strategies that can earn the support of our communities.
For example, we could increase our support for the relatively new and wildly successful Housing Production Fund (HPF). The HPF is already helping to fund mixed-income projects across the county, like District 5’s Hillandale Gateway — 496 units, nearly a third senior housing, being sustainably built to some of the highest above-code building standards in the world.
Establishing a modest new excise tax on residential tear-downs could generate a meaningful increase in funding available for the HPF, while disincentivizing construction of enormous new single-family homes that are typically sold at more than double their pre-tear-down value.
We could also take action to preserve a traditional path to relatively affordable home ownership in the county by supporting older condo buildings and townhouses with HOAs. Many of these properties are at risk of failing due to huge maintenance costs, often resulting in very high association fees. The Department of Housing and Community Affairs has a new program called the Common Area Assistance Loan Fund to help condos and HOAs in equity focus areas with large capital expenses that impact livability, but there is only $1.23 million allocated for the first year of the program. Keeping these units affordable for low- and middle-income residents should be a focus of the Council.
Finally, we do need more housing density as a county, and we are already expanding areas for dense redevelopment through the traditional master planning process. In District 5 alone, we greatly increased areas eligible for mixed-use development along Route 29 and Old Columbia Pike through the 2024 Fairland Briggs Chaney Master Plan, and we are close to realizing thousands of housing units through the Viva White Oak project as part of the White Oak Science Gateway Master Plan.
The benefit of the master plan process is the ability to work closely with residents regarding the types and exact locations of new density appropriate for their communities, a process I am currently and productively engaged in with impacted residents.
I appreciate the Planning Board and Planning staff for their work on the Attainable Housing Strategies Initiative. Tackling the housing affordability crisis is necessary and urgent, but we have other, better tools available than the AHS’s far-reaching and relatively low-yield recommendations. I look forward to leaning into those other possibilities with colleagues and the community.
Thank you for reading! If you have any comments, questions, or constituent inquiries, you can reach my office at councilmember.mink@montgomerycountymd.gov or 240-777-7955.
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