A warning came even from a land-use lawyer, who told commissioners at a public meeting that the opt-out option should be done away with. But developers hated it. As the construction industry revved up in the mid-2010s, money from the opt-out payments piled up quickly in a special account. Contact (561) 237-5982 Contact Us Location 12155 US -1 North Palm Beach, FL 33408 View on Map Office Hours Monday - Friday: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm Saturday: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Sunday: 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm The Realtors are going to hate it, Commissioner Warren Newell said. "When do we say no to private interests? With the support of State Agencies, local governments and community stakeholders we have a goal of having at least 180,000 units registered in the Locators database. But for 16 years, county leaders squandered repeated opportunities to use the program to create affordable housing for thousands of middle-class residents, a Palm Beach Post investigation has found. Read more:5 times developers benefited from looser workforce-housing rules in Palm Beach County. + '?List={ListId}&ID={ItemId}'). And county officials once again began deliberating changes to the program. The county's top business recruiter last week hosted a pilgrimage to New York that featured private school headmasters and a top official with Palm Beach County's public schools. In exchange, the developer had to agree to set aside 51 units as workforce housing. On the Pine Ride website, one-bedroom apartments are listed at just over $1,700 a month for those who qualify. The shortage is no accident. September 2006 County commissioners adopt a permanent program, lowering the minimum requirement to 6%. Your consent herein also applies to any future registration on national or state Do-No-Call lists. While the loosening of those requirements meant hundreds of lost opportunities to create workforce housing, something else was leading to the loss of hundreds more. %PDF-1.5 2018 The county administrator says she has abandoned an effort to raise developers requirements under pressure from building industry. In my opinion the other constituencies were not necessarily listened to or heard.. 'Youre not giving me a lot so you should be asking less of me' is the simplest way to explain it, he said. County executivesand commissioners now acknowledge the money should have been put to better use, but they blame each other for the failure to do so sooner. We dropped the 10% flat across the board because they (developers) made some very good points, Baker told commissioners in 2018. New workforce housing units coming to Palm Beach County But it became an option because the builders said, We need that option.. It looks like your browser does not have JavaScript enabled. Palm Beach County remains one of relatively few local governments in Florida to have a mandatory affordable-housing program. But most emerge from the county program empty-handed. How do I apply for a special event permit? 2020, the complex . What options are available for residential developers under the Workforce Housing Program? Please turn on JavaScript and try again. Depending on the options selected, the units generally target households having 60% to 140% of Area Median Income ($90,300 in 2022). More consequentially, it was debated in meetings between administrators and developers. Under the pre-2010 rules, the requirement could have been double that amount. Please enable scripts and reload this page. 0000005358 00000 n Instead of 974 workforce unit obligations, the project will produce 390, a loss of 584. Before even floating it publicly, administrators agreed to nix the proposal. And in early 2010, they scored another coup. When GL Homes wanted to build a housing development on an old municipal golf course near Boca Raton, it sought in 2018 to have the land rezoned. several news outlets have reported that over 300,000 people have moved to the S tate since 2020 . 93 35 Its the result of years of decisions by Palm Beach County commissioners to weaken a program designed to provide affordable places to livefor working, middle-class residents. They included no increase in the minimum number of required units. By 2018, county administrators had come up with a potential solution, one that would have boosted the programs productivity significantly: raising the minimum housing set-aside from 2.5% to 10%. You might be surprised. Not all developments in Palm Beach County would have a requirement of just 7%. But it was being used more widely than many county officials wanted. They argued the requirement was too onerous. The Workforce Housing Program (WHP), established in the County's Comprehensive Plan, is intended to increase housing opportunities for persons employed in Palm Beach County jobs that help keep the community viable. But it has left middle-class residents with fewer affordable living options as the local, state and national housing crises worsen. WORKFORCE HOUSING PROGRAM * This chart is effective July 1, 2019 and may change annually ** Down payment assistance may be available up to this amount. %%EOF Squeezed by rising housing costs, they queue up online for an increasingly rare opportunity buying a new Palm Beach County home at a moderate, discounted price. Among other proposed developments in Palm Beach County, a mixed-use project with a 158-bed, 117,000-square-foot adult living facility in Boynton Beach scored a $27 million construction loan in April.