Time-share and fractional ownership projects have officially been brought into the Santa Fe affordable housing fold.
By near unanimous vote, the City Council agreed Wednesday to amend the city’s affordable housing ordinance to require “vacation time share projects” to price 30 percent of their units at lower, so-called affordable prices.
“This is something that needed to be done a while ago. I don’t know that I necessarily want to encourage fractionals, but we have them and I want to capture (affordable units),” said Councilor Patti Bushee, a co-sponsor of the ordinance.
Councilor Miguel Chavez was the lone dissenter. Councilors Rebecca Wurzberger and Ron Trujillo were not present for the vote.
Chavez said his concerns include a provision in the amended law that allows developers to pay a fee into the city’s affordable housing fund instead of offering actual affordable units.
That particular topic was, in fact, a touchstone of debate during the meeting. Councilors disagreed about whether to accept a staff recommendation for a $200,000 payment for each affordable housing unit not created.
They also voiced apprehension that a “fee-in-lieu” option could end up chasing housing units out of the downtown area.
Councilor Matthew Ortiz said there is “something inherently disturbing” about the migration of affordable dwellings out of the downtown and into other parts of Santa Fe. “One of the problems we have had is a distribution of affordable housing in all parts of the city,” he said.
Chavez suggested the city consider asking time-share developers to deed units to the city, thereby ensuring a stream of income into the city’s affordable housing fund over many years.
In a separate vote, the Council approved, 4-2, an amendment proposed by Ortiz that sets different prices for feesin-lieu depending on where the development is located. Under the formula, developers in the city’s more expensive northeast and southeast areas pay more than, say, a builder in the southwest.
All such fees must be approved by the City Council. The practice has been rare so far, though a notable recent example is the City Council’s decision to allow Greer Enterprises to pay $700,000 instead of putting 3.6 affordable dwellings in their 12-unit Villas at the Lensic project.
Until Wednesday, the city’s requirement that 30 percent of the total number of houses in any new development or rezoned area must be priced in line with income-based affordable housing guidelines didn’t apply to vacation time shares, which are considered commercial properties.
The city has justified including time-share properties by arguing that, although they have a commercial component through their management and operational structures, there is also a residential use due to people living in the developments and having an ownership interest.
In other news, the City Council approved a resolution naming the city’s Sangre De Cristo Water Company Building after the late City Councilor Arthur “Art” G. Sanchez. Sanchez was recognized for his work promoting the city’s acquisition of the water company from PNM in the 1990s.
The Council also approved naming a room in the building after Ronnie Pena, a water division employee who was killed in 2008 while assisting a resident in thawing out a private frozen water line.
