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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Forum Photo Gallery Past Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview October 23, 2006 Candidates address housing issue By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings The Ashland Community Land Trust and Rogue Valley Habitat for Humanity broke ground this weekend on two new homes billed as affordable housing units for Ashland families. The homes will be occupied by two families required to put in at least 500 hours of sweat equity into the construction of the units. To qualify, they must earn between $15,800 and $31,000 annually or have rent payments of more than 50 percent of their incomes. Every candidate in the race for seats on the City Council has said creating more affordable housing is a priority, but many have differing ideas on how to affect this issue. Marcos Ramirez blesses the site of his future home on Garfield Street with Holy Water from his church Saturday during a ground breaking ceremony. The house was provided by Habitat for Humanity. Denise Baratta | Daily Tidings Eric Navickas and Kate Jackson, who are running for seats 2 and 4 respectively, have similar strategies. Both mentioned selling property the city owns on Strawberry Lane and lobbying the state legislature to pass a real estate transfer tax. Ashland owns two pieces of property on Strawberry Lane that, when sold, the proceeds will be used to create more housing. Jackson was one of the city councilors who voted for that stipulation. Navickas estimated the two lots are worth upwards of $1 million. "I'm not talking about spending city money," he said. "By putting forth city property we can increase the inventory of affordable housing without increasing budget costs." Jackson and Navickas also agreed that Ashland should actively lobby the state legislature to allow communities to institute a real estate transfer tax. A real estate transfer tax, which requires approval by the legislature, would take an incremental percentage of sales on property that would be used for something such as affordable housing. "It would [work] nicely with the way people are flipping homes," said Jackson, adding that this is one of the few options Ashland has short of affecting other revenue sources. Alice Hardesty, who is running un-opposed for Seat 1, said she would like to see a more specialized version of a real estate transfer tax. She called it a "windfall tax." A windfall property tax would only apply when a house is sold for a profit. "If a house is sold for twice what someone paid for it they would pay taxes on the profits," Hardesty said. "If someone sold it for the same [amount] or for less, they shouldn't have to pay the tax." Hardesty also said a task force should be created to bring together the affordable housing stake-holders, such as non-profits and employers, and city property owners. Bruce Harrell and John Stromberg both think retooling some zoning ordinances to allow for more creative projects is part of the solution, but that is where their similarities end. Harrell thinks any new 10-unit, single family development should be required to incorporate a modest four-plex unit for qualified families. "The market forces of supply and demand can create more affordable housing," Harrell said. "It's a mistake for Ashland to get into rent control. I believe in the market and capitalism." He also said he is not in favor of raising taxes to create more affordable housing. He said Ashland is continually raising taxes in ways that end up increasing debt as well. Stromberg sees the issue as affecting more than just people of modest incomes. "We have a widespread endemic problem with housing," he said, noting that doctors, prospective city department heads and the kind of people Ashland wants to attract for small businesses have a hard time finding housing that is affordable for them here. "This is a biggy for all of Ashland. It's not just about poor people. We're doing a disservice to the magnitude of the problem." He said new urbanism solutions will be a big part of the solution. New urbanism, Stromberg said, is in part of the idea that housing should be dense, clustered and located along transportation lines. "More dense is more affordable," he said. He said planning ordinances should be amended to allow for more co-housing options. Co-housing is when a group of people build small homes clustered together and share some services like parking, a garden, laundry facilities and even a community — or living-- room. Navickas also trumpeted that notion. Stromberg also favors Ashland lobbying the legislature to allow for a real estate transfer tax. Greg Lemhouse said there are other things the city should focus on first before it can resolve the affordable housing issue. Lemhouse wants a clear definition of what affordable housing means that comes from a broad cross-section of the community. He thinks Ashland should hire a new planning director before more work is done on affordable housing. He also thinks Ashland should "commit ourselves to fiscal responsibility" before creating more affordable housing. "We have a $15 million AFN debt that must be definitively addressed before we can consider another huge funding program that may die on the vine as a half-baked but well intentioned idea," he said. He said he supports organizations like the Ashland Community Land Trust creating affordable housing. "This will help address the affordable housing issue without government entering into the housing development business," he said. David Chapman offered a somewhat different approach to creating affordable housing than the other candidates. He said he is going to let other councilors spearhead this issue while he focuses his energy elsewhere. "I'm going to pass it off," he said. "I think the council should split up the workload. I'm really not going to spend a lot of energy searching for a solution. I'm going to support the councilors who are already working on it." Instead Chapman said he will continue to focus on the issue on which he feels he can lend some expertise — such as an economic plan for the city, renewable energy programs and a transportation alternatives to the automobile. His challenger, Randy Dolinger, also had an unconventional idea. He said single family homes should become a thing of the past and people should get more used to the idea of living in proximity to one another. He said 28 small, one-floor flats, could easily fit on one acre of land. The idea, he said, is like co-housing, but would be rental instead of ownership units. "Affordable housing does not have to mean affordable homes," he said. "We need to minimize the need for land by maximizing the use of land. People can't expect to live in single family homes anymore. It's not practical in the future." He said there are lots of small parks around town that could be used to locate this housing type. He is not a proponent of selling city property, including Strawberry Lane, to create more affordable housing. Nick Frost thinks the need for more publicly financed affordable housing will decrease as he believes the price of land will soon drop in Ashland, and elsewhere. While the prices are still high, he thinks the city should look into creating a housing trust fund, which would work not until a real estate transfer tax. "The main problem with affordable housing as we are trying to implement it at this time is the simple cost of land in Ashland," he wrote in an e-mail. "I believe that the cost of land in Ashland will go down, and this would make the housing trust fund more able to purchase suitable lots." Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x. 226 or [email protected] Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Advertisement: Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.