Savannah's affordable housing crisis calls for bold action. Why are leaders being so cautious?

This is the City Talk column by Bill Dawers, a longtime contributor to the Savannah Morning News.

The City of Savannah appears poised to implement an inclusionary zoning (IZ) ordinance and expand possibilities for construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in 2023, but advocates of affordable housing should temper their expectations.

At a recent City Council workshop, Mayor Van Johnson said that city staff “had delivered” with their work so far on these initiatives, but it’s worth remembering that the mayor and council are entering the final year of their terms.

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Sure, city operations were slowed by the pandemic and the search for a new city manager, but the current council was swept into office in part because of their support for affordable housing. Voters could reasonably expect more progress by now.

City staff has been working on a draft IZ ordinance that would only apply in three zones, including high-demand areas north of Victory Drive and neighborhoods west of I-95. New residential developments in those zones with more than 10 units would likely be required to designate 10% of units as affordable or pay into a housing fund.

Given the ongoing regional population growth and the market pressures for residential development to support the new Hyundai plant, the choice to exempt such broad swaths of the city, including the entire southside, needs far more explanation than was given at the workshop.

Why not a more aggressive zoning approach?

Yes, an overly aggressive IZ ordinance could inhibit development, as City Manager Jay Melder noted at the workshop, but those concerns could be offset to a significant degree by more robust incentives for developers. The biggest danger is that the city will implement an ordinance that is too weak to have any appreciable effect on the growing need for affordable units.

At the workshop, Alderwomen Alicia Miller Blakely and Bernetta Lanier raised good questions about the geographical limitations and about other details under consideration, such as the modest expectation that new affordable units could be converted to market rate after 15 years.

Bridget Lidy, the city’s director of urban planning and design, said that various departments were still in conversations about the IZ ordinance and added that the plans would also have to go through the Metropolitan Planning Commission. She said that staff hoped to have an ordinance ready for a final vote in March, but I’ll be stunned if there is a final draft before summer.

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What about auxiliary dwellings?

The workshop also included an update on staff’s work on the development of a new ADU ordinance, which would increase the number of properties eligible for construction of carriage houses. Sensible changes to some requirements, especially regarding lot size, could create new units and build household wealth in neighborhoods across the city.

Currently, only 2% of the lots in a large area of west Savannah are eligible for construction of ADUs. The proposals under consideration would make an additional 33 parcels eligible, but that clearly isn’t enough to have broad benefits for a neighborhood that needs the ordinance more than most areas.

IZ and ADU ordinances aren’t cure-alls. They are just extra tools in the toolbox as the city tries to expand the availability of affordable housing.

As we head into an election year, Savannah voters should be concerned that city officials are approaching these ordinances so cautiously.

Bill Dawers can be reached via @billdawers on Twitter and CityTalkSavannah@gmail.com.