Pasco County talks affordable housing: Backyard homes, duplexes and more
Pasco County leaders who have been fighting the state’s one-size-fits-all efforts to expand affordable housing began their own focused plan this week.
The first idea out of the box at the County Commission’s affordable housing workshop Tuesday was to legalize accessory dwelling units, also known as backyard homes or granny flats.
Commissioners also heard some longer-term ideas, including increasing density in some existing single-family neighborhoods by adding duplexes, triplexes and quadraplexes. They also discussed possibly requiring developers to provide or pay for affordable housing when getting new development approvals.
Redevelopment of communities, especially in the West Pasco area, and expanding some kinds of public rental or home buying assistance are also on the table.
Housing is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30% of an individual’s monthly income, Elizabeth Strom, an associate professor at the University of South Florida, told commissioners. For someone who earns the average median income for Pasco of $63,187, the cost of an affordable rent would be $1,579.
But she said that many of the front-line workers in the community, including starting teachers, medical assistants and bank tellers, earn 80% or less of the average salary. That means they can only afford rentals of $1,263 or less, a figure that makes finding a rental difficult and buying a home out of reach for many.
To bring the comparison to a more personal level, Marcy Esbjerg, the county’s director of community development, said that 43% of county staff members could only afford to spend $1,337 on housing costs, which is equal to the approximate rent of one-bedroom apartments in New Port Richey.
“I hope this information helps you to see not only the need but how this impacts the people we work with every day,” Esbjerg told commissioners.
She detailed the list of the affordable housing programs the county now provides and the affordable housing facilities added in recent years. The various programs were a complex mix of projects that involved federal and local funding, and partnerships with agencies and nonprofits. She also said there were 838 new affordable units that will come online soon.
“I’d like to tell you that we’re going a lot for affordable housing,” she said, “but it’s not enough.”
Chief Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein said that the county did provide some housing relief recently when it reduced the cost of mobility and impact fees for affordable housing. He also had a list of other options.
The easiest would be to allow people to build accessory dwelling units on their existing property. While communities with smaller lots, like the 40-foot-wide lots the commission has previously approved, would likely not have room, others could find a way to add another living unit, allowing for a family member or renter to live on the same parcel.
Currently the county only allows those accessory dwelling units in master planned developments. But with standards already in place for those communities — such as requiring the second structure to be smaller than the primary one — it would be easy to move a plan for other neighborhoods forward for approval in the next six months, Goldstein said. Commissioners were receptive to the idea.
Other options, including adding more residences in existing neighborhoods by building duplexes or quadraplexes in single-family communities, might take longer to approve, he said. Commissioner Kathryn Starkey showed pictures of other communities that have done that, creating attractive multifamily buildings that she said she thought fit well in the neighborhoods.
Goldstein also said that the county could require future developments to provide affordable housing or pay into a county fund so the county could provide such housing. It was a requirement in the past but lapsed when the county didn’t implement it countywide, he said. That plan would also take some time to develop, he told commissioners.
Pasco Economic Growth Director David Engel had other suggestions, including taking a look at the aging neighborhoods in West Pasco, communities built 50 years ago for retirees. Some have fallen into disrepair. Many are rentals. These are areas that the county could target for redevelopment, especially since there is already infrastructure in place, Engel said.
That housing will be needed, Engel said, reminding commissioners that another 100,000 workers are already anticipated to be needed in Pasco in the coming years just for jobs in projects the county has already approved.
Commissioners asked staff to continue working on their plans and bring back updates.
