The Tucker City Council listened to a presentation about Low Income Housing Tax Credits, the challenges to building affordable housing, and how the city can help facilitate the process.
Jon Toppen of Tapestry Development, who spoke at the March 24 city council meeting, said low-income housing has long had a stigma that is undeserved.
“People think about buildings from the 1970s, and don’t want them in their cities, but we build very high quality housing,” Toppen said. “The average person would drive by our developments and never know that it is affordable housing.”
Tucker already has two affordable housing complexes within the city – 112-unit Hearthside, which has a mix of 40 percent market-value housing to 60 percent affordable housing, and 90-unit Northlake Senior, with 20 percent market value to 80 percent affordable housing.
Toppen said the challenges affordable housing developers face include high construction costs, difficulty finding land, navigating rezoning, and obtaining federal, local and private funding to bring projects to fruition.
City governments can help with the process by helping to identify suitable land, assisting with the rezoning process, and helping to refute negative perceptions about affordable housing, he said.
In other action, the council heard from Tucker City Manager John McHenry about storm water improvements around the city, capital improvements at Tucker Town Green, John Homestead Park and Fitzgerald Park fields, as well as the city’s upcoming paving program.
The council also heard from Tucker Finance Director Beverly Hilton regarding ithe city’s interim financials, who said that the city in January saw income flowing in from Business and Occupation Taxes and Insurance License Fees.
Building permits issued for the month of January included construction fees for a renovation project valued at $12 million, Hilton said.
In February, franchise fees came in $325,000 above projections, and camp registration surpassed budgeted revenue by almost $20,000.
The council also approved a resolution to increase the monthly credit limit for purchasing cards.
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