Ed. — From the Sunday, April 16, print edition.
VIRGINIA BEACH — City planners often discuss what could or should be done to address the glut and continued blight experienced as businesses and residents move from older parts of the city to newly developing areas.
Before the pandemic, there were apparent cultural shifts in how we live and work, our housing preferences and the use – or lack thereof – of our aging and often empty retail and office space across the city. There were also signs of a soon-to-be-serious crisis in low and middle-income housing.
We need a solid plan and firm commitment to address the ongoing and related issues of development, redevelopment and affordable housing.
Earlier this year, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced that $98 million in federal funds would go to affordable housing in Virginia. For Virginia Beach, this meant over $3 million in flexible funds and grants for community improvement, infrastructure, economic development and affordable housing, whether new build or rehabilitation.
It’s too early to know what Virginia Beach’s leadership will do with these funds and grants.
There are undoubtedly many worthy uses and ideas out there.
Perhaps we could use the funds to redevelop some of our empty office and retail spaces into mixed-use developments, including affordable residential units for workforce housing. We could direct the funds to revitalize other ailing business districts, as we did with the Vibe Creative District. We could incorporate affordable housing in a creative way that does not increase the footprint of existing development. Or maybe we strategize for a planning grant to provide more funds for housing rehabilitation.
No matter which worthy project we choose, combining these federal funds with Virginia Beach City Councilmember Barbara Henley’s idea about incentivizing developers to address affordable housing may finally help us chip away at the city’s problem of providing it.
Addressing affordable housing through public-private partnerships is not a new strategy but a helpful tool.
Rachel Quednau, a long-time affordable housing advocate, is the program director for Strong Towns, a nonprofit organization reimagining our current development patterns. In an article at the nonprofit’s website, she explains that affordable housing can result from carefully crafted private-public partnerships. These partnerships can be a matter of tax credits going to developers who offer a percentage of affordable units or changes made to codes and ordinances to accommodate more diverse housing options.
One benefit of public-private partnerships and code and ordinance changes is that they almost always involve public input and compromise. So, too, do planning grants, for instance, which define citizen participation as their “central purpose” to reach a community consensus for “a practical vision of the future” with room and ability for “future community improvement.”
Residents and city leaders maintain a fair degree of control over project outcomes when federal funds and public-private partnerships are at work for us. This is critical to Virginia Beach’s comprehensive plan for future development.
What Virginia Beach won’t lose through a joint effort or venture like this is control of its destiny.
That is how some states have proposed addressing the affordable housing crisis. Legislative proposals such as bills in North Carolina that will permit developers to bypass local regulations if affordable housing stipulations are met cause justifiable public protest. Yet they quickly gain traction among affordable housing advocates whose good intent is undermined by overreach.
Local leadership and residents must think creatively about how resources are used if we want to have a hand in shaping our futures to address the myriad of issues we face – climate change, coastal resiliency, affordable housing, and cultural shifts in how we live and work.
A kind of wild west approach to local development is not the answer.
However, combining federal funds with developer incentives that engage public-private partnerships and require robust public input may be a strategic way to plan our future together. We’d benefit from incorporating these ideas into the discussions as we update our comprehensive plan. It’s a starting point to building the city we need – and deserve.
The author is a former Virginia Beach Planning Commissioner and college professor. Reach her at leejogger@gmail.com.
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