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Thursday, March 9, 2006

Builder goes 'inclusionary'

C.E. Scott

A Tallahassee builder said Wednesday he's starting construction on the first housing development to conform to the city's new "inclusionary housing" ordinance, which has been challenged in court as unconstitutional.

"The city asked us if we could voluntarily show we could set aside 10 percent of the homes," Dave Wamsley, owner of K2 Urbancorp, said of the Evening Rose development near Mahan Drive and Capital Circle Northeast.

Wamsley said he had talked with city commissioners and others involved in the planning and permitting process about adding lower-priced homes to the development.

The 36-acre project on the northwest corner of the intersection will include single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, work-live units and condo loft units, Wamsley said.

City officials say the development is the first to specify a percentage of work-force housing as part of its plan. The land was purchased for about $7 million, Wamsley said.

With the exception of the work-force homes, which will be capped at $159,235, prices generally will be from the upper $200,000 range for single-family homes to $800,000 for large estate homes, Wamsley said.

He said he reached an agreement with city to voluntarily include the discounted work-force housing units before the Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) filed a lawsuit in circuit court last week to overturn the city ordinance.

Mayor John Marks said he was delighted by the company's decision to voluntarily add inclusionary housing to its development.

"It is hoped this partnership will serve as a guide for future developments," Marks said, "to meet the growing need for work-force housing." A recent federal study showed only 33 percent of the families in Florida could afford to purchase a median-priced home in the state using a conventional mortgage.

Average home prices jumped 17 percent last year, to more than $232,000 in Tallahassee.

Wamsley said he thinks the voluntary arrangement will work as long as the city lives up to its promises of faster permitting process, less land dedicated to green space and other modifications that might not be approved in a development without inclusionary housing.

Marks said working with builders to expedite permitting and other issues would be "put as a priority" in the process of creating inclusionary housing. Wamsley said he hoped to start initial grading and leveling today. No date has been set for the development's formal opening.

The lawsuit says the ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution because it forces developers and builders to shoulder the cost for providing less-expensive housing, rather than passing the cost to the entire community.

The ordinance violates the state constitutional bar on unlawful tax collections, said attorney Barry Richard, who is representing the home builders in the suit, which was filed in circuit court.

City officials disagreed, saying the ordinance, passed in the spring of 2005, had passed constitutional muster in several other states.