Update: here’s a statement from CHHIP’s Communications office.

It is incorrect to say that the Capitol Hill Housing board is no longer endorsing this policy. The board decided not to take a position on either side of incentive or inclusionary zoning policy.

Recently the Capitol Hill Housing Improvement Program (CHHIP) decided they are no longer endorsing incentive and inclusionary policy to create affordable housing. Is it possible that even non-profit housing agencies are seeing the light on these bad policies?

Over the course of the first half of this year we’ve spent a lot of time informing the press and public why Incentive Zoning (IZ) and inclusionary zoning are tools that won’t work and the problem they are intended to fix is one we don’t have.

Here’s a summary.

Incentive Zoning

Wrong Tool

• Doesn’t create very much housing (about 600 units)
• Adds costs and risk that make it a disincentive
• The Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) Creates lots more housing (Over 3,000 in 2013 alone)
• Consultants have validated that IZ projects are usually infeasible over 85 feet
• Capitalization rates that used by consultants that suggest higher IZ fees are far too low and depend on future housing scarcity; cap rates are the wrong measure for planning housing policy

Wrong Problem

• There is no housing crisis for people earning 60 to 80 percent of Area Median Income
• The real problem is for people who are poor, earning 50 percent or less of Area Median income and families

Inclusionary Zoning

Wrong Tool

• Functions as rent control and is therefore inflationary

Wrong Problem

• Seattle’s subsidized housing is not segregated by neighborhood
• And even if it were, inclusionary zoning wouldn’t solve that problem

The evidence against the continued use of Incentive Zoning is overwhelming; it is a policy that will neither lower prices nor help poor people. Instead it adds costs and risks to market rate housing that is currently meeting the demand for housing for people earning 60 to 80 percent Area Median Income.

It’s time to stop and come up with a better analysis of our housing challenge as we plan for coming growth. Smart Growth Seattle has gathered 250 signers for our petition calling for a comprehensive housing plan.

Let’s stop policies that would reverse microhousing development, building in our low-rise zones, and increases in fees on new growth and let’s come up with a plan!