Two downtown housing plans in Seattle present different demands to developers; each calls for the creation of an affordable housing fund, yet the amount of funding and additional amenities required varies.
"Currently, two plans are on the table: [Mayor] Nickels's, which requires developers who build above current height restrictions to pay $10 a square foot into an affordable-housing fund and requires no new downtown amenities; and Council Member Peter Steinbrueck's, which doubles the affordable-housing requirement and mandates extensive green-building standards, historic preservation, and other downtown amenities. Critics, including many downtown developers, have assailed Steinbrueck's proposal, arguing that it would make developing downtown prohibitively expensive."
Said former neighborhoods department director Jim Diers: "We've had more and more and more density in this city. Has housing become more affordable? No!"
Read the full story: Housing Grousing
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City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
Northern Illinois Transit Authority (NITA)
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello