Westchester County, a predominantly white and wealthy area of the New York City region, is trying out an array of techniques and zoning policies to ensure that its stock of affordable housing is dramatically increased in the coming years.
Westchester County has recently adopted a model ordinance to provide a template for affordable housing projects that is easier for local governments to follow than the status quo. The adoption of the model ordinance template is just one step that the county is taking to ensure that an ambitious housing plan to create 750 below-market homes within existing communities.
"But that did not keep the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which brokered the settlement, from announcing last week that another element of the plan, the county's 'analysis of impediments' to fair housing, was 'incomplete and unacceptable.' In a letter to the county, H.U.D. said Westchester had failed to set forth strategies to overcome exclusionary land-use approval processes and zoning ordinances. The agency gave the county until April 1 to revise its analysis."
"The settlement signed in August 2009 calls for Westchester to spend $51.6 million over seven years to create the homes. Norma Drummond, the county's deputy commissioner for planning, said the model ordinance accepted last month could help municipalities streamline some aspects of preparation for new housing."
FULL STORY: In Westchester, Mixed Progress on Affordable Housing
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions