issues with landlords not accepting housing vouchers<\/a>, which has contributed to the housing shortage in recent years. Strassburger expressed doubt in the policy\u2019s effectiveness as a means to streamline voucher acceptance.<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t think that inclusionary zoning is the way to get more market-rate developers to accept vouchers,\u201d Strassburger said. \u201cI think that\u2019s been the goal of a lot of people, and I think it\u2019s a little bit backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Urban planning professor Susan Lucas expressed support for the ideas behind IZ in theory, but said she doubts its effectiveness as the City\u2019s standalone housing policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of shared access, quality of housing, access to amenities and that sort of thing, it\u2019s wonderful, or it can be,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cI think you probably have to enact other pieces of legislation to make it work in the way that I suspect local policymakers want it to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Lucas, the shift from a mandate to a voluntary incentive will contribute to housing developers focusing on profit above all else.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of equity and inclusion, I would think it\u2019s probably a step backwards. Businesses are focused on the bottom line. They build housing to make profit,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cI think taking away a requirement developers have to meet won\u2019t increase the supply, because now their motive is even more profit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucas said she worries the policy will be counterproductive, decreasing the affordable housing supply and leaving student renters worse off.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the type of housing being constructed will change. The price of housing will increase. The supply of certain types of housing, affordable housing in general, will tighten. Landlords that already have properties will probably do less maintenance,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cI would imagine the average student would suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Urban planning professor Colt Pierce additionally stressed how the 10% mandate currently in effect within parts of Oakland is not strong enough to ensure affordable housing for all residents in need of housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, Pittsburgh has an affordable housing problem,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cIf we\u2019re 8,000 homes short and we\u2019re only saying 10% of new developments are going to be allocated to affordable housing, is that going to match what we need? It\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another concern City council has to grapple with is the City\u2019s geography, compounded by aging housing infrastructure, which Pierce highlighted as a chief issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cPittsburgh has to reconcile the fact that they had to overcome limited geography,\u201d Pierce said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s housing stock that was built over a hundred years ago, which is not typical for all other cities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Urban planning professor Michael Glass expressed doubts about IZ\u2019s long-term efficacy to combat Pittsburgh\u2019s housing crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cInclusionary zoning tends to be a really short-term fix that doesn\u2019t get to the fundamentals of what causes affordability crises in the first place,\u201d Glass said. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty blunt instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glass said he feels the tax incentives in the recent amendment will lead to higher taxes for City residents to compensate \u2014 potentially causing issues down the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real problem here is that it\u2019s unclear how much this sort of tax incentive is going to cost the City\u2019s taxpayers,\u201d Glass said. \u201cI don\u2019t see this as a sustainable sort of incentive to lubricate developers in the way of affordability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glass stressed that there are additional options to combat housing shortages that he feels will work more effectively and with less direct financial consequences for renters.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther mechanisms beyond inclusionary zoning exist that can create more sustainable, affordable solutions,\u201d Glass said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking here of things like community land trusts<\/a>, where the land is held by a non-profit and it\u2019s just the structure on top of that communally-held land that can be sold or leased.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Urban planning experts and lawmakers have continued to grapple with the realities of Pittsburgh\u2019s Inclusionary Zoning policy over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[12178,13509,73,75,74,5090,13510],"class_list":["post-19270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-city-planning","tag-inclusionary-zoning","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-urban-planning","tag-zoning-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}