City of Boise Works to Develop Incentives for Affordable Housing

In an effort to lower barriers to affordable housing development, Boise City Council has given the nod to approve a new set of exemptions and deferrals on city permitting fees, including impact fees, building permit and development costs, and sewer connection costs, BoiseDev reports. The program will change when these costs have to be paid, or will exempt them, which has the potential to save affordable housing developers hundreds of thousands of dollars in up-front costs.

In addition, the new incentives can be combined with affordability bonuses offered in the city’s new zoning code and with federal low-income housing tax credits, allowing developers and policy makers to combine multiple programs and funding sources.

“We know that affordable housing construction is really challenging and that larger market forces like construction costs and market rates have an outsize impact on the feasibility of those projects, but the city also has a role to play in reducing the barriers we create including the fees we charge,” Mayor Lauren McLean’s Housing Advisor Nicki Olivier Hellenkamp said at a work session on Tuesday.

These incentives would automatically be offered to any project meeting thresholds for affordability set by the City Boise, regardless of who is developing it. They can be used for affordable multi-family rental projects and homeownership developments, with larger fee cuts being available for projects with a larger share of units being offered at lower rents.

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