Commission sours on "affordable housing"

By John Labriola - The Citrus County Commission's two newly elected members poured cold water on the countywide push for more high-density low-income housing at last week's commission meeting.

"I want to know what the impacts are to our county, because the more that we incentivize and bring [affordable housing] into our county, it has other impending costs: It's police, it's fire, it's EMS, it's parks, it's schools... There's a huge cost," said Commissioner Rebecca Bays.

Bays noted there's already a plethora of federal government affordable housing programs that people can take advantage of, adding that if local employers need more workers, they will pay what it takes to bring them here without any help from the county government. "So when it comes to giveaways, I'm not about it, sorry," she said.

Commissioner Diana Finegan, who was elected along with Bays this year, agreed. 

"We're woefully behind with our roads, our infrastructure, our stormwater. How many more people is this going to bring?" Finegan said. "And when you talk about affordable housing, it's not like we're talking about a boon in tax dollars to pay for any of this. We're just talking about a lot more services needed, and we don't know what that impact in cost is."

Finegan added that building more affordable housing will inevitably attract out-of-town commuters who will use Citrus County as a bedroom community while working elsewhere. She also strongly rejected the idea of "density bonuses" to allow developers to build projects with higher residential densities than what is permitted under current zoning in exchange for including a certain percentage of "affordable" units. 

"That's going to be a solid no from me on density bonuses," she said.

The comments came during a discussion last Tuesday on affordable housing – the first time the commission has broached the subject since Bays and Finegan joined the board last month. County staff said the issue was listed on the agenda as a holdover item from the previous commission and that staff was simply seeking direction from the board.  

However, after listening to Bays and Finegan, only developer-friendly liberal Commissioner Holly Davis continued to express support for affordable housing "density bonuses," absurdly arguing that it could lead to more open spaces and less impact on the environment. 

But Davis' remarks failed to sway her colleagues, who appeared ready to put the entire "affordable housing" discussion behind them.  

"I'm not hearing a consensus from the board to go down that road," Commissioner Jeff Kinnard observed.  

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