Collier considers buying land for affordable housing developments
Collier County voters in 2018 approved collecting a 1-cent surtax to support the county’s infrastructure needs, but the $20 million set aside to purchase land for affordable housing has remained untouched.
Collier County voters in 2018 approved collecting a 1-cent surtax to support the county’s infrastructure needs, but the $20 million set aside to purchase land for affordable housing has remained untouched.
This month, two affordable workforce housing projects, representing 1,042 homes and apartments, will head to the Infrastructure Surtax Citizen Oversight Committee on Jan. 11 for a vote on recommendation. They will then go before the Collier County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) on Jan. 23, when commissioners will be asked to approve spending $5.73 million in county surtax money to purchase land for two separate housing developments on 95.96 acres.
“I am very excited to see these first two projects come before the BCC for review,” said Michael Puchalla, executive director of the Community Land Trust and the Housing Development Corporation. “Construction costs across the board have increased dramatically over the last few years, making affordable- workforce development even more challenging.”
That means the available funds represent an opportunity, though a time-sensitive one. “The opportunity for our county to utilize the surtax program is very timely,” Puchalla said, noting that the approval process, a collaboration between the county Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC) and county staff, favors sites vetted by an experienced developer who can deliver units affordably in just a few years. “The process to gain site control typically has deadlines, making it very important for the surtax approval and funding process to move quickly.”
Commissioner Chris Hall, an AHAC memnaplespress.
ber, had repeatedly complained about the hurdles and the many committees that developers had to go through before going to the BCC. As a result, Cormac Giblin, director of the county’s Housing Policy & Economic Development Division, and staff developed a streamlined, fast-track process that will go before the BCC for approval.
If the AHAC scores a project above a certain percentage, possibly 75-80%, Giblin said, it would go straight to the BCC for a presentation to commissioners.
Since 2018, a year after approval of the county housing plan, the BCC has approved 3,891 new affordable housing units for construction: 2,108 in the urban area and 1,783 in the rural area of the county, east of Collier Boulevard.
Last month, the AHAC recommended that two developments receive surtax money. Miami-based McDowell Housing Partners, which has three pending projects featuring affordable housing units, presented its fourth, the 160-unit Ekos on Collier. McDowell’s Ekos on Santa Barbara, which features 82 workforce housing units for residents making 30-80% of the area median income (AMI), was completed in November. (Collier’s AMI is $100,700.) Two others, Allegro and Cadenza, both at Hacienda Lakes, will each provide 160 affordable units for seniors 62 and over and are expected to be completed this year.
County staff ranked Ekos on Collier 62.5% out of 100, noting they were hindered from scoring higher because the land is located next to Henderson Creek in a coastal high-hazard zone. The county’s comprehensive plan restricts using public money for developments in those zones.
Partly swayed by that, the AHAC voted 4-2, with two more abstaining, to recommend that Ekos on Collier be approved for $3.75 million in surtax funding. The land would remain under a 99-year lease with the county and would remain affordable in perpetuity.
The development will be built on 7.76 acres on Collier Boulevard, south of the intersection of Collier Boulevard and U.S. 41. It also qualifies under the state’s Live Local Act, so it isn’t required to go through public hearings for zone-change approval.
The AHAC also recommended that 88.2 acres of Habitat for Humanity’s 716-acre Town of Big Cypress, south of Oil Well Road and east of Golden Gate Estates, be purchased by the county for $1.98 million and leased to Habitat for Humanity. If Collier Enterprises/Tarpon Blue Companies built the housing, it would remain affordable for 30 years, but under the lease with the county, it would stay affordable for 99 years.
Habitat for Humanity, which only builds homes, has spoken to McDowell and others about building the 882 rental units. County staff scored the development 58.2% out of 100 and the AHAC voted 8-1 to recommend that the surtax committee approve funding.
Despite the county’s great strides since 2018, Eileen Connolly- Keesler, CEO of the Community Foundation of Collier County, said $20 million to buy land for affordable housing isn’t enough. She hopes commissioners will ask voters to place the surtax on the ballot again in 2024 because it’s the least painful way to raise money for housing and infrastructure. A surtax spreads the burden among residents and visitors, who only pay $50 on the first $5,000 of a major purchase, such as a car or home.
She noted that county residents, civic leaders and groups say affordable housing is the county’s most pressing need.
“It went from 45% of the people five years ago saying it was the biggest problem to 65% of the people now saying it was the problem,” Connolly-Keesler said of the 2023 Community Needs Assessment, which surveyed residents, civic leaders and groups and others.
Mike Overway, director of the Hunger & Homeless Coalition, said more needs to be done beyond workforce housing, adding, “What’s important to the coalition is attainable housing for those experiencing homelessness.”