- October 9, 2024
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Volusia officials are asking state legislators to amend a recently-passed affordable housing bill that lets developers build apartments at the highest allowed density without authorization from local governments.
Senate Bill 102, also known as the Live Local Act, went into effect in July. The law grants developers the right to build these high-density multifamily or mixed use residential buildings on land zoned commercial, industrial or mixed-use, as long as at least 40% of units are slated for affordable housing. If the number of affordable housing units meets the law's standard, developers would get a 75% or 100% property tax exemption for 30 years.
But the law is instead causing threats of negative impacts in Volusia cities. DeBary City Manager Carmen Rosamonda, who is spearheading the Volusia charge to amend the law, said at the Roundtable of Volusia County Elected Officials meeting on Monday, Nov. 13, that the bill's language permits tax exemptions to developers renting out apartments at the current market rate.
"This is going to create a lot of apartments, but it's not going to create a lot of affordable housing," Rosamonda said.
The Live Local Act states that developers can qualify for a 75% property tax exemption if they rent 40% of apartment units to people whose annual household income income "is greater than 80% but not more than 120% of the median annual adjusted gross income for households within the metropolitan statistical area." To qualify for a 100% tax exemption, the units would need to be rented to people whose median income doesn't exceed the 80% median annual adjusted gross income.
The median income for the Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach metropolitan area is $78,700, according to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. The 80% to 120% income range for a one-person household is $43,360 to $65,040. Based on rent limits as outlined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a one-bedroom apartment could be rented for between $1,162 and $1,743 to qualify as an eligible affordable housing unit for a Live Local development.
According to Rent.com, the average rent in Daytona Beach for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,664.
"It just funds current market rate, and so when it funds current market rate, it becomes pure profit," Rosamonda said.
The law also creates an "unfair competitive marketplace," he added, since there will apartments paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes while the new Live Local apartments — renting units out at the same or similar rates — will be mostly or entirely tax exempt.
"And so what we have to do is change the law, make sure that the tax exemption — whatever they get, if you really, truly want to do affordable housing — that they have to use the tax exemption to subsidize rental rates," Rosamonda said.
In June, Ormond Beach City Commissioners begrudgingly approved the 270-unit Tymber Creek Apartments development at 36 N. Tymber Creek Road with a 4-1 vote, largely in part because the developer could have built up to 525 units on the 19-acre property under the Live Local Act guidelines. Commissioners said they believed it was "too important a gamble" to take.
Rosamonda and Volusia lobbyists, with input from other Volusia County municipalities, are meeting with Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo on Tuesday, Nov. 14, in Tallahassee to present almost 20 recommendations for changes to the law. Among those proposed changes are eliminating the 80% to 120% median income range and using only 80% or less for the rent limits; exempting commercial, industrial and mixed uses within Planned Unit Developments; exempting jurisdictions with a population of 30,000 or less; and eliminate the high density requirement and cap it at 12 units per acre.
When these changes were proposed to the Volusia County legislative delegation, they received a mixed reaction, said County Councilman Jake Johansson at the meeting. He asked Rosamonda if this had changed.
Rosamonda said the legislators were "softening."
"They're realizing from the business side (that) this doesn't make any sense," he said. "And they realize that this bill misses the target on affordable housing and incentivizes it in the wrong direction."
Both the Florida Association of Counties and the Florida League of Cities originally supported the passing of the Live Local Act. Rosamonda said that when his group met with the Florida League of Cities, they expressed that they would support a revision bill.
Port Orange Mayor Don Burnette, who serves on the board of directors for the Florida League of Cities, said they are working to set their legislative priorities for 2024 and that the Live Local Act is a "very large topic of conversation."
"I doubt very seriously that the leadership of Florida League of Cities is going to not listen to us because we're going to rattle some sabers pretty loudly," Burnette said.
