Agreement incentive for development

The city of Sulphur Springs is seeking to change the way the city sees housing with the passage of two ordinances during the August regular city council meeting. 

“Most new housing developments today don’t make sense in the financial sustainability of the city in the long run,” community development director Tory Niewiadomski told the council in August. “The cost to provide service often exceeds the revenue we’re going to collect.” 

Niewiadomski has outlined since October 2019 to citizens and council members alike that installing new streets, water and sewer for block housing developments does not have the “yield per acre” in tax values to maintain the infrastructure long-term. 

“We’ve been hearing a lot about the lack of affordable housing in the city and that we’re running out of new lots to develop,” Niewiadomski added. 

In both July 2019 and July 2020, affordable housing experts in Hopkins County urged to the News-Telegram that although many in the area are looking to purchase or build a starter home, availability is low. On a scale from 1-10 of being overcrowded with 1 being the least and 10 being the most overcrowded, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) rates Hopkins County at an 8.4.  

380 AGREEMENT 

The council unanimously passed Ordinance 1203, which addresses housing. Ordinance 1203 defines a 380 Agreement, which authorizes municipalities to offer incentives designed to promote economic development by waiving fees on individual properties, according to the Texas office of the comptroller. 

There are approximately 900 vacant or undeveloped properties throughout the city, Niewiadomski said. 

“Not all of them are going to be suitable [for development], but we do have a fair number of properties already,” Niewiadomski told the council.  

There have been barriers to the development of these properties, Niewiadomski said, which the city calls in-fill properties. These include permitting costs, back taxes or liens which are expensive to pay off, or dilapidated structures which would cause money to tear down. 

Therefore, the city proposed reimbursement for builders for all of these associated costs upon completion of their project. 

“Applicants will be paying for all of these costs up front, and when they finish, we will be reimbursing them for their costs,” Niewiadomski stated. 

“We believe this will bring incremental growth and investment into neighborhoods that have not had much investment in recent years,” Niewiadomski said. Niewiadomski also noted it could “Lead some of these underutilized properties which currently have no benefit to the city’s tax base, this… can help make some of these properties productive.” 

The costs are estimated at $3000 to $5000 per property, and Niewiadomski predicted through taxes and fees the city would recoup the costs within two to three years. The 380 agreement will not apply to developers who want to construct a new neighborhood, Niewiadomski clarified. 

ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS

Furthermore, the council passed language codifying accessory dwelling units (ADU). A project of the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z), the group spent six months defining the term before bringing it to city council for final approval. 

The final definition reached by P&Z, and subsequently approved by city council, states: An ADU is a smaller, secondary home on the same lot as the primary dwelling. ADUs are independently habitable and provide basic requirements of shelter, heat, cooking and sanitation. They can be attached or detached from the primary unit. 

ADUs are colloquially understood as mother-in-law apartments and granny flats, according to city manager Marc Maxwell. The expanded definition will also include rental apartment investments on the same property, above-garage living spaces, and more. 

BACK TO OUR ROOTS

The totality of these passed ordinances, according to Maxwell, is to reframe how the city views housing to a more affordable and retrospective approach. 

“We don’t want more new streets, we want tax revenue on existing streets,” Maxwell said. “It’s very practical. It helps us solve the problem of how we pay for the maintenance of the streets… we cannot afford to maintain our streets.” 

With new tax dollars coming in on streets that already have water and sewer, according to Maxwell and Niewiadomski, the city will have more money in its street maintenance fund and therefore more money for projects like the popular summer paving project. Yet more than fixing roads, allowing this kind of development is about the changing way Americans are living, Maxwell said. 

“It’s a huge structural shift and we think it’s happening at just the right time for demographics for America,” Maxwell noted. “Baby boomers are retiring, generations are moving back in together. The number of households in a home has changed direction. We’re going to allow people the opportunity to move mom or dad or son or daughter in the backyard.” 

“I love the idea. I’m not a big fan of nursing homes at all,” P&Z board member Chuck Sickles said during the group’s March discussion about ADUs. “I was excited to hear about the secondary dwellings on properties; it’s just genius. …I would rather my parents to be on the property with me.” 

P&Z worried most that allowing ADUs without specific building codes would leave much to interpretation, and not in a good way. However, by requiring that the primary structure on the lot with an ADU be owner-occupied, P&Z believed they addressed this concern, as the property’s owner would have a watchful eye to make sure their secondary dwelling was being well-maintained. 

Other measures in the ADU definition include that the detached structure will match the style and character of the principal structure on lots less than two acres, and that it shall “pass all city codes,” Maxwell said. 

According to Maxwell, the type of development authorized by the updated 380 Agreement and Accessory Dwelling Units harkens back to Sulphur Springs as it initially was at its birth. 

“We’re going back to the style of town development when the city initially was founded,” Maxwell noted. “The idea of doing away with this kind of development came after World War II. We went crazy with separation of uses… we separated everything, but this was the original form of housing. You had the accessory unit above the house, behind the shop, and that’s a type of American dream as well.”  

In fact, the famous 1914 photographic depiction of Sulphur Springs’ downtown square shows just that. Many older residents may even remember denser development and ADU-style dwellings from their youth, according to Hopkins County historian and Mayor John Sellers. 

“I think this is a fabulous thing for us to take advantage of,” council member and mayor pro-tempore Freddie Taylor stated, saying it was a “great opportunity” for multi-generational families. 

“That’s great news,” affordable housing advocate Jed Walker agreed. “They’re starting to make some progress.” 

“We’re here to help builders solve issues,” Maxwell said. “It’s a win for them and it’s a win for the taxpayer.” 

“I’ve really been excited about some of the new things we’ve been doing recently and seeing it all come together,” Sellers said. “I think we’re making positive pathways to good things. It’s refreshing to see there’s a master plan. We always have a plan, but now it’s all coming to fruition.”