This ordinance is being put forth because the Live Local Act leaves so much open to interpretation regarding how affordable housing may be situated within larger, mixed-use projects. While we applaud efforts to increase the number of affordable housing units in South Florida, history shows us how opportunistic developers can bend laws like Live Local to create segregated housing that clusters affordable housing units in the most undesirable area of the development, removing them from basic amenities such as entrances, elevators, parking and common spaces. We can see one such example of this in the now public documents available on our website here – which show exactly the type of clustering, segregation, and separation from amenities a developer may attempt to propose under the guise of the Live Local Act.
This ordinance adopts best practices approved in many other communities through the Country as early as 2015 in New York City and more recently in the past few months in Miami Beach, Boca Raton and Weston, FL. The ordinance ensures that developers looking to build mixed use luxury/affordable developments do so fairly, distributing affordable housing units equitably throughout the development, and provide equal access to amenities such as entrances, elevators, parking and use of common areas.
View the proposed ordinance amendment