Thread by @mtgillikin

I’ve payed close attention to each city council candidate’s housing platform as I figure out who to vote for. I’ve come to the conclusion the two best candidates are @senaforcville and @MPayneCville. Here’s a thread on why, where I dive into the major candidates positions:

The candidates did some excellent interviews on @CBS19News which I recommend watching. Each interview is about ten minutes.

cbs19news.com/content/misc/C…

If you’re in a hurry, @cville_weekly has quick, topical interviews with each candidate c-ville.com/in-their-words…

A couple of suggestions. 1st, check out all these resources and make your own decisions!

2nd, look at this strategy the Persians used when making major decisions & consider employing it as you determine who to vote for in the most important council election in recent memory..

Moving along. You may be thinking: housing matters but there are other important issues - why the single focus? Don’t education, jobs, criminal justice reform, and fiscal responsibility matter?

Yes! Of course! But housing is the most important issue right now. It defines who gets to be a part of our community. All those others issues are massively impacted by where and in what conditions people can access housing.

Council has a significant impact on our housing situation via its power over the zoning code and funding. It may be the area where it is most powerful, in fact. With the Comp Plan & zoning rewrite due to happen in the next council terms, we need strong and visionary leadership.

Before I dive in, I’m not going to dive into the two “minor” candidates. But Paul Long has some good ideas and John Hall isn’t worth your time. Neither has a chance of winning. So that’s all I’ll say about them.

First @BellamyWBrownMS. Here are links to his interview with @cvilletomorrow and his campaign website. cvilletomorrow.org/people/charlot…

bb4cc.org/platform

What jumps out to me about Brown’s housing platform is the lack of specifics (a critique that seems to apply across his entire platform). He supports public/private/non-profit partnerships and local/regional solutions.

Interestingly though, Brown isn’t sure how private developers would fit into these partnerships.

He is similarly vague about what sort of zoning changes he would like to see. He seems very open to learning, but currently does not seem to provide any specific solutions to the role our crappy zoning code plays in driving our affordable housing issues.

You can’t talk about housing without talking about transit. Brown wants to make things better and for the city/county to collaborate, but there is again a lack of specifics, though none of the candidates are super specific about their transit plans, besides increased frequency.

I’m not sure what Brown’s point is in this comment - I think he’s saying people should worry too much about radical rezonings

Brown told me that he wants to pursue getting the ~3500 affordable units the TJPDC says we need. But when I asked him how he would help us get there, he said he would listen to public input and then make decisions.

Getting public input is an important part of improving our housing situation. And Brown’s openness to possible solutions is nice. But the lacks of specifics leaves me unclear as to what he would or would not support. And his evasiveness when pressed for specifics is frustrating.

Brown could be a very productive council member. But on housing he seems like a good follower, not a strong leader.

Next up, @MPayneCville. Here is a link to his @cvilletomorrow interview.

cvilletomorrow.org/people/charlot…

Here is his campaign website’s platform page
michaelpayneforcville.com/issues/

Payne’s campaign slogan is “Affordable Housing for All.” He wants to make this happen through redevelopment of public housing, updating the zoning code, and strengthening partnerships with area housing non-profits. Housing is central to why he is running for office.

His number one goals is to levy a $50 million bond to pay for redevelopment of all public housing in Cville. This would be a huge shift from the severe underinvestment in housing for the lowest income people in our community that has existed until the last couple of years.

He wants to overhaul the zoning code to allow duplexes and triplexes as part of overcoming the discriminatory intent and consequences of R-1 zoning. He does seem to hedge a little here on getting rid of R-1 entirely - I’d like some more clarity on this.

He wants more support for local housing non-profits. It’s interesting to me that Payne, who is a renter, specifically addresses renters multiple times throughout his platform. He also wants to make homeownership more accessiable. Affluent homeowners are not his focus.

He is also a fan of land trusts and wants UVA to step up and take responsibility for improving the housing situation.

And here he is saying things like “private developers are part of the solution.” Classic socialist move!

Overall, Payne’s housing platform is specific, thorough, and forward thinking. From everything I can tell, he’s obsessed with housing and probably has many other good ideas to improve our affordable housing situation.

Next up is @SnookLloyd. Here’s his @cvilletomorrow interview.

cvilletomorrow.org/people/charlot…

Here is the platform page on his website: lloydsnookforcouncil.org/issues

I don’t think affordable housing and gentrification are uniquely 21st century issues, but I do like Snook’s framing of Charlottesville transitioning from a town to a city and the need to plan accordingly.

Snook has updated aspects of his housing policy since the primary, clarifying some of his thought processes. If you really want to have a good time you can go back and look at my look into the Democrat candidates housing policies from the primary.

https://twitter.com/mtgillikin/status/1137875433666560000?s=21

Snook wants to build affordable housing, though seems skeptical about how feasible this is. Feels like an homage to the “Cville is full” narrative. He couples it with “we won’t build our way out of this problem,” though has added the qualifier “in an acceptable time frame.”

It’s a fair point that we won’t be able to build a bunch of affordable units quickly, particularly with our current zoning code, which combined with current market factors primarily delivers high end housing.

Snook turns to address R-1 zoning, which comprises 55% of zones land in Cville and about 73% of residential land. He wants to make it easier to build ADU’s. It seems like he both wants to update the code related to ADU’s and help NDS be more efficient.

He leaves it unclear whether he wants to require the property owner to live on-site for any unit with an ADU, a restriction limiting the spread of ADU’s. Removing that restriction while continuing to require the property owner to live on-site for AirBnB’s would be a good idea.

But Snook seems to want to preserve at least some R-1, worrying that upzoning will further escalate gentrification in neighborhoods like Fifeville. Snook has said on Facebook that he would be more open to changing R-1 elsewhere in the city.

Keeping areas like Fifeville and 10th and Page primarily R-1 limits the abilities of housing non-profits like Habitat and the TJ Land Trust from working as effectively in those neighborhoods because the costs of doing single family housing are so much greater than 2-4 plexes.

Snook doesn’t have a lot of details on what he envisions for in a zoning code rewrite. He does seem to open the door to missing middle housing via Form Based Code, though just says he wants to study it.

Snook’s last big idea is to work with the county & UVA to provide more affordable options outside the city. It seems to be a transit plan more than a housing plan, which is fine, but I have a hard time seeing how it is going to result in units for city residents.

I think Snook is thoughtful about housing issues, but looking through his platform, the logic of it (“we can’t build/zone our way out of this problem”) combined with the lack of specific, actionable ideas leaves me feeling less than satisfied about where his ideas will take us.

Finally, @senaforcville. Here is her @cvilletomorrow interview:

cvilletomorrow.org/people/charlot…

Here is her housing platform on her website.

senaforcville.com/issues#h.p_IHE…

Magill has been doing her housing homework and she has a bunch of ideas. On ADU’s she wants to preapproved plans. She also has an interesting plan to incentivize ADU’s as affordable units - provide interest free loans in exchange for affordable rent.

She wants to collaborate with developers, improve the zoning code, and provide energy efficient low income homes. On her website, she’s pretty limited on specifics on what this would all look like.

However, in her interview with @cvilletomorrow, she knocks it out of the park. She draws from her personal community and work experiences to explain why affordable housing matters so much to her.

She wants to increase density and have infrastructure to match. She also proposes an interesting idea - a “land strike fund” where the city will quickly buy land as it comes on the market with a plan to sell it to affordable housing non-profits once they raise the funds.

She wants to redevelop the public housing stock in a resident-driven way. She also wants to General Assembly to make inclusionary zoning possible. I’m not a big fan of inclusionary zoning because I haven’t seen a lot of evidence that it works.

In a very big deal comment, she explicitly endorses making missing middle housing possible, including 4-plexes! To me this is a critical part of making this all work.

Her take on private developers: we need to work with them.

Reading through the candidates housing platforms, Payne & Magill have the most ideas about housing, as well as the best ideas. Additionally they think about housing similarly, which will make it easier for them to work with other councilors to build consensus.

Brown & Snook seem serious about addressing affordable housing, but Brown has essentially no specific ideas & Snook’s are often inadequate to the task. Both promise to work well with others, so whoever wins the third spot can follow Magill & Payne’s lead.

I am going to “double shot” and vote only for Magill and Payne. I encourage you to do the same if you want to see big steps forward in affordable housing in Charlottesville.