An ordinance was proposed that would impose a requirement that all downtown construction with 20 or more residential units set aside units for affordable housing. 10%, if privately financed, or 20% if government subsidies. If the developer was unwilling to do so, then the city would charge a fee of $125,000 per required affordable unit, PRIOR to issuing the permit.
While providing housing to struggling families is a noble concern, the problem with this type of proposal is it discourages development. When you have the capability to do a $100, $200, $400 million dollar project, there are a lot of communities vying for the influx of development (I’ll assume as I never did anything close to that big)
Years ago I was in Vegas helping my wife do an event there. I was standing in line to buy something and started talking to the guy in front of me. He was a large developer. When he asked where I was from, I said Milwaukee. His response was ‘you do not have a decent skyline and never will as your city is too hard on developers.”
Fortunately, this proposal was shot down by the Milwaukee city attorney But there will be further attempts to keep Milwaukee at the economic bottom, I’m sure.
