The K Avenue Lofts, a proposed multifamily development, will be able to include this statement of no objection in its application to receive the housing tax credit from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
Council members moved to approve the resolution with a vote of 5-3. The state department ultimately decides whether or not the housing community will receive the tax credit, and city approval of the resolution does not indicate support for any proposed plans, staff said at an earlier meeting.
The council tabled the item at a meeting a week earlier, asking for additional information on the affordable housing property and application.
Representatives from the Plano Housing Authority and developer MVAH Partners answered questions on the proposed development at length from council members during the meeting March 22.
Among the information shared with the council was how eligibility calculations for restricted rent apartment units are determined. This calculation comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which uses census data, demographics, growth and Collin County income data to create eligibility requirements, said Darren Smith, head of development with developers MVAH Partners.
The Plano Housing Authority also uses a formula to determine how many affordable units are needed in a particular area before reaching out to partners for the development, executive director Earnest Burke said.
In 2013, the Plano Housing Authority received 16,000 applications when it opened its wait list, Burke said. Roughly 80% of those applications come from within Plano, he said, and the housing authority is preparing to reopen its wait list as it nears the last 400 people on that list from eight years ago.
Burke and Smith also provided additional paperwork to council to clarify how the project and agreements between the housing authority, developer and partners are prepared.
Applications for the 4% tax credit are considered non-competitive by the state and are accepted year-round. The tax credit would apply to investments put into the property during construction of the multifamily complex.
A limited partner investor has not been selected yet for this project, making specifics of management and incentive management fees difficult to share at this step in the process, Smith said.
Without this housing tax credit, developers would have to review if the project is financially possible, Smith said at the previous meeting.
"We believe this is still worth pursuing and investing in as we have," Smith said March 22, "But we're at our affordability peak."
The development expects to include up to 226 apartments made up of a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Forty-seven units will be open to any renter, while 179 units will be restricted to workforce households at 60% of the area median income, or approximately $60,000 maximum gross income.
The property expects to sit on the 5.3 acres of land on the corner of K Avenue and Park Boulevard that was rezoned from commercial to a planned development space at a Feb. 23 meeting.
