Attainable Housing

Attainable housing is one of the biggest challenges in Ivins, and it requires creative solutions. I know our current city leadership and staff have already worked hard to study this issue and consider many options. My goal is to build on those efforts by adding fresh perspectives and keeping all possible solutions on the table. By combining private enterprise innovation with teamwork at the city, county, and state level, we can continue reducing barriers and create more housing options for families, young professionals, and seniors.

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• IDEA 1: Targeted fee reductions | Explore lowering impact fees or building permit costs for starter homes, townhomes, small multi-unit projects, or accessory dwelling units (ADUs). These housing types are naturally more affordable, and fee relief could encourage builders to provide more of them.

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• IDEA 2: Fair property tax adjustments | Consider adjusting property tax rates so that primary residences carry less of the burden, while non-primary residences and nightly rentals carry more. This helps keep housing within reach for full-time residents while still supporting the visitor economy.

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• IDEA 3: Land use flexibility | Review zoning to allow for more “missing middle” housing—such as duplexes, courtyard homes, or cottage clusters—in appropriate areas. This provides more housing choices without taking away from the character of existing neighborhoods.

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• IDEA 4: Public-private partnerships & Enhancing existing programs | Look for opportunities where the city can collaborate with developers through land swaps, infrastructure support, or shared investment in projects that include attainable housing. Partnerships like these can stretch resources further and keep housing within reach. An example here could also be an option in place right now- Self-Help Homes. This program allows home owners to build single family homes that would meet our city's allowed property types without getting an exception. They work with a pool of other parties helping build each other's homes on a block for instance, saving by sweat equity. Additionally, there is a break on their loan's interest rate of 1-2 points. Also, they get some grated break on their monthly payments of hundreds of dollars. On a program like this- I think it would be great to institute something Mayor Hart has proposed many times- a deed restriction to limit the resale of the property to the same discounted percentage price on the home as they received. This perpetuates the property's contribution of attainable.

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• IDEA 5: Enable Consideration With More Non-Profit Programs [by Bethany Scott] | Using Self-Help Homes as an example- approach private land owners that are hesitant to sell their land to "typical" developers, but instead to consider a larger scale program for homeownership where sweat equity and lower interest rate programs are available.