Inclusionary zoning took center stage at Albany’s Common Council meeting Monday. In recent months Mayor Kathy Sheehan has contended that the law intended to promote affordable housing development is actually a hinderance.
Sheehan has been adamantly pushing the council to repeal the law as she nears the end of her time as mayor, claiming that the law makes the city less appealing to developers.
The city’s current law, passed in 2023, requires developers make a portion of new housing units affordable to individuals earning no more than 60% of the area median household income.
In November, Councilmember Edward Clarke introduced a proposal that would amend the law by raising the percentage from 60 to 100 and offers developers a buyout option to reduce the number of housing units that they must make affordable.
The proposal uses the area median household income determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and includes Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Schoharie and Saratoga counties.
Canyon Ryan is the executive director of United Tenants of Albany — a housing advocacy group.
He is one of the eight members of the public who spoke out about the council’s Monday deliberations over two proposals that would amend the city’s inclusionary zoning laws.
“Like every speaker so far, I was also very disappointed with the process to getting us to the new amendment that passed on the 17th,” Ryan said.
But the council has a new proposal to consider.
This proposal keeps the buyout clause of Clarke’s legislation intact but would increase the 60% area median household income requirement to 70 rather than 100.
And, the new proposal would enable developers to pay $25,000 per unit, rather than $5,000, to bypass the affordable housing requirement.
Both proposals would have developers sending payments to the Albany Community Development Agency — a city organization that provides resources for home and community projects.
Council President Pro Tempore Kelly Kimbrough, who is one of the six council members that introduced the second proposal, said it creates a better situation.
“I think it makes the numbers work a little bit better for developers, which is what we want. We want to be met halfway. We need this housing, we need help and I think this is a way to get there,” Kimbrough said.
Kimbrough, along with other council members, contends that the circumstances surrounding Clarke’s proposal were underhanded.
Kimbrough said he found out about that proposal with barely any prior notice.
“I found out at noon, for a meeting that was going to occur at 6:30 - 7 o’clock. That is the first I heard of it. We had a leadership meeting with the administration earlier in the week. What are the leadership meetings for if we are not talking through these issues and working through these issues,” Kimbrough said.
Before the council met Monday night, Sheehan said decisions needed to be carefully considered.
“We need to approach this not from our feelings but from facts, and so anything that gets proposed needs to be on paper, something that will result in new development happening in the city of Albany,” Sheehan said.
Ryan, from United Tenants of Albany, would like to see the inclusionary zoning law go unchanged.
“We still support the 2023 version we are behind that, we’ve heard from developers that this is not the impediment, we’ve heard from some, of course other developers say this is a huge impediment and we can’t build in Albany, but we have also heard from other developers that this is not a huge impediment its just something they have to work around, but we are willing to have a conversation about the new version,” Ryan said.
