This story was reported and written by WHRO media partner Williamsburg Watch. This is the second installment in its three-part series on the lack of affordable housing.
Want to know the main reason affordable housing is so hard to find in our area? Look in the mirror.
Former James City County Planning Director Bill Brown called it “The drawbridge syndrome” when he worked in the county 50 years ago: Local residents want to maintain the rural character and green spaces that attracted them here in the first place.
Since then, things have changed little.
In our last installment, we sketched out the magnitude of the housing affordability crisis in the Historic Triangle: Task forces set up in James City County and the city of Williamsburg found a quarter of county residents and a third of city residents are spending too much on housing, more than a third of their income.
A survey of York County residents found 70% are concerned about housing affordability.
“Affordable housing is something much needed in (our) area,” said Grove community activist Sheree Beaufort. “When is James City County going to do anything about affordable housing?”
Beaufort was a rare bird at a county board of supervisors meeting last summer — someone lobbying for affordability. At most public hearings, elected officials tend to hear from those vocally opposed to taking the steps required to build affordable housing.
As a result, most zoning decisions in James City and York counties historically favored family homes on large lots, using up the available land and making it hard for builders to put up multifamily housing and condominiums that would be more affordable.
At the heart of rising home prices is a supply and demand imbalance, we were told by Ryan Price, chief economist of the Virginia Association of Realtors.
“We have a lot more demand than we have availability,” Price said.
Price said the solution is for localities to streamline their zoning process and minimize unpredictability so that builders are interested in investing there.
“Community opposition does play a big role in what is ultimately built” in the Historic Triangle, Price explained “Even before there’s a proposal you can have community opposition…. that could limit the future supply of housing in the area.”
Sarah Stafford, CSX professor of economics and public policy at William & Mary, told us the people who tend to show up at public hearings on housing and zoning are those with a vested interest in opposing lower-income housing solutions.
“You’re never going to hear from the people for whom that is a positive thing,” said Stafford, whose data was used by the Williamsburg housing task force.
Stafford said multifamily housing is the only way to generate more affordable housing, and it doesn’t have to be everywhere.
Residents of the high-priced Governor’s Land neighborhood can choose to keep their housing density low and their housing prices high, she said. But when those people oppose multifamily housing outside their own community, “they want to not have the density without paying for it.”
James City County has height and density limitations that restrict the building of multifamily housing that can provide affordable starter homes for young working families. Its ordinance for attached apartment units doesn’t allow for a large enough structure that senior citizens could rent for additional income to help maintain their homes.
Home builders say the demands imposed upon them by localities, coupled with the long time it takes to get the requisite permits, dramatically increase the cost of homes because they might be carrying the cost of land for years before being able to start construction.
“We were jumping through hoops” trying to get final approval in James City County, said one builder who asked for anonymity.
The large lot sizes required in many county zoning districts also raises cost, this builder said, explaining the math:
A $1 million house on a five-acre lot would net a builder a profit of $100,000 to $150,000. Ten lots on that same acreage would net the same margin with homes priced at far less.
“Density is the key to (affordability) and you’ve got to efficiently use the land more, (but) people just don’t want it,” he said.