Chattanooga is trying to entice developers to build denser housing with lower-rent units by offering incentives that ease zoning requirements under a program approved last week.
A bill passed last year now allows local governments in Tennessee to offer incentives in exchange for guaranteeing some units will be leased at affordable rates.
Before, the state had effectively prohibited any kind of incentives for affordability, Megan Miles, housing policy director for the city, said in a meeting with council members earlier this month.
“In previous decades, housing policy was concentration of poverty,” Miles said in an interview. “These are opportunities for us to get market-rate developers to come to the table, people who would otherwise have really no incentive to include affordability.”
The law, sponsored by Rep. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, was an effort to stimulate affordable housing as Chattanooga and other Tennessee cities face a crisis.