LB 866 - NYU Furman Center

State Land Use Enacted Legislation

Bill #	State	Year	Party	Topic
LB 866	NE	2020	D	Affordable housing incentives and financing, By-right zoning, Density bonus, Density Increases, Encouraging duplex, triplex, fourplexes and townhomes, Funding, Manufactured Housing, Planning Requirements, Workforce Housing

Provided by Furman

Summary

Requires cities to report on its efforts to address affordable housing through its zoning codes, ordinances, and regulations.
Requires cities (of the metropolitan class, or of the first class in the State of Nebraska with a population of at least 20,000 inhabitants) to adopt affordable housing action plans that include:

Goals for new affordable housing units, including multifamily housing and middle housing, and specific actions to encourage the development of affordable housing, middle housing, and workforce housing.
Goals for a percentage of areas zoned for residential use which permit construction of multifamily housing and middle housing.
Plans to use government incentives, including density bonuses, to encourage affordable housing, middle housing, and workforce housing.
Updates to zoning codes, ordinances, and regulations to incentivize affordable housing.

Requires cities that fail to adopt this action plan to allow the development of middle housing and duplexes in all residentially-zoned areas that allow for the development of detached single-family dwellings.

Enacts the “Middle Income Workforce Housing Investment Act,” authorized by the Director of Economic Development, to foster and support the development of workforce housing in urban communities.

Allows nonprofit development organizations to receive workforce housing grants for a workforce housing investment fund that provides purchase guarantees, loan guarantees, loan participations, and other credit enhancements for:

New construction of owner-occupied housing in a neighborhood and community with a demonstrated need for housing that is affordable and attractive to first-time homebuyers, middle-income families, and the emerging workforce.
Substantial repair or rehabilitation of dilapidated housing stock; or
Upper-story housing development for occupation by a homeowner.

Requires recipients to provide matching funds of at least 50 percent of the amount of the grant award.

Defines “affordable housing” as residential dwelling units affordable to households with incomes that do not exceed 80 percent of the income limits set by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development under its Income Limits Documentation Systems for the county in which units are located.
Defines “middle housing” as duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, cottage clusters, or townhouses.
Defines “workforce housing” as:

Housing that meets the needs of working families;
Owner-occupied housing units that have an after-construction appraised value of $125,000 to $275,000;
Owner-occupied housing units for which the cost to substantially rehabilitate exceeds 50 percent of a unit’s assessed value;
Upper-story housing for occupation by a homeowner; and
Housing that does not receive federal or state affordable housing tax credits or funding.

Provided by lawmakers