...Title
Office to Residential Conversion Pilot Program. (Mayor and Peralez)
...Recommendations
To facilitate actions by the incoming Mayor and Council that can accelerate efforts to expand housing for a growing residential population Downtown, direct the City Manager and City Attorney to better enable conversions of older, Class “B” and “C” office buildings to housing in those locations that do not require any General Plan Amendment (i.e., with a “DC” land use designation), by:
1. Identifying the best path to enable local builders to access the recently-approved $450 million in state funding to convert existing older office buildings to affordable housing over the next two years;
2. Consulting with the authors of the pending ULI study regarding office building conversions to glean any lessons for cities wishing to catalyze the reuse of older office buildings;
3. Reviewing existing studies regarding office conversions, such as Gensler’s recent study that spurred three conversions in downtown Calgary;
4. Convening builders and architects with experience or interest in such adaptive reuse-in collaboration with the current and incoming Mayor’s Office-to ask them to help the City identify any unnecessary cost or regulatory local barriers to conversions; and
5. After collecting this information,
a. Return to Council with recommendations, and include evaluation of potential fee waivers (taken separately through the budget process) that could facilitate adaptive reuse to housing Downtown, such as a waiver of the Commercial, Residential, Mobile Home Park Construction (CRMP) tax for the first 1,000 units; and
b. Consider whether the City should identify specific Class B and C office buildings for incentives or prioritization for housing conversion.