The Denver Gazette's Lindsey Toomer has an article about the new mandatory affordable housing fund Denver City Council approved. Below is an excerpt from the article and a link to the full piece.

Denver City Council gave final approval Monday to the creation of a new special revenue fund to hold fee-in-lieu dollars paid to the city as part of its Expanding Housing Affordability Guidelines.

The Mandatory Affordable Housing Fee-In-Lieu Fund will hold money developers pay to the city should they decide not to build affordable housing on that site. The fund is designated to create additional affordable housing throughout the city.

Council approved the housing affordability program in early June, which requires that a certain amount of affordable units be developed alongside market-rate condos and apartments, with zoning and financial incentives included as well. . .

Officials who signed the letter warned that more stringent requirements for areas defined as “high markets” could actually have the opposite effect — steering developers away from projects in parts of the city that need them most. Those groups included the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Cherry Creek Area Business Alliance, Denver Metro Association of Realtors, Urban Land Institute, and developers L. C. Fulenwider and McWhinney.

Read the full article at the Denver Gazette.