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St. Anthony 2040 Comprehensive Plan Chapter 5: Housing 62 Repair and rehabilitation programs There are many programs external to the city that support housing repair and rehabilitation assistance for homeowners and rental housing properties. Many of these programs and sources of funding assistance can be accessed through the County HRAs, Greater Minnesota Housing Corporation (GMHC), Minnesota Housing, or others. The City will continue promoting its partnership with GMHC to residents and to support the efforts of external organizations to offer these programs to residents, particularly targeting those low-income residents most in need. Participation in housing-related organizations, partnerships, and initiatives City supports staff, commissioners and/or elected officials’ involvement in housing collaborations, working groups, technical assistance panels, or other events focused on the topic of maintaining or furthering affordable housing, and encourage collaboration and knowledge-sharing on best practices between cities and other jurisdictions. Site assembly The City states an intention of supporting policies that encourage land banking, reserving publicly owned properties, and other site assembly techniques for affordable housing. The City should consider taking a proactive stance to monitor and purchase city properties that can be assembled and developed into a public good project such as the production of affordable housing, or maintaining and rehabbing an existing affordable housing development. The Twin Cities Land Bank serves communities in Hennepin and Ramsey counties. St. Anthony might pursue greater partnership or collaboration with the Twin Cities Land Bank and support land banking opportunities as they arise. Zoning and subdivision ordinances City codes should encourage and streamline development of affordable housing. The City may consider proactive zoning policies that incentivize higher density or greater affordability. These might include: adoption of an accessory dwelling unit ordinance, continuing to use PUDs as a means of supporting mixed-use and/or dense and walkable projects, considering of upzoning in areas where appropriate, evaluation of existing dimensional requirements for barriers to production of multifamily housing, possible fee waivers or expedited process for projects that meet affordability standards, inclusionary housing thresholds for new developments, and others. Such updates to zoning ordinances may help to meet rental demand and produce housing that is affordable to households at or above 50% AMI. Rental license and inspections programs St. Anthony already has a rental license and inspection program. These programs are enacted not only to ensure tenants are treated fairly, but can also a data collection opportunity to keep tabs on rental properties. This data can help cities understand where naturally occurring affordable housing in the community exists and to better understand what steps need to be taken to help preserve it.