A push to spare McAdams Haven, a planned permanent supportive housing complex, from city development fees reaches the City Council's Agenda Committee at 8 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, in the Council Work Session Room at City Hall, 215 E. McKinney St.
Denton Affordable Housing Corp. is building the project, which would offer 84 units to people who have been homeless for long stretches, according to the written request Council Member Ferrie filed Sept. 14. Ferrie called it "the first of its kind in our region" and argued that "saddling a non-profit with over $680,000 in fees is a huge barrier that council should address."
The request also pointed out that the council had, within the past year, voted to remove barriers to affordable housing and reworked the scoring it uses to weigh tax abatements.
From one project to a citywide rule
Ferrie raised the idea through the council's two-minute pitch process, which lets each member propose one topic per meeting. Under the 2024 ordinance that governs those pitches, staff take up a request when at least four elected officials back it, and six votes are needed to send a proposal straight to a resolution or ordinance.
The council heard the pitch on Sept. 22 and asked staff for an informal written report. By the time it returned to the Agenda Committee, the topic had widened. Thursday's agenda describes it as a work session on a formal citywide policy for waiving development and impact fees on permanent supportive housing and deeply affordable housing projects, not a one-time break for McAdams Haven.
City staff say the informal report was released in the Oct. 30 Friday Staff Report to the council. It is not attached to the committee packet, and the packet does not estimate how much revenue a broader waiver policy could cost the city or list which fees it would cover.
