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Suit Filed Against Tallahassee Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance
 A coalition of builders and Realtors® filed suit on Feb. 28 in Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County challenging the City of Tallahassee's mandatory inclusionary zoning ordinance on the grounds that it violates substantive due process and is an unlawful taking and unlawful tax.
“While inclusionary zoning was likely imposed with the best of intentions in mind, the city has effectively added a regulatory barrier that will increase the price of new home construction by tens of thousands of dollars,” said Len Tylka, the president of the Florida Home Builders Association and a West Palm Beach builder and engineer.
Tallahassee’s zoning ordinance requires 10% of new homes in a development with 50 or more single-family or multifamily homes to be sold for $159,378 — no matter what the actual market rate price for the new home might be. The ordinance identifies specific locations where mandatory inclusionary housing is to be developed, including areas with some of the highest land costs in the city.
“If land cost $100,000 per lot to develop, that only leaves $60,000 to cover the cost of building the home,” said Ed Dion, a Tallahassee remodeler and member of the Tallahassee Builders Association (TBA). “Logically, the only way to build and sell a house at $159,378 is to share the cost with the remaining 90% of market-rate home buyers in an inclusionary zoned development. And that’s when home prices escalate.”
A study by Reason Public Policy Institute, a national nonpartisan public policy organization, shows that inclusionary zoning increases the price of market-rate housing by $22,000-$44,000 per home in order to subsidize the lower-priced homes.
“Inclusionary zoning will result in an even wider gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,’” said Tallahassee Board of Realtors® Immediate Past President Penny Herman. “Lower incomes will qualify for the inclusionary zoned homes, higher incomes will qualify for the market-rate homes, but middle-income families will effectively be squeezed out of realizing the American dream of homeownership.”
With the goal of increasing its supply of affordable housing, Tallahassee is the only city within Florida to impose a mandatory inclusionary zoning ordinance.
The builders and Realtors® who have joined in the suit are among the strongest advocates for affordable housing in Tallahassee and across Florida. FHBA is one of the founding members of the Sadowski Coalition, which helped to establish Florida’s Affordable Housing Trust Funds — one of the country’s premier affordable housing programs. The trust funds, which derive funding from fees on all real estate transactions, provide the City of Tallahassee and Leon County with dollars for their affordable housing programs.
Additionally, FHBA members in Tallahassee and throughout Florida are among the most active builders of Habitat for Humanity homes, and have adopted Builders Care programs in Tallahassee and across Florida.
“I’ve been a strong advocate for affordable housing for a number of years, but increased government rules and regulations are increasing the price of homes and causing far too many people to miss out on homeownership,” said Tallahassee developer DeVoe Moore. The Florida State University's DeVoe Moore Center has been studying the correlation between increased regulatory barriers and the ability to develop affordable housing.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Tallahassee Builders Association, the Florida Home Builders Association, the Tallahassee Board of Realtors®, DeVoe Moore and Ed Dion.
For more information, e-mail Edie Ousley at FHBA, or call her at 850-224-4316.
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