Thank you, Councilman Seifeldein, for standing up for making developers do more to provide affordable housing. One suspects that city hall is affording developers extra density in exchange for a measly 10% being devoted to affordable housing merely as a cover for densification many of us don't want. Mayor Wilson tacitly admitted as much when he fretted about Beauregard developers opting for by-right development versus what he imagines are "ambitious" affordable housing developer contributions.
Quite the contrary, examples abound of where 10% is so little as to be arguably de minimis (e.g., https://www.usaid.gov/india/partner-resources/infographic-de-minimis-rate-indirect-costs https://fawiki.fws.gov/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=21268677). If city hall were serious about affordable housing as anything more than a guise for densification, it would insist that a much higher amount of additional density be devoted to affordable housing and would hold developers to stricter expectations.
If, instead of 10%, city hall insisted on 50% of additional density being devoted to affordable housing, so what if most developers pass and opt for by-right? If only one quarter of developers contribute at 50% of the extra density city hall is giving them, that's 12.5% more affordable housing, versus only 10% under what city council is currently considering.
Dino Drudi
Alexandria