Milton council to hear report on affordable housing

January 31, 2025 4

Milton Town Council is set to hear a report on how to move forward with planning for and creating regulations to add more workforce/affordable housing within town limits.

The town’s affordable/workforce housing ad hoc committee is set to give its report at council’s regular meeting set for 6:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 3, at Milton library.

Within the report are eight recommendations for improving workforce housing in Milton, including: working with nonprofit housing developers to build new units on available individual lots, requiring developers who seek to annex or rezone property to provide a certain percentage of affordable units, preparing an ordinance to allow for accessory dwelling units in residential areas, requiring affordable housing in developments with large-parcel development district overlays, working with nonprofit developers to facilitate new affordable units in newly annexed communities, providing information at town hall on Sussex County block grants, encouraging more mixed-use zoning in the town’s future land-use map, and reviewing the zoning code to find ways to reduce restrictions that increase development costs, such as setbacks, parking regulations and minimum lot size.

“The need for affordable/workforce housing in Milton is real and it is growing,” the report says. “Proximity to the beach and low real estate taxes have attracted higher-income households, retirees and a growing seasonal use of our available housing stock.”

The report says Milton’s new housing construction over the last two decades has been designed and built to only accommodate this particular market, with the average price of a newly constructed home in Milton ranging from $395,000 to $659,000.

“There are no incentives for developers to build affordable/workforce housing. Essential workers like teachers, police officers and municipal employees, who do not qualify for subsidized housing programs, cannot afford to live here,” the report said.

To change that, the report states that the town needs to find a way to work with developers and nonprofits to provide affordable/workforce housing. Among the ways the report suggests to do that is to allow for accessory dwelling units, essentially secondary housing that is located on the lot of a larger, primary home. Accessory dwelling units do not include duplexes or tourist homes.

“ADUs cannot be bought or sold separately,” the report says. “They are inexpensive to construct compared to traditional single or multifamily units, take less time to build and create a gentle density by infilling backyards of existing neighborhoods.”

The report adds that accessory dwelling units can help homeowners offset costs, allow for multigenerational living arrangements in a more private and independent setting, and offer long-term residency.

In looking for opportunities to create more affordable units, the report points to six large but not subdivided parcels within Milton that could be developed. The report says the town could offer incentives to attract developers to construct workforce housing on these lots, maybe through waiving fees, increasing housing density and relaxing code restrictions. Within town, the report says there are 55 empty, buildable lots that could offer space for new, affordable units.

The ad hoc committee was formed by town council resolution in January 2024 and began holding meetings in February of that year with a goal of shaping policy around affordable housing. The committee held monthly meetings with presentations by state and county housing officials, and for-profit and nonprofit developers to get varying perspectives on ways new affordable housing can be created. The committee then spent another three months crafting its report to town council.