Williamsburg and James City County established task forces years ago to recommend ways to make housing more affordable for lower income residents. To date, only a handful of those recommendations have been acted upon.
More than 25% of James City County households, and one third of Williamsburg’s, are spending more than a third of their income on housing, those task forces found. And they suggested a variety of solutions to increase the supply.
The James City County task force recommended strategies that included:
1. A policy for mobile home parks, specifically exploring the option of the county buying out parks temporarily to revitalize them before returning them to the private market.
2. Define specific redevelopment/revitalization areas, with zoning policies that would support mixed-income and mixed-use development.
3. Amend the zoning ordinance to allow for a wider range of housing types, sizes and forms.
4. Decrease minimum lot size requirements and increase the maximum number of units …