The Town of Hillsborough has revised one of its ordinances to allow for more multi-family housing units per acre of land. This revision also provides a density bonus, which would let developers build even more units if they include affordable housing as part of their projects.
For many years, the town’s zoning ordinance only allowed six multi-family units, or apartments, per acre. That was eventually increased to nine units an acre; however, in the past few years, the town also instituted a multi-family special use zone which allowed growth upwards to 12 and 14 units an acre.
Margaret Hauth, the Planning Director for the Town of Hillsborough, said that growth was still not enough to meet community demand. She said the density that the market and developers want to build at is closer to 16 and 20 units an acre.
Now, with an ordinance revised at the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners’ final meeting of 2021, Hauth said the multi-family housing density has been officially increased to 20 units an acre.
“Apartments are still a relatively small component of our housing stock,” Hauth said. “They are a more sustainable option because they’re condensed on a smaller footprint. So, staff wanted to bring this forward as a change that we feel is really kind of necessary to keep our ordinance modern and in line with what the development wants while not inconsistent with some of the goals and intents that we have for our community of trying to address affordability and to not have a lot of new construction that uses up a lot of scarce resources.”
Unlike neighboring jurisdictions, Hillsborough’s height limits do not allow four-story buildings, which means 20 units of multi-family housing per acre may be out of the question. Despite this, Hauth said increasing the density will still act as an incentive for developers to reach 16 to 18 units an acre and in turn make their projects more financially viable.
Moving forward, Hauth said any developers that plan to bring affordable housing to the area will also receive a 50 percent automatic affordable bonus, which would up the density limit to 30 units an acre – albeit still with height restrictions in place.
“So, it would go to 30 units an acre,” Hauth said. “Again, we’re not changing the height limit. So, it’s going to be a challenge for these folks to deliver something close to that. It’s going to have to be a pretty flat site.”
Most commissioners agreed that the revised ordinance is consistent with the town’s planning goals. Hillsborough Mayor Jenn Weaver said the town doesn’t know exactly how this density bonus will look, or if it will allow developers to build to their full potential under other town restrictions; however she said it’s worth a try.
“I do not think that anyone sitting around this table expects increased density to solve affordable housing,” Weaver said. “I think with the many discussions we’ve had, it’s one piece of a puzzle of a very big issue that we have in our region, which is a desirable place to live. Housing is very much in demand and expensive. So, it’s a piece of the puzzle, but not a one trick pony.”
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