2023 Ideas Challenge Entry
At the beginning of 2023, Las Vegas City Councilmember Brian Knudsen and the Las Vegas City Council adopted an ordinance formalizing incentives for affordable housing. This created a process by which incentives can be offered to all developers during the application process. Incentives help to offset rising costs, stretch funding received for affordable housing from the state and federal government, and take risks associated with uncertainty away from developers and developments. Incentives include: expedited plan reviews, density bonuses, height bonuses, and permit fee reductions, which are all tied to a percentage of units being set aside as affordable.
Impact:
The city expects to see similar results to these incentives seven in peer cities (Austin, Denver, Virginia Beach, Nashville, Sacramento, Seattle, and Orlando), which resulted in 5% affordable housing units to total units built.