Montgomery County lawmakers are looking to catch up with neighboring D.C. in incentivizing developers to convert vacant offices to housing, but the county executive is pushing back.
The affluent Maryland suburb’s County Council on Tuesday passed a zoning amendment to accelerate the approval process for office-to-residential conversions, and it passed a bill establishing tax incentives for developers that include affordable units in such projects.
The zoning amendment creates a new use for an office building of two or more stories that is at least 50% vacant that is replaced with a residential building — either through conversion or demolition — and it creates an expedited approval process for that use.
That amendment doesn’t need County Executive Marc Elrich’s approval, but he does have the power to veto the tax incentive bill and has spoken out against it, Bethesda Magazine reported.
The incentive takes the form of a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program that would exempt qualified developers from paying property tax for 20 years. To qualify, a conversion project would need to reserve 17.5% of its units as affordable to those making up to 60% of the county’s median income.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Jon Banister over at Bisnow
