Leaders on opposite sides of the inclusionary zoning issue traded ideas for the future of the controversial ordinance Wednesday at a Dane County Public Affairs Council meeting.
Phil Salkin represented the Realtors Association of Southcentral Wisconsin at the meeting. According to Salkin, the current IZ ordinance is sorely in need of improvement.
Salkin said the Realtors Association supports IZ, a law created to provide affordable housing to middle-income Madisonians while diversifying neighborhoods. But, he added, the current law has failed to accomplish its objectives, as many Madison properties remain cheaper than city-subsidized IZ units.
In addition, the current IZ law stipulates that homeowners return between 50 and 80 percent of the profit to the city after selling an IZ home, something both Salkin and Mark Olinger, head of the city's planning department, said needs to change.
But according to Olinger, the current IZ law is not all bad. He said claims that IZ is unnecessary because normal properties remain cheaper than IZ units are misleading. Rental units in the city's troubled Allied Drive area are cheap and available, Olinger said, but that does not mean they are desirable.
Salkin said the Realtor's Association would work with the city to modify IZ. However, he said, if the modified law is unsatisfactory, the Realtors Association will advocate repeal of the law.
