{"id":11804,"date":"2022-07-20T15:27:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T15:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/?p=11804"},"modified":"2022-08-02T13:58:42","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T13:58:42","slug":"santa-fe-realtors-promote-diverse-housing-options-in-housing-strapped-region-2-3-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-3-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-4-2-4-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/homepage\/success-story\/orra-sg0822","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Regional REALTOR\u00ae Association and Aspire North REALTORS\u00ae (Traverse City, MI) Promote Strategic Development with Powerful 3D Economic Modelling"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nWith help from a REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party Smart Growth Grant<\/a>, the Orlando Regional REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Association was able to bring a panel of experts to Oviedo, Florida to explain the compelling economic modeling that informed a mandate for higher-density development.\u00a0 Five years previously, the same kind of sophisticated projections were made in Traverse City, Michigan, where the report is still being used to push for higher density development to maximize tax revenue and housing at every price level.<\/p>\n

Passions were high, and the Orlando Regional REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Association had been tipped-off by social media to expect protesters at the public meeting it was hosting.\u00a0 Duly warned, they hired security, but in fact, the REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> welcomed the opposition: it meant a chance to reach people who were misunderstanding the data behind a recent economic report recommending higher-density development in the small central Florida city of Oviedo.\u00a0 The REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> were sponsoring the meeting to clarify and defend the report and its recommendations prior to the City Council\u2019s consideration of a new comprehensive plan. \u00a0Thanks to the expertise and level-headed sensitivity of the team they brought in to face the music, the contentious affair became a highly productive community conversation.\u00a0 A savvy mayor supported the effort, and a Smart Growth Grant from the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party made it possible.<\/p>\n

The report in question had been prepared by Urban3, an innovative Asheville, North Carolina-based 3D economic-modeling firm headed by Joe Minicozzi.\u00a0 It analyzed Oviedo\u2019s projected revenue and expense data at a granular level,and created compelling images representing the current reality and projected outcomes. The analysis showed that not only was the city collecting about half the funds necessary to support its obligations to its residents, but also revealed disparities in geo-specific infrastructure spending across the jurisdiction. \u00a0As Candy Cole, Executive Director of the Orlando Regional REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Association\u2019s Foundation, observes, \u201cThere\u2019s only so much land, and we clearly need to be smarter about how we\u2019re using it.\u201d\u00a0 That said, she notes that development is a delicate topic, and has to be treated with grace, especially by the REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup>, who are in the business of defending private property rights. \u00a0\u201cWe know that Smart Growth principles create opportunity for homeownership and economic growth, but a lot of people were taking this personally.\u00a0 The resistance was reactionary and coming from a place of misinformation.\u00a0 The Smart Growth Grant gave us a way to bring the authors of the Urban3 report back to town, together with Charles Marohn, founder of the Strong Towns movement, to address the concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek is a REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup>, herself, and understands the complexities of the issues and the stakes involved.\u00a0 Her office had turned to the REALTORS for help supporting the report, and she, in turn, helped to promote the two-hour workshop. \u00a0Cole also invited land planners from all over Florida to capitalize on the presence of this team of experts.\u00a0 The conflict, predictably, was between local NIMBYs, YIMBYs, and yes, BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.) \u00a0\u201cPeople were frustrated, and taking it personally,\u201d explains Cole.\u00a0 They felt that their particular property was being targeted.\u00a0 Joe Minicozzi diffused that tension masterfully, by removing the personal-factor from the equation, and demonstrating his concepts using other cities as examples.\u00a0 It went from \u2018This is what you must do,\u2019 to \u2018This is how working together for the common good has worked elsewhere,\u2019\u201d she says, adding that Minicozzi took questions for an extra ninety minutes, making sure no concern went unanswered.<\/p>\n

Cole\u2019s favorite example of how the meeting turned around is that of an angry protester railing about an empty shopping mall in Oviedo and demanding to know why it wasn\u2019t a priority for re-development, if residential zoning was in the crosshairs.\u00a0 \u00a0As it turns out, the developer from the derelict mall was also present.\u00a0 \u201cHe was just as frustrated!\u00a0 He said, \u2018You wouldn\u2019t believe the great plans we have that are impossible because of xyz zoning issues!\u2019\u00a0 And right there in the meeting, with planning officials present and national experts at the table, we got a conversation started about solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mayor Sladek eventually relayed the good news that the City Council had passed the new planning documents, she credited the public education that the REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> had provided:<\/p>\n

Last night, we adopted our final Comp Plan and ZERO people spoke in opposition to the increased density that makes possible. And it\u2019s not because people didn\u2019t know it was on the agenda. The meeting had at least 100 people in attendance, they just were not upset by the direction Council moved after holding that meeting and all the others.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I believe that level of public complacency at the final public hearing was made possible by the slightly spicy meeting that helped introduce people to the concept of urban density subsidizing residential.<\/em><\/p>\n

While most people don\u2019t like growth or density, last night\u2019s meeting (which brought people out in droves over a proposed tax hike), proves people in Oviedo prefer growth\/density over taxes. It has been an interesting journey, helping our community get to a place where the level of understanding is high enough that we can have a productive conversation about these hard topics.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking of not liking growth or density, that\u2019s the attitude that the Aspire North REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> in Traverse City, Michigan, has also increasingly encountered in the five years since it supported an in-depth study by Urban3 that revealed where housing density could be increased to meet demand and maximize tax revenue.\u00a0 Despite the clear data presented by the report, attempts to increase the 65\u2019 building height limit within city limits have met with resistance, and developers have been thwarted from building even high-end mixed-use projects. \u00a0CEO Kim Pontius explains that he is in the process of applying for a Housing Opportunity Grant to remind the voting public of the barriers that stand in the way of solving infrastructure deficiencies from the housing shortage to desperately needed storm sewer repair.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to be having informative conversations so that people understand the serious implications of maintaining the status quo.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking forward to bringing Joe Minicozzi\u2019s report back into the spotlight as an excellent source of proven facts, recommendations, and solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about how the Orlando Regional REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Association is working to bring communities around on the concept of Smart Growth, contact Candy Cole, Executive Director of its Foundation, at CandyC@orlandorealtors.org<\/a> or\u00a0407.513.7271.\u00a0 For a five-year perspective on the value of 3D economic modeling, contact Kimberly Pontius, CEO of Aspire North \u00a0REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup>, at\u00a0kim@aspirenorthrealtors.com<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Passions were high, and the Orlando Regional REALTOR\u00ae Association had been tipped-off by social media to expect protesters at the public meeting it was hosting. Duly warned, they hired security, but in fact, the REALTORS\u00ae welcomed the opposition: it meant a chance to reach people who were misunderstanding the data behind a recent economic report recommending higher-density development in the small central Florida city of Oviedo. The REALTORS\u00ae were sponsoring the meeting to clarify and defend the report and its recommendations prior to the City Council\u2019s consideration of a new comprehensive plan. Thanks to the expertise and level-headed sensitivity of the team they brought in to face the music, the contentious affair became a highly productive community conversation. A savvy mayor supported the effort, and a Smart Growth Grant from the REALTOR\u00ae Party made it possible. ","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,33,296],"tags":[312,14,1748,344,353],"class_list":["post-11804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-success-stories","category-success-story","tag-florida","tag-grants","tag-orlando","tag-smart-growth","tag-smart-growth-action-grant"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}