Editorial: Affordable housing

Collier County commissioners picked a good time to step down from their vow to put the brakes on rezonings. Saying they would do so only if each rezoning were in the public interest, commissioners made the most of that this week by giving the green light to four housing projects, including two rezonings, that are to include units affordable to entry level workers and their families.

Two of the projects earlier had met with commission opposition, because they were in the coastal area and deemed too close to flooding hazards.

Commissioners were holding rezonings at bay pending favorable state growth management rules — which were not forthcoming. Their holdout did not wrangle any additional cut-rate units, but the strategy did yield concessions on construction timing that lets roads keep pace.

That is in line with the goal of not letting housing and roads turn into either-or choices. The community ought to insist on and get both. In fact, affordable housing projects ought to add weight to an area’s ranking on the road-improvement ladder.

The 350-plus affordable units — some mixed with market-rate units at several projects — will not emerge overnight and newcomers cannot move in tomorrow. One developer said it could take as long as four years.

We remind the community that Collier County needs thousands of similar units so the people we need to drive the economy can afford to live here.

Yet, following prolonged affordable housing droughts, what happened on Tuesday at the Collier County Commission meeting was a step. A good one.