Housing and Neighborhoods as a planning theme addresses the needs and desires people have for the structures and places where they live.
Vision
Onondaga County will support affordable, attractive, and efficient housing and neighborhoods to retain and attract future residents.
Components of Housing and Neighborhoods
The term “complete neighborhood” refers to a neighborhood where all residents have safe and convenient access to the goods and services needed for daily life. This includes a variety of housing options, grocery stores, shops and offices, healthcare, quality public schools, public open spaces and recreational facilities, affordable active transportation options and civic amenities. An important element of a complete neighborhood is that it is built at a walkable and bikeable human scale, and meets the needs of people of all ages and abilities.
Goals and Strategies
Quality housing and good neighborhoods are key components of maintaining quality of life in Onondaga County. Maintaining and improving the County’s housing stock while investing in neighborhood amenities and assets will help strengthen the County’s competitiveness.
Goal 1
Expand Housing Choice
Affordability is a key factor in planning for housing and neighborhoods. It involves ensuring a range of housing options to support greater choice for residents. Achieving long-term improvements in housing choice will require providing local municipalities with the tools and resources needed to incorporate best practices into their plans and codes. County departments and agencies—such as the Department of Planning and the Department of Community Development—can support this effort by offering technical assistance, incentives, and financial resources to encourage adoption of these practices.
County partners, such as the Onondaga County Planning Federation, offer training, toolkits, and programs to help local municipalities bridge knowledge gaps and update local regulations and development review processes to allow a broader range of housing options.
Provide best practices and toolkits for integrating accessory dwelling units (AUDs) in local codes. ADUs may serve as a much more convenient and affordable alternate for individuals trying to locate housing.
Provide recommendations for reviewing and reducing local parking requirement minimums to prioritize housing individuals over cars.
Goal 2
Develop Targeted Market-Driven Programs to Support Neighborhood Health
Understanding and defining neighborhood housing markets can help guide policy makers in developing strategies, policies, and/or programs to deploy based on the market conditions in a community. These market- based approaches can help local communities strengthen the tax base and provide a safe and healthy environment for residents.
Conduct a Housing Needs Assessment.
Support the efforts of the Land Bank and developers to remove and demolish dilapidated buildings that are unmarketable.
Build housing market confidence in soft and middle market neighborhoods by using available funding and programs to assist homeowners to make investments in their homes.
Strengthen connections between soft and middle market neighborhoods and job centers.
Work to address poverty, raise household incomes, increase access to living wage jobs, and education in soft and middle market neighborhoods.
Support interventions in middle and stable market neighborhoods to avoid decline and to ensure the long-term strength and appeal of housing in these neighborhoods.
Goal 3
Support and Enhance the County’s Housing and Neighborhoods
Onondaga County’s housing stock and neighborhood areas are key drivers of the quality of life for County residents. Continued investment and updates to housing and neighborhoods can ensure they hold value and are competitive. In creating new neighborhoods, communities need to require the amenities, infrastructure and connections that create high-quality places to live.
Plan for, codify and demand the amenities and quality of life infrastructure to create great neighborhoods. Empower local government to demand and require these components of a neighborhood as part of the development process.
Continue existing and develop new Community Development programs that support the maintenance of the County’s aging housing stock (e.g., energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies, and conveniences).
Invest in parks, trails, and open space resources that enhance quality of life, strengthen property values and offer opportunities to connect housing and neighborhood areas with the County’s greenway and blueway systems.
Identify neighborhoods that would benefit from neighborhood retrofits, where the County can assist the local government and homeowners in a selected area to incorporate missing “complete neighborhood” features like sidewalks, trail connections, street lights, traffic calming features and street trees to increase the attractiveness and value in the neighborhood.
In areas near schools, help local communities plan for and utilize Safe Routes to School funding to install neighborhood features that assist students walking or biking to school, and also improve the neighborhood overall for everyone else.
Continue to support and utilize Main Street and other housing programs administered by the County Community Development department.
