THE HOME BUILDER
August 2024
Page Two
The HomeFront Government Affairs News and Info
David Lehde Director of Government Affairs
Energetic Summer for Dallas BA Advocacy
During communications with the City Council and staff, the Dal - las Builders Association raised our concerns about the impact higher proposed rates have on overall housing affordability. Ultimately, it is the home buyer who feels this additional cost in the final sale price of a new home. The new roadway impact fees are scheduled to go into effect on homes that are platted on or after Jan.1, 2025. Dallas BA continued our ad- vocacy in the City of Dallas on July 26 during our participation in the stakeholder group that helps advise the city’s departments that oversee planning, zoning, development and permitting. This was the first Devel - opment Advisory Committee meeting since the reorganization of the devel- opment services departments that now has Planning and Development, along with Permitting and Inspections, under a new Planning and Development Department. The overall department director, Emily Liu, covered timelines for up- coming policies that will be addressed. This included the city’s Forward Dallas comprehensive plan and the amending of the parking code. Dallas BA took the opportunity to recommend needed fixes to the regulating of shared access developments, a key residential tool that helps address density. Dallas BA’s Director of Gov- ernment Affairs, David Lehde, was a featured speaker at Congressman Michael Burgess’ 26th District En- ergy Efficiency Summit on July 27. Lehde spoke on responsible building energy codes and the danger overly stringent codes can pose to housing affordability. Pointing to key data, he gave ex- amples of how homes built beginning in 2010 are considerably more energy
Protecting the American Dream Following a busy June that saw the members and staff advocate for housing policy at the nation’s Capital, the pace has not slowed down for the Dallas Builders Association. In July, Dallas BA advocacy saw success in Denton where a nearly two-year discussion on roadway impact fees came to a head. The City Council on July 16 approved updates to the municipality’s roadway impact fees. Thanks to our advocacy, the new fees are much less than originally proposed. Due to current and planned growth, the City of Denton’s most recent impact fee study presented a capital improvement project list that resulted in the maximum assessable fee per home more than doubling the previous 2016 implementation. Starting in late 2022, the process to update roadway impact fees in- cluded proposed options to collect the fees per home at rates of 30%, 40%, or 50% of the maximum fee in the first year, with an escalation to 50%, 60%, or 70%, respectively. If the originally presented rate for option 2 had been approved, the new fees could have increased from the current $2,000 per home to more than $8,000 per home in year one and escalated 5% each year to more than $12,000 in year five for the citywide average. After hearing from the Dallas Builders Association multiple times during the process, and with consid- eration for the need for housing af- fordability, the Denton City Council approved keeping the rate at 20% of the maximum assessable fee. When looking at the citywide average, this keeps the fee collected per home to less than $3,700.
Dallas BA Director of Government Affairs David Lehde speaks at Con - gressman Michael Burgess' Energy Efficiency Summit.
efficient than older housing stock. “When it comes to energy efficiency in newly constructed homes, we’re there,” Lehde said. He also pointed out how today’s use of third-party energy raters has increased the performance of new homes compared even to those built in or just after 2010. There continues to be a nation- wide focus on energy usage in homes. However, when considering that the U.S. housing stock is dominated by older less efficient homes, many of them prior to 1970, it does not make sense to continue to target new home construction with overly stringent codes. The vast majority of the na- tion’s housing stock was constructed before the modern codes and advanced building science we use today. Retro- fitting older housing stock could have a significant impact. Of the nation’s 137 million homes, 130 were constructed before the modern code and advanced build- ing science we use today. The Renew- able Energy Laboratory indicates that retrofitting older housing stock could reduce total annual US home energy consumption by 5.7%. Lehde also spoke on negative impacts some federal policies will have on American families, potentially pricing them out of the home market. Among them were electrification mandates that can increase the upfront cost of homes and result in increased
utility bills, as well as a recent energy rule from HUD and the USDA that could harm the very market of home buyers that HUD was created to help. The latter could lock three in four first- time home buyers out of access to key insured loans. Association’s Clay Shoot Offers Fel - lowship and Member Engagement Registration is now open for the HOMEPAC Shootout, presented by BGE, Inc., to be held Wednesday, Sept. 4. The clay-shoot benefits HOMEPAC of Greater Dallas. This is a fun oppor- tunity to support Dallas BA advocacy and enjoy the outdoors. The clay shoot will be hosted at the famed Elm Fork Shooting Sports facilities in Dallas. The event will begin with registration and breakfast at 8 a.m., followed by the clay shoot at 9 a.m. Lunch and posting of results will follow the shoot. The event format will be 4-man teams. Participant entry is $150 per shooter, which includes breakfast, lunch, and beverages. You can also register a team of 4 for $600. Shooters must provide their own ammunition (20 or 12 gauge), as well as eye and ear protection. Partnerships are also available at multiple levels. For more information, contact the Director of Government Affairs at David.Lehde@DallasBuild- ers.com.
The Home Builder is published monthly by the Dallas Builders Association at 5816 W. Plano Pkwy., Plano, Texas 75093. Telephone 972-931-4840. BARCIE VILCHES, Editor
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