Affordable Housing Code Audit + Recommendations

Park City, UT | 2019

Park City, like so many high amenity mountain towns, has seen a sharp increase in housing demand that has driven up housing costs and caused affordability to be a central focus for the City. Park City has tried to get more affordable housing built using a modest set of density bonus allowances provided by its Affordable Master Planned Development Process (AMPD). Unfortunately the market has not responded to these incentives and Park City wanted to know why.

Cascadia Partners performed a detailed code audit and financial feasibility assessment of the program to understand what the major barriers are and how the program could be tweaked to be effective. Through interviews with local builders, site plan “test fit” scenarios, and pro forma-based financial analysis, we identified several problems and proposed specific changes that improved feasibility.

The final report and recommendations were well received by the city council and a set of new standards were adopted, which resulted in the first AMPD development application being submitted. Cascadia was invited back in 2023 to work on a set of middle housing-related affordability recommendations for the City.