Carmel Housing Development Discussion

Carmel's city council and planning commission discussed a new draft housing element at a joint meeting on Tuesday night. The town now aiming for a state mandated 349 new units of housing, 231 units must be affordable housing. At the meeting, officials spoke on creative strategies to bring these units to the village without too much expansion.

The plan wants to bring more people into downtown through a mixed income incentive program to help incentivize the construction of mixed income housing in the area along iwth a new permitting process to allow for business owners in downtown to live in their businesses. For example, a commercial storefront could support a residential space in the rear or upper stories, especially since those spaces are under utilized or vacant in much of downtown.

It also focuses on converting struggling hotels into low income housing, the city would purchase these local hotels to help integrate the affordable housing into the village as seamlessly as possible. The town turning to local religious facilities for support in the process as well, hoping to work with these organizations in the village to put more housing on their sites to benefit both communities.

Incentives to build more ADU's was another popular tactic, which could provide more housing options once they encourage locals to inhabit the units permanently.

People we spoke with said that despite the high costs, some worry about the new housing clashing with a community that has stayed unchanged for years. Carmel local Jon Gunsel says "I think messing with Carmel would change the dynamic of what it has been for so long and kind of defeats the purpose of why this town has stayed the same for so long."