Rapid City looking to increase the number of affordable housing projects

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Rapid City officials are looking to make it easier to build affordable housing in the area by waiving building permit fees for qualifying projects.

With affordable housing in the city limits becoming less and less frequent, the need for resolutions like this is more prominent.

The city’s legal and finance committee started the process Wednesday by hosting the first reading of the proposed change.

The city’s planning projects division manager says this is a way to incentivize more affordable housing projects.

“Building permit fees are typically a small relatively small percentage of a project’s total cost we acknowledge that every little bit helps but we also hope that this helps to show city support for affordable housing projects and can help make applications for grant funding more competitive in Rapid City,” said Sarah Hanzel.

This resolution still needs to go through a second reading at legal and finance before it can be voted on by the city council.

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