Board and Committee Vacancies

The AHAC was established per Section 420.9076, Florida Statutes, as required for the State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) program.  Administered by Florida Housing, the SHIP Program provides funds to counties to finance and preserve affordable housing based on the locally adopted Local Housing Assistance Plan (LHAP).  The program targets very-low, low, and moderate-income families.

The AHAC has the responsibility to review the established policies and procedures, ordinances, land development regulations, and adopted comprehensive plan and recommends specific actions or initiatives to encourage or facilitate affordable housing.  In addition, the AHAC identifies incentives that are pertinent to affordable housing and serves as an information resource to help improve affordable housing feasibility.

Annually, the AHAC recommends specific actions or initiatives to encourage or facilitate affordable housing in a report to the Board of County Commissioners. The annual AHAC recommendation report includes proposed affordable housing incentive strategies and a review of previously recommended strategies. The Board then considers adopting the strategy recommendations to amend the Leon County LHAP which is required to be eligible for SHIP funds.

The advisory committee may perform other duties as requested, including:

1. The provision of mentoring services to affordable housing partners including developers, banking institutions, employers, and others to identify available incentives, assist with applications for funding requests, and develop partnerships between various parties.
2. The creation of best practices for the development of affordable housing in the community.

Conducts hearings on appeals and variances for the City of Tallahassee and Leon County.  BOAA members are required to review the staff reports on the requested appeals and variances cases, conduct hearings in order to make findings of fact and, with the assistance of the BOAA attorney, make conclusions of law to make a determination on the requested appeal or variance.

Appeals: Certain decisions made by City or County officials are appealable to the BOAA. For example, an applicant for a proposed development may appeal a decision made by a County official to apply a particular parking standard to the proposed development. The BOAA is responsible for conducting the hearings and making a final decision on the appeals.  

Variances: Variances to the City and County’s Land Development Codes may be granted under certain circumstances. The BOAA is responsible for conducting hearings on variances and determining whether the variance meets the applicable requirements. The BOAA will be required to consider factors such as whether the variance would be contrary to the public interest. For example, an applicant may request a variance on a minimum setback requirement. 

The BOAA is supported with staff of the Leon County Department of Development Support and Environmental Management and the City of Tallahassee's Growth Management Department.  The BOAA receives legal advice from its own attorney.