Wayzata carries cachet and it comes at a price: Those who could bring youth and renewal to town for the most part can't afford to buy a home in Wayzata.
Some fear that without effort, the city could start to resemble an affluent retirement community.
"If there's any way we can encourage housing for young families, we need to do it," said Council Member Mary Bader, a longtime resident who said she now notices fewer children in town.
But there is far from a united front on affordable housing in Wayzata.
On July 7, the city took stock of what housing it has and prepared to form a task force to study how much affordable housing could be built and where to build it. Present were members of the City Council, Planning Commission and Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA).
Wayzata faces steep challenges as it looks at how to make its housing stock more affordable. Land values are high. The city already has a high percentage of attached housing such as apartments or townhomes. And there's pressure to work toward the Metropolitan Council's guideline for the city of 44 units of new affordable housing by 2020.
Adding one home per lot probably isn't going to make that happen.
Guy Peterson, director of community development for the Met Council, said the agency asks each metro area community to plan for its share of the total need in the region, which is 51,000 new affordable housing units. He said it's difficult to provide enough using only low density zoning.
"Generally, that just doesn't pan out to be a realistic way to think you're going to produce affordable housing," Peterson said.
Robyn Cook, an HRA member who studied the issue on a task force around 10 years ago, put it another way: "You ain't gonna get it in a small town like this without density," Cook said.
The Met Council generally uses soft power when asking cities to add their share of affordable housing. Peterson said a variety of factors go into whether communities can reach their goals, and if a city doesn't have its share by 2020, "there is no enforcement."
But he said such a city wouldn't get the incentive held out to it to help get affordable housing built - grant money.
"Their inability or reluctance to accept their fair share could impact their ability to get grants in the future," Peterson said, speaking about cities in general.
Wayzata hasn't lacked proposals for affordable housing. But resistance to them is usually pre-ordained, by residents and City Council members who commonly come to the table pleading for protection of the city's single family neighborhoods.
In 2007, Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners (IOCP) and Habitat for Humanity finished two duplexes on Gleason Lake Road.
Last year, IOCP and CommonBond Communities tried unsuccessfully for a 20-unit affordable housing building on Central Avenue, which neighbors petitioned against. It also would have required a rezoning.
This year, IOCP and partner agencies have a renovation project in the works at 645 Wayzata Blvd. The Hennepin County HRA approved $300,000 in grant funding on June 9 to go for acquisition and renovation of a vacant, six-unit rental apartment building that would serve as affordable housing.
Peterson said renovations can count toward the 44 guideline if the units weren't affordable before.
"If we're going to make a unit that wasn't affordable, affordable, that's OK," Peterson said.
While more apartments might bring Wayzata closer to the Met Council's guideline, it would still leave a gap in the city's ability to provide housing for people in all stages of life.
Were you to try living an entire life in Wayzata - moving from an apartment to a starter home to a home that would fit a few kids, then to a smaller home and somewhere to live into old age - you'd likely have the toughest time finding a starter home.
For someone making $50,000, or 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), only 9 percent of Wayzata's owner-occupied homes are affordable or valued at $171,000 or below, according to a report given by City Planner Bryan Gadow.
Gadow's report also notes that about 43 percent of the city's housing stock is single family homes, while multiple-family homes such as apartments or condos make up 57 percent.
Someone making 50 percent of the AMI could afford 80 percent of the apartments in the city, 33 percent of the duplexes and 20 percent of the single family home rentals.
"You see it cascade off a cliff when you get to single family detached," said Council Member Andrew Mullin.
Mayor Ken Willcox said that when reviewing affordable housing proposals, the city frequently digresses into whether it agrees with the Met Council.
"There's seldom any resolution to it. We thought that it was important that we have a discussion," Willcox said.
Kim Vohs, IOCP housing director, said after the meeting that the best thing the city can do to help move projects forward is identify sites it would support for affordable housing. That, he said, could make it easier for a neighborhood to support a plan.
"I think there's places we can do this and work with the neighborhood to address their concerns. I think a lot of it is really educating people about what affordable housing is, who lives there, that it doesn't decrease the property values, it doesn't increase crime," Vohs said.
In reaction to the report, he said there was a sense of surprise at the percentage of rental housing that is affordable. But he said the need is still present.
"There's still a need. We see the need here every day. We have a lot of people coming from Wayzata, that are here in Wayzata, that need help with housing," Vohs said.
So where will all this discussion lead?
The city studied affordable housing at length at various times around a decade ago, and it didn't get far.
"We said back then that it's impossible, we can't have the same definitions of affordable that other towns can have," Cook said.
This time though, the city's new comprehensive plan is burdened with the goal of adding 44 units.
At the July 7 meeting, some already seemed to throw their hands up by expressing puzzlement with the Met Council or talking about how much easier it would be to build affordable housing elsewhere.
Willcox asked why more housing couldn't be built in areas where land values are lower, an idea he said hinged on providing transportation from those areas to jobs.
"You could get a lot more housing in places like Elk River or Anoka" if you had transportation to jobs, Willcox said.
