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Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Rental Housing Inspection Programs

This fact sheet describes the importance of rental housing inspection programs in helping a community maintain a minimum quality standard for the existing housing stock. It describes why cities should require landlords to register rental properties, the types of rental housing inspection programs, and how to fund such programs.

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LGH 15

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Annexation

This fact sheet describes the different types of annexation cities can use to encourage development outside current city boundaries, references the sections of the Iowa Code that address annexation, and provides resources where more can be learned about the process.

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LGH 16

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Building Codes and Restrictions

This housing fact sheet presents information regarding building codes and provides helpful links to chapters of the Iowa Code related to building codes, restricted-residence districts, flexibility in dimensional requirements, code updates, and code enforcement. Links to additional resources are also included.

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LGH 17

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Childcare

This Rural Housing Readiness Assessment fact sheet has suggestions for dealing with the shortage of childcare facilities and providers, links to useful resources, and an example of a childcare success story from Hamilton County, Iowa.

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LGH 18

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Downtown Revitalization

This Rural Housing Readiness Assessment fact sheet outlines different strategies and resources for downtown revitalization, including the Main Street Iowa Program, the Community Visioning Program, and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) opportunities.

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LGH 19

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Incentives for Developers/Builders

Housing is developed where and when it is profitable. This fact sheet outlines incentives that city governments can implement to prepare them for rural development, along with financial incentives to entice developers and builders to rural communities.

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LGH 20

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Incentives for Home Buyers

Offering incentives aimed at home buyers is an effective way to encourage new constructions and reduce the risks of unsold properties or value gaps that make new housing unaffordable. This fact sheets provides information on homeownership programs, down-payment assistance programs, and other opportunities, and presents examples of assistance programs created by Iowa communities.

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LGH 21

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Marketing and Communication

Marketing and communication are crucial to the success of a community’s housing-development strategy. This fact sheet offers strategies for marketing to both home builders and the public and provides useful links to feature on a city’s website.

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LGH 22

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: New Construction: Rental Housing

Homeownership is not an option for all demographic groups; therefore, rural communities need to diversify their housing options to accommodate residents’ range of income. This fact sheet provides information about both federal and state resources designed to address multifamily and low-income housing.

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LGH 23

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Nuisance Abatement

This fact sheet describes nuisance abatement and offers tips and tricks for how communities can deal with nuisance properties. Links are provided to relevant chapters of the Iowa Code, as well as programs and information from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Iowa Economic Development Authority, and the Iowa League of Cities.

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LGH 24

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Housing Rehabilitation

This fact sheet describes how rehabilitating existing housing can contribute to improving a community’s housing situation, presents strategic considerations, and lists funding sources at the federal, state, and regional levels for housing rehabilitation.

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LGH 25

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Housing for Older Adults

Because nearly one-third of Iowans are 55 years old or older, developing housing for this demographic is a smart investment for communities. This fact sheet describes opportunities and challenges related to housing development for older adults, identifies several funding sources available, and present examples of older-adult housing developments in three Iowa communities.

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LGH 26

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Parks & Recreation Amenities

This fact sheet lists several parks and recreation amenities that help communities attract and retain residents and families, along with a number of examples of successful development of outdoor recreation opportunities in rural Iowa communities.

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LGH 1

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Rural Housing Readiness Assessment Process

This fact sheet describes the four steps for completed the Rural Housing Readiness Assessment (RHRA) process, a program offered by the ISU Extension and Outreach Community and Economic Development unit. The goals of the RHRA process are to help communities understand the complexities of the housing market and the challenges to improving housing quality, quantity, and affordability; to plan a road map that aligns strategies for addressing these housing challenges; and to act on those plans.

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LGH 100

Sentiment Survey on Current Conditions for Housing Development in Iowa

The Sentiment Survey on Current Conditions for Housing Development in Iowa is an annual survey that captures the opinions of real estate professionals regarding current conditions for housing development across the state. Respondents are asked about their sentiment on housing in general, as well as what factors drive either their positive or negative views on housing-development prospects. This year’s survey is the first iteration of an annual study that will track how sentiment in terms of housing development changes over time.

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LGH 2

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Assembling a Housing Steering Committee

This fact sheet describes how a community should create a housing steering committee as part of the Rural Housing Readiness Assessment (RHRA) process. Included is information about committee makeup, members' roles and responsibilities through the RHRA process, meeting guidelines, and samples of a resolution and an ordinance to establish the committee.

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LGH 3

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Open Meetings and Open Records Laws

This fact sheet will help housing steering committees understand the requirements under open meetings and open records laws and operate accordingly as they work through the Rural Housing Readiness Assessment (RHRA) process.

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LGH 4

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Updating City Ordinances

This fact sheet defines city ordinances and describes the process and requirements for updating or amending and publishing them according to the Iowa Code.

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LGH 5

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Previous Housing Recommendations Worksheet

This fact sheet is a worksheet on which a housing steering committee going through the Rural Housing Readiness Assessment (RHRA) process can list any previous housing assessments and plans conducted in its community and describe the results.

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LGH 6

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Low-Income Housing Tax Credits

This fact sheet defines low-income housing tax credits, describes how they work and who is eligible to apply, and provides tips for obtaining these highly competitive tax credits.

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LGH 7

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Manufactured, Modular, and Mobile Homes

This fact sheet defines and describes the benefits of establishing manufactured, modular, and mobile home developments to address housing issues. It also defines land-lease communities and the requirements for regulating these communities.

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LGH 9

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Restricted-residence Districts

Iowa Code § 414.24 provides a means for small municipalities to prepare and adopt a version of zoning that is less complex and easier to administer than a conventional zoning plan. Under this approach, the city council establishes areas of the community called “restricted-residence districts,” known also as “restricted residential districts.” This fact sheet describes the advantages and disadvantages and best practices for establishing this type of district.

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LGH 10

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Allowing Flexibility in Dimensional Requirements

This fact sheet identifies the problems under Iowa law with granting dimensional variances to allow flexibility in property dimensions. It also describes creative ways to allow flexibility under certain circumstances in the local zoning ordinance to make it easier to build new and rehabilitate existing housing.

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LGH 11

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Tax Increment Financing

This fact sheet defines tax increment financing (TIF) and how cities can use it to fund variety of community projects that are designed to encourage economic growth and jobs, including housing developments. It also describes how TIF funds can be used and explains how to set up a TIF district.

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LGH 12

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Property Acquisition through Tax Sales

This fact sheet explains how a local government can acquire a nuisance property through tax sales. It also describes the processes defined in the Iowa Code that local governments can use to obtain tax certificates from third parties.

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LGH 13

Housing Readiness Fact Sheet: Iowa Case Studies in Rural Housing Readiness - Infill Housing Development

This fact sheet defines infill housing development and presents the advantages and disadvantages of this type of development. It illustrates examples of infill housing development in Sioux City and describes the steps for creating an infill housing development.

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LF 26

Municipal Zoning for Local Foods in Iowa: A Guidebook for Reducing Local Regulatory Barriers to Local Foods

The popularity of local foods has increased significantly in the last few decades, pushed along in recent years by a heightened interest of consumers in buying local and sustainably-grown foods. Municipalities are increasingly recognizing the multiple benefits of urban agriculture. As the urban agriculture movement has advanced, many have recognized the role that local government policies and regulations play in either stifling or facilitating the production, processing and distribution of local foods.

This guidebook focuses on the intersection of local foods and municipal zoning. It is written to provide Iowa city officials information and sample code language for reducing the barriers to, and/or encouraging some of the most common production and sales activities associated with urban agriculture.

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