BY KEVIN HOLSAPPLE
Los Alamos

Dear Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission,

I can’t be at your meeting this evening so I am writing to urge the Commission to recommend a critical revision to the housing policies and implementation tools in the Draft 2026 Comprehensive Plan (PLAN Los Alamos): future County housing subsidies, land contributions, and development incentives must be strictly conditioned on producing
housing that is genuinely affordable to our essential service workforce.

While the draft plan rightly identifies housing as a community priority, its current framework relies on federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Area Median Income (AMI) thresholds. In Los Alamos County, high Laboratory salaries inflate the baseline median income above $100,000+—nearly triple the statewide average. Under official May 2026 schedules, a 100% AMI for a singleperson is $119,700, and the “low-income” 60% AMI cap is $70,020. As a result, the maximum allowable “affordable” rent for a 60% AMI studio apartment is set at $1,750.50 per month, while a one-bedroom is $1,875.75 per month.

These rents are completely detached from the earnings of the essential
workforce that keeps our community operating:

  – An entry-level, full-time worker earning $15 per hour earns $31,200 annually ($2,600/month), meaning a 60% AMI studio consumes 67.3% of their gross pay.

  – A worker earning $20 per hour earns $41,600 annually ($3,466/month), requiring 50.5% of their gross earnings just to cover rent on that same studio.

Teachers, daycare providers, medical technicians, school support staff, and retail clerks cannot afford these rents. When the County provides public assistance to projects using standard AMI benchmarks, public resources end up subsidizing housing that remains out of reach for the very service workers experiencing severe housing instability and driving local staffing shortages for everyday businesses.

Community feedback on this issue is unequivocal. In recent survey data, 65.2% of respondents stated that the draft plan’s acceptance of standard HUD AMI guidelines without a targeted focus on essential workers does not reflect their views. Furthermore, 56.5% strongly agreed that County subsidies should be limited to projects that substantially increase affordability for essential workforce earners.

The draft plan proposes an “Active / Development-Focused Approach” involving significant public commitments—including public land donations, infrastructure expenditures, Metropolitan Redevelopment Area (MRA) funding, Tax Increment Financing (TIF), and Local Economic Development Act (LEDA) incentives. If the County takes on financial risk and commits public assets, the return to the community must be measurable and equitable. In the housing realm, that means housing that can be affordable to our essential workforce.

I respectfully request that the Planning and Zoning Commission ask the consultant to incorporate the following explicit revisions into Part 3 of the Comprehensive Plan:

1.  Tie Public Resources to Actual Workforce Wages: Mandate that no County land transfers, direct municipal expenditures, infrastructure expenditures, MRA funds, or LEDA agreements be granted to residential developments unless the project guarantees significant units restricted to workers earning entry-level local wages in the $15 to $20 per hour range.

2.  Establish a Dedicated Local Wage-Based Housing Policy: Replace sole reliance on lab-inflated federal AMI metrics with local wage-targeted standards that reflect service-sector payrolls in daycare centers, clinics, schools, and local businesses.

3.  Codify Mandatory Inclusionary Set-Asides: Require private multi-family developments receiving County regulatory incentives or density bonuses to set aside a mandatory percentage (such as 20%) of units affordable to lower-income workforce households.

Public subsidies should solve our most acute community shortages rather than underwriting developments that our essential workforce cannot afford. Thank you for your service and for ensuring our long-range plan serves all members of our community.