A strategy to increase the number of affordable homes in Lawrence began to emerge this morning from a city-appointed task force.

The city’s Housing Needs Task Force tentatively agreed to recommend that city commissioners create a program that would create new incentives for developers – perhaps everything from waiving city fees to allowing new neighborhoods to be built more densely than normally allowed – if they guarantee that a certain percentage of homes in a new development would be part of an official affordable housing program.

The key point that task force members reached today, however, is that the program would be voluntary for developers to participate in rather than mandatory. The task force previously had been discussing a zoning change that would have required developers of certain size projects to set aside a certain number of homes for an affordable housing program.

“My opinion is that this incentives-based approach will work,” said Bill Yanek, a task force member who does lobbying work for the Lawrence Board of Realtors. “In a sense, it is about us putting our money where our mouth is. If this doesn’t create new affordable housing, the housing industry will have to answer to that.”

City Commissioner Boog Highberger, who chairs the task force, said he thought the incentives-based approach would be worth trying for a one-year period. If it did not produce results, he said discussions could begin to make the program mandatory.

Details of the program still need to be developed, such as specifically at what price a home is considered affordable. The task force has long said that the goal should be for people who work in Lawrence to be able to afford to live in Lawrence.

Another recommendation, in addition to the incentives program, that the group is moving towards is the creation of annual funding sources that would provide at least $500,000 per year for a city housing trust fund that could invest in affordable housing projects.

The group has expressed interest in getting legislative approval to increase the amount of mortgage registration tax that is charged in the county each time someone takes out a mortgage on a home. But the group also said it wanted to look for other funding sources that do not totally rely on homeowners.

Any recommendations by the task force would have to be approved by the City Commission. Highberger said he hoped to have a formal report ready for City Commission review in either January or February.