[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 24, Volume 4]
[Revised as of April 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 24CFR941.202]

[Page 370-371]
 
                 TITLE 24--HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
 
CHAPTER IX--OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING, 
 
PART 941_PUBLIC HOUSING DEVELOPMENT--Table of Contents
 
           Subpart B_PHA Eligibility and Program Requirements
 
Sec.  941.202  Site and neighborhood standards.

    Proposed sites for public housing projects to be newly constructed 
or rehabilitated must be approved by the field office as meeting the 
following standards:
    (a) The site must be adequate in size, exposure and contour to 
accommodate the number and type of units proposed, and adequate 
utilities (e.g., water,

[[Page 371]]

sewer, gas and electricity) and streets must be available to service the 
site.
    (b) The site and neighborhood must be suitable from the standpoint 
of facilitating and furthering full compliance with the applicable 
provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VIII of 
the Civil Rights Act of 1968, E.O. 11063, and HUD regulations issued 
pursuant thereto.
    (c)(1)The site for new construction projects must not be located in:
    (i) An area of minority concentration unless (A) sufficient, 
comparable opportunities exist for housing for minority families, in the 
income range to be served by the proposed project, outside areas of 
minority concentration, or (B) the project is necessary to meet 
overriding housing needs which cannot otherwise feasibly be met in that 
housing market area. An ``overriding need'' may not serve as the basis 
for determining that a site is acceptable if the only reason the need 
cannot otherwise feasibly be met is that discrimination on the basis of 
race, color, religion, creed, sex, or national origin renders sites 
outside areas of minority concentration unavailable; or
    (ii) A racially mixed area if the project will cause a significant 
increase in the proportion of minority to non-minority residents in the 
area.
    (2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this paragraph (c), 
public housing units constructed after demolition of public housing 
units may be built on the original public housing site, or in the same 
neighborhood, if one of the following criteria is satisfied:
    (i) The number of public housing units being constructed is no more 
than 50 percent of the number of units in the original project;
    (ii) In the case of replacement of a currently occupied project, the 
number of public housing units being constructed is the minimum number 
needed to house current residents who want to remain at the site; or
    (iii) The public housing units being constructed constitute no more 
than twenty-five units.
    (d) The site must promote greater choice of housing opportunities 
and avoid undue concentration of assisted persons in areas containing a 
high proportion of low-income persons.
    (e) The site must be free from adverse environmental conditions, 
natural or manmade, such as instability, flooding, septic tank back-ups, 
sewage hazards or mudslides; harmful air pollution, smoke or dust; 
excessive noise vibration, vehicular traffic, rodent or vermin 
infestation; or fire hazards. The neighborhood must not be one which is 
seriously detrimental to family life or in which substandard dwellings 
or other undesirable elements predominate, unless there is actively in 
progress a concerted program to remedy the undesirable conditions.
    (f) The site must comply with any applicable conditions in the local 
plan approved by HUD.
    (g) The housing must be accessible to social, recreational, 
educational, commercial, and health facilities and services, and other 
municipal facilities and services that are at least equivalent to those 
typically found in neighborhoods consisting largely of similar 
unassisted standard housing.
    (h) Travel time and cost via public transportation or private 
automobile, from the neighborhood to places of employment providing a 
range of jobs for low-income workers, must not be excessive. (While it 
is important that elderly housing not be totally isolated from 
employment opportunities, this requirement need not be adhered to 
rigidly for such projects.)
    (i) The project may not be built on a site that has occupants unless 
the relocation requirements referred to in Sec.  941.207 are met.
    (j) The project may not be built in an area that has been identified 
by HUD as having special flood hazards and in which the sale of flood 
insurance has been made available under the National Flood Insurance Act 
of 1968, unless the project is covered by flood insurance as required by 
the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, and it meets any relevant HUD 
standards and local requirements.

[45 FR 60838, Sept. 12, 1980. Redesignated at 49 FR 6714, Feb. 23, 1984, 
as amended at 61 FR 38017, July 22, 1996]