Joe Guillen

Detroit Free Press

A proposed ordinance that could require developers to set aside up to 20% of the units as affordable housing in new residential developments in Detroit is among the topics the City Council is expected to take up when it returns to work Tuesday after a summer recess.

Councilwoman Mary Sheffield said her office will be working on an affordable housing ordinance, which aims to help longtime Detroiters remain in the neighborhoods where new developments increasingly are being built.

As it is now, Mayor Mike Duggan's administration typically requires developments involving tax breaks to designate 20% of new units as affordable — meaning rent is set aside for residents who earn 80% of the city's average median income, which equates to about $38,000.

►Related:Competing ballot measures give Detroiters more say in development

Sheffield, who serves on the council's planning and economic development committee, said her ordinance could require a range of incomes to qualify for affordable housing. One possibility would require the following set-asides: 10% of units for those earning 80% of average median income; 5% for those earning 60% of the average median income; and another 5% for people earning 50% of the average median income.

Sheffield said she also wants the new law to include a provision requiring verification of tenants' income to make sure the units classified as affordable are going to qualified residents.

"That defeats the point of having affordable units if they're not going to the group that we're intending to," she said.

The affordable housing ordinance is just one of many issues the nine-member council will tackle this fall before the holidays.

President Pro Tem George Cushingberry Jr., the council's second-ranking member, said he is going to call for an audit of the city's personal service contracts — deals the city makes with individual consultants that can last years.

Cushingberry, who chairs the council's budget committee, said he is focused on keeping the city within its budget so Detroit can exit state oversight when the fiscal year ends June 30.

Last month, the Free Press detailed the compensation of human resources consultant Larry A. King, who made $692,399 in salary and expenses between April 15, 2014, and July 7, 2016. The expenses included 69 round-trip flights and 226 hotel nights in Detroit.

Cushingberry also plans to work on rewriting the city's taxicab ordinance to help cab drivers compete with companies such as Uber. "We want them to have a level playing field," he said.

While the council could loosen regulations for taxicabs, one council member wants to put some restrictions on the planned expansion of a hazardous waste processing facility on the east side.

The U.S. Ecology plant at 6520 Georgia Street, near the Hamtramck-Detroit border, is set to increase its storage capabilities tenfold.

Councilman Scott Benson, whose district includes the plant site, said his office is working on an agreement to set parameters of the plant's operations. The agreement would address residents' concerns about environmental impacts, truck traffic and other effects.

"My office has been fighting the expansion of that facility," Benson said. "I stand solidly with my residents and the City of Detroit on this issue."

Contact Joe Guillen: 313-222-6678 or jguillen@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joeguillen.