Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Board - Minutes - 10/20/2021 ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD (EAB) TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR October 20, 2021 - 4:00 - 6:00 pm via Zoom 10/20/21 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER 4:00 pm. 2. ROLL CALL • List of Board Members Present − Renee Walkup − Braulio Rojas − Ted Settle − Aric Light − George Grossman − Julie Stackhouse − John Parks • List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused; if no contact with Chair has been made − Spencer Clark • List of Staff Members Present − Josh Birks, Director Economic Health and Redevelopment − Sue Beck-Ferkis - Lead Specialist, Social Sustainability • List of Guests − Kevin Jones 3. AGENDA REVIEW • No changes 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION • none 5. APPROVAL OF AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER MINUTES a. As there were no additions or corrections to the August EAB minutes, they were unanimously approved as presented. 7-0-0 b. There were some editorial changes to the September EAB minutes. The amended ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 10/20/21 – MINUTES Page 2 minutes were unanimously approved. 7-0-0 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. 2021 Periodic Review − John, Julie and Ted worked together to prepare the EAB's periodic review document. Because there was no quorum at the September EAB meeting, and to have timely submittal of the document, Josh submitted it last month to the City Clerk's office for board liaison review before submittal to the City Council (Council). However, the Clerk's office did not have record of it being approved by the EAB's Council liaison. In absence of board liaison input, the EAB reviewed and finalized the document at this meeting so they could formally vote to submit its 2021 Periodic Review to Council by the end of October. − Highlights of the Periodic Review document − The key City outcome areas the Economic Advisory Board are aligned with are: Economic Health, Neighborhood Livability, and Environmental Health. − The duties of the Economic Advisory Board are: − Advise Council on matters pertaining to the economic health and sustainability of the City. − Recommend programs and strategies that may enhance the economic health and sustainability of the City. − Be aware of and coordinate with other City boards and commissions whose actions may affect the economic health and sustainability of the City. − Advise Council on existing or proposed policies, practices, or regulations of the City that may affect the local economy. − Perform other such duties and functions as provided by the Council. − Comments and suggestions to Council added to the document: − The EAB would benefit from clearer direction by City Council to help the EAB focus its agenda on items that result in deliverables of value to the Council. − The only current mechanism for the EAB to provide advice to Council on matters pertaining to the economic health and sustainability of the City is through memos, that Council rarely acknowledges. − The EAB's work plan is reasonably aligned with the key outcome ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 10/20/21 – MINUTES Page 3 areas noted. However, the EAB would benefit from focusing its activities more directly on matters that involve the economic health of the City. − The EAB Work Plan would be more impactful if Council advised the EAB on areas requiring attention by the EAB, so they could respond with active, valuable, and timely input to Council. − The EAB would like to engage in an update to the Economic Health Strategic Plan and possibly assist the Economic Health and Redevelopment Department by supporting business engagement as ambassadors on behalf of the City. − In summary, Council has not been responsive to the advice and actions of the EAB. It has not asked the EAB to work on a specific project, rarely reacted to the items on the EAB’s Work Plan, and not given feedback on the EAB's memos to Council. Thus, communications between the EAB and Council are extremely limited and inhibit the EAB’s ability to work on Council Priorities. The EAB would encourage Council to continue to review how it can actively engage with boards and commissions to leverage the time and talent of the various advisory boards. − George moved and Ted seconded a motion to approve the 2021 EAB Periodic Review Document. Motion was passed unanimously 7-0-0. Josh will include the number of memos sent to Council in the last two years and submit the finalized document to Council by the deadline at the end of October. b. 2022 Annual Work Plan − The group was asked to bring 3 ideas of tasks to be in the EAB work plan that is due to be submitted to Council by the end of November. Renee and Arik volunteered to make a first draft for the EAB’s review and adoption. Josh recorded the group's suggestions and will put them on the EAB’s shared Google Doc page. − Arik - suggested the EAB focus on minimum wage, the Housing Strategic Plan and metro districts since they are some of Council's 2022 priorities. − George - suggested participating in the Economic Health Strategic Planand how the City can support main street small businesses. − Ted - suggested they focus on the City's role regionally in the Economic Health Strategic Plan and work more with CSU regarding clusters. John noted that there is a new Impact MBA program at CSU around sustainability ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 10/20/21 – MINUTES Page 4 in business that aligns well with the EAB's focus. That might be a good place to start to recruit someone from CSU to be on the EAB board. As a CSU alum, Arik volunteered to reach out to some CSU professors. − Julie - also suggested to focus on the Economic Strategic Plan, the Housing Strategic Plan, and Land Use Code, and also to outline how the EAB can be specifically engaged. Q - Is the minimum wage an issue that will come forward? A - A consultant will be researching this with findings in mid-2022 and consideration by Council in 2023. − Braulio - suggested to focus on environmental economics and how to create economic growth and preserve value, how Fort Collins' demography might change in the near future, and our role in the regional and international world. − John - would like to focus on local issues like shopping locally, making sure there is no food desert in Fort Collins, and creating local green jobs − Renee - Also suggested supporting local businesses, retention of talent, and Climate Action Goals and Electric Vehicles. c. 2022 City Manager's Recommended Budget − Josh reminded the EAB that they can still make a recommendation to Council about items in the proposed budget, including the Economic Strategic Plan. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Updates: Housing Strategic Plan Implementation and Land Use Code Phase I- Sue Beck-Ferkis − There are 3 strategies in the Housing Strategic Plan (many tied to the land use code) − Quicker wins - are in progress and should take 1 year to accomplish − Transitional wins - There are 8 strategies and should take 2 years to accomplish. Many of them are ongoing work (legislative advocacy, partnership building). The Innovate Fort Collins budget offer will tie together climate and housing. However, the Water Resources Study has been paused until next year. − Transformational work - Will take many years to accomplish − There will be four public outreach Land Use Code informational sessions in October to discuss: Demographic and housing trends, Planning 101, Housing Capacity, and Housing Choice. They will be recorded and accessible by the public on the City's website: https://www.fcgov.com/housing/lucupdates. ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 10/20/21 – MINUTES Page 5 − Julie - She attended several of these sessions and had several comments. − She thought the sessions were educational and worthwhile. − However, she understood that, at the current growth rate, Fort Collins will be short of housing for residents if all the land in the growth management area is fully developed by 2040, as forecast. Housing prices will remain an issue and will get worse. Housing will not only become less available but more expensive for developers. − She felt the most viable option going forward for the land use plans are a hard look at accessory dwelling units and higher rise units to accommodate more people. − Also, there was some discussion about the Neighbor to Neighbor Home Share program which matches people with extra bedrooms with those who need a space to live. − The timeline for revising the Land Use Code is from September/October 2021 to a February-March 2022 adoption by Council. The steps will determine what we want the code to be, what the issues are, and what changes will we make Proposed changes will then be drafted and presented to Council. We are currently in Phase 1: Explore. − There are many ways for the public to get involved in this project including attending the informational workshops, share pictures of you what think housing should look like, and sign up for email newsletters. − The revised Land Use Code will be building on a previous audit that had 5 theme recommendations − Align zoning districts and uses with structure plan place types for a bigger range of housing options. − Create more opportunities for a range of housing options − Clarify and simplify development standards − Enhance the Development Review procedures − Create a more user-friendly document. − The guiding principles of this work are: − Increase overall housing inventory − Enable more affordability, especially for low wage earners. − Allow for more diverse housing choices ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 10/20/21 – MINUTES Page 6 − Make the Land Use Code easier to use and understand − Improve predictability of the development permit review process − Create an equitable code − There is construction underway for some new affordable projects − Volunteers of America - 55 rental homes for age-restricted senior housing − Housing Catalyst - 79 Low-Income Housing Tax Credit rental homes downtown − Habitat for Humanity - 48 for-sale homes − Kechter Townhomes - 54 affordable townhomes − Northfield Affordable Housing - 84 affordable rental homes − There are also several other projects in pre-development, including on church and business properties. To make these projects more affordable, subsidies are being put in on the front end such as developers taking reduced fees, and some land is being drastically reduced in price. − Next Steps − Input sessions in October − Council Work Sessions - October 26 to discuss Occupancy and Rental Programming (1/2 of Fort Collins' population currently live in rental properties) and November 9 to discuss the Building Code Phase 1 and Building Code update. − Mid-November - finalize the Equity and Opportunity Assessment memo − December 1 - Council Finance − Early 2022 - Engagement Occupancy and rental programming, draft Land Use Code and Council adoption of Land Use Code, Phase 1 − Discussion − Julie commented that it is difficult for people to qualify for the subsidized housing. A - Rental projects and home ownership projects do have very different funding criteria. − George - Q - Regarding how the Housing Strategic Plan intertwines with the Land Use Code, he wonders why the City is approving commercial development of good available land that could be better used as housing. A - When land is not owned by the City, the City can only be responsive to its use through zoning. The Land Use Code is looking at the current zoning to see if it needs to be altered to address this issue, but it is difficult for the City to mandate use on some properties. ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 10/20/21 – MINUTES Page 7 − George - Is concerned that CSU wants to increase its number of students, but is not using its own land at Hughes Stadium to house them and, as a result, students are taking up housing units from the City's inventory. − John - Q - How can you guarantee that the building of affordable homes in the Kechter project will stay affordable? A - The subsidies are included at the beginning. The City will sell the land to the construction partnership. The partnership will sell the land and homes to the community land trust. The community land trust will maintain ownership of the land and only sell the house itself. Future house sales will have an appreciation split to keep the price low for the next buyer. − John - Q - Do you work with the Planning and Zoning Commission in these projects? A - Yes, we work closely with them on these projects. − Braulio - Q - What is AMI? A - AMI is Area Median Income, but there are several ways to calculate it. The City uses what HUD uses: Area Median Income By Household Size. − Braulio - Q - The un-affordability of housing in the economy should be seen like unemployment. We will never be able to fully solve it. It is good that the City is investigating this to provide a good picture of where the un-affordability is and try to keep it in balance. A - It is becoming harder and harder to afford housing because it currently takes 6x a family's income to afford a house, instead of a generation ago when it was 2x a family's income. − Braulio - Affordable housing seems to be a market failure. Because we don't have enough land, the City is not an active part of the seller/buyer equation. Stakeholders are also in a dilemma wanting more free land, but not having enough land for affordable housing. I would hope your project will lead to some compromise. − Braulio - Q - Many people are moving here because of the lifestyle of Fort Collins and its open spaces. Is the City's future planning to have more tall buildings to house these people? A - Yes. The planners are looking to the future and trying plan where it makes sense to build them like along transit lines. − Ted - Q - What kind of surprises have you encountered during this process? A - We have encountered more hiccups than surprises such as having to pause the water study. A good thing is that the state, the county and the City have their interests aligned here. We have an opportunity to use American Rescue Plan Act dollars to leverage that alignment to get progress done much quicker. We are optimistic about this. − Renee - Q - I understand there is a project at College and Trilby where the home owner purchases the home, but doesn't own the land. Do they pay a lease on the ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 10/20/21 – MINUTES Page 8 land and is it rolled into their mortgage? A - It is called "divided asset ownership", which is the standard for mobile home communities. The mission here is that at least 15% of that community will be affordable. This means that no matter what the home sells for, the land lease will have to combine with that to stay affordable. This project will have a private company own the land and not a mission-aligned non- profit. Typically, the mortgage and land rental are separate. The City is interested in converting mobile homes to co-ops because land owners are routinely raising the land rental. − Renee - Q - Will the City approve tiny homes? A - The City is looking at incorporating them into our codes, but they do not meet the standards for HUD housing. − Julie - Q - After this process is done, and to help educate the public on how complicated this issue is, could we see a summary of the economic reality of housing in Fort Collins, including the limited availability of land, the cost of construction, and other realities of expected growth and approval processes? A - The over 100-page Housing Strategic Plan does outline challenges and proposed solutions. However, we are trying to create a more understandable document. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS 9. OTHER BUSINESS a. According to the rules of the EAB, Spencer Clark will be removed from the board for excessive unexcused non-attendance, leaving a vacancy on the board. b. 6-month Calendar review c. Agenda planning 10. ADJOURNMENT 6:00 pm.