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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 11/07/2013CITY OF FORT COLLINS AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD BOARD MEETING MINUTES 300 Laporte Ave Fort Collins, Colorado November 7, 2013 4:00–6:00p.m. Chair: Dan Byers Staff Liaison: Sue Beck-Ferkiss 970-221-6753 City Council Liaison: Lisa Poppaw Board Members present: Dan Byers, Tatiana Martin, Terence Hoaglund, Jeffrey Johnson, Curt Lyons, Troy Jones Board Members absent: Staff present: Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Social Sustainability Specialist; Dianne Tjalkens, Board Support; Joe Frank, Director of Social Sustainability; Beth Rosen, Affordable Housing Administrator; Mike Gebo, Chief Building Official Council Members present: None Guests: Vanessa Fenley, Chris Kneeland, and Dave Edwards, Homeward 2020; Marilyn Heller, League of Women Voters of Larimer County Meeting called to order by Dan Byers at 4:06pm. AGENDA REVIEW No comment. PUBLIC COMMENT Marilyn Heller said there is a movie playing at the Lyric called Equality for All that is about the disparity between the rich and poor. The League of Women Voters affordable housing group will have a program on the same topic in April. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Curt Lyons moved to approve the October 3, 2013 minutes. Jeffrey Johnson seconded. Approved unanimously, 6-0-0. NEW BUSINESS AGENDA ITEM 1: UPDATE ON HOMEWARD 2020 – VANESSA FENLEY, PROGRAM DIRECTOR WITH CHRIS KNEELAND, AND DAVE EDWARDS, BOARD MEMBERS Vanessa described Homeward 2020 as a community initiative to end homelessness, fundamentally transforming how people experience homelessness: making it rare, short lived, and non-recurring. They are guided by a 10 year plan to end homelessness. That plan is grounded in a housing-first approach, as opposed to housing ready. Housing ready means doing certain things before getting housing. They flip that to provide housing first, then offering supportive services. Dave talked about university connections being the platform from which Homeward 2020 grew. The University campus, Old Town and the river were the focus. Sister Mary Alice Murphy said the homeless need to be addressed in a systematic way and not just displaced. Some of the group began to work on this and became Homeward 2020. It is a collaborative community based initiative, not a service provider. They have one employee, Vanessa, who works for the board. Funding is public and private, and it is a joint effort. United Way, Touchstone, FCHA, and Bohemian Foundation are represented on the board, as well as community members. Their authority to work on homelessness comes from the community. Their role is to be a catalyst. There are over 140 agencies that touch the topic of homelessness, but in spite of resources and efforts, there is no system. They want to bring a systematic approach with priorities. Their first priority is the chronic homeless, as opposed to the recently homeless. Homeward 2020 can quantify and measure progress with chronic homeless by getting them into supportive permanent housing. They have an annual event, Project Homeless Connect, that highlights seriousness of homelessness and provides services to homeless people. It raises awareness as well and has consistently grown over the last 3 years. They have also been using consultants to systematically look at the 140 agencies and the flow of services. Chris added that they have connected with other organizations that have 10 year plans. There are now over 300 cities that have 10 year plans. The biggest thing they are getting is being able to take the time to research best practices and find out what is working in other communities, and bring those to Fort Collins. They can access resources, like the National Alliance to End Homelessness that helped with the annual event. On one of the days they had a game using pennies that showed the cost of homeless persons ricocheting from agency to agency. Traditionally Fort Collins has done a good job of managing homelessness, but Homeward 2020 is working to end homelessness. Their plan for the coming year is to continue advocacy for Redtail Ponds and any other housing-first programs. Primarily they have worked with FCHA, the agency that submitted the grant for Redtail Ponds. They want to continue to advocate for local landlords, private sector, and expand to end homelessness. They are getting involved with the legislature next year. When it makes sense, they can be a convener and touch-point for local agencies. The other focus is data. It has been a struggle for agencies to collect data. The 10 year plan is data driven. They have done a point-in-time process the last few years to collect data. The data will help identify who is most vulnerable and to make sure those are the first to get services. The second is to see what kinds of support services work. One finding is that if homeless people had to leave their communities to be housed, they were more likely to return to homelessness. They have also found people have mental health needs. If they are not addressed, they are more likely to end up back on the street. Dave said they would like to be a “value add” to the agencies that serve the homeless and add a systematic approach using good data. It can transform how we are able to house and serve a population we know is vulnerable. If someone becomes homeless, they can be rapidly re-housed and treat the issues that led to being homeless. Stable housing with supportive services is a key solution. Managing the problem doesn’t solve it. Discussion/Q & A: • Troy said one of the issues that come up is alcoholism and/or addiction. That isn’t conducive to finding them a place to live if they are intoxicated. Is part of the mission to overcome that? • Chris said the 10 year plan is not judgmental. In the field, it has been that you have to overcome your addiction first. Now they have learned that if people are trying to overcome addictions they need support, education, skills training, childcare, mental health care, etc. There is a group working on dual diagnosis who has categorized into wet, damp and dry. The CDTE says that all those groups need different kinds of support. • Vanessa added that permanent supportive housing focuses on the lease and not damaging the place, bothering the neighbors, etc. This allows a clear line of what will break the lease. They have supportive services on site and the case managers and staff can see if people are stabilizing, or falling back into dangerous behaviors that may affect their leases. • Dave added that if someone is living on the street in survival mode it is very difficult to deal with the other issues they may have. If they feel comfortable and safe through the night, they are more affective at dealing with those issues. • Vanessa said we struggle with mental health and substance abuse services in this community. • Dave said Homeward 2020 is trying to approach the issues differently than in Denver; Diane Jones and Joe Frank of the City sit on the board. So, it doesn’t feel the ebb and flow of changing elected officials. • Chris added that they also have homeless and former homeless on the board. • Dan said that this board supports what Homeward 2020 is doing and invited the speakers to provide additional information to the AHB as it comes up. AGENDA ITEM 2: BUILDING CODES UPDATE – MIKE GEBO, CHIEF BUILDING OFFICIAL Mike provided a handout and discussed new building codes. City Council is very interested in staying up to date with national construction standards. There are five codes they are bringing forward soon (see handout). The residential for the IRC is a stand-alone, self-contained document that contains electric and plumbing. The green code amendments that came along in 2012, like reducing water consumption and electric use, were a mid-cycle adoption. They are carrying forward all of those local amendments. The codes are reviewed by a committee of local volunteers. They evaluate the local amendments and changes. They make recommendations on code adoptions. There is always a cost increase with code adoption. At what point does it become too costly is the question that Council needs to look at. The key issue is that in the residential code there is the 2009 addition that required fire sprinkler systems for single family duplexes, townhomes, etc. Multifamily homes have been sprinkled for a few years now. P2904 is a combination system of potable water and sprinkler system. The state has determined it is part of the plumbing system and can be installed by plumbers. It has been used in some multifamily homes, so they have experience with it. It is a very sustainable system. The sprinkler begins to tamp down the fire within a minute, whereas the fire department takes about 8 minutes to arrive. There are about 3000 lives lost in residential fires in the U.S. each year, but none lost in homes with sprinkler systems. The most common fire source is the kitchen, second is bedroom. Average loss without a sprinkler is $11,000, with is only $1000. There is also a significant reduction in the amount of water used by the sprinkler system as opposed to the fire department. For a standard size single family home it will cost about $4000-5000 dollars. The committee has proposed to delay implementation to mid-summer and require it for townhomes and duplexes before single family residences, because those residences are connected to neighbors over which the owners have no control. Mike talked about vinyl siding being a dangerous material because the vinyl burns easily and moves the fire from external to inside the soffits and attic. They are proposing increasing fire suppression in multifamily to include the attic and eliminate vinyl siding throughout the city. Mike has been to many different boards and commissions and has had very good support for the proposals brought to Council in the Work Session. The building codes prior to the international series were concerned with containing fire, rather than putting it out. The 2012 codes want to focus on suppressing the fire at the source. There is much less loss with suppression. If you don’t suppress fires, you need more fire resistant construction, which also increases building costs. Discussion/Q & A: • Dan asked when this would be adopted into single family homes. • Mike said it is a progression adoption. He thinks it will be looked at again in 2015/2016. With duplex and townhome construction they will use the P2904 system, which will give plumbers experience with the system and drive down costs. • Tatiana asked about the breakdown shown in the handout. Mike clarified that the single family home will be the most expensive, but Council is not asking them to proceed with single family homes at this time. • Terence asked how these systems do with non-heated attics. • Mike said it is considered plumbing and cannot be installed where it is subject to freezing, such as the attic. You’ll have to do interior walls with wall heads. In multifamily with sprinkling in the attic, it will be a separate system that uses air pressure or uses an antifreeze system. • Terence said the buyers of duplexes are going to have issues with aesthetics of wall sprinklers. • Tatiana said she investigated online and they are almost invisible. • Curt asked about how it will work without using the attic. Mike said the top floor will have wall heads, and the system will run through the walls. • Jeffrey asked about existing duplexes. Mike said it is not going to be an addition to existing housing. It is for brand new construction only. Jeffrey asked if you could ever lose the grandfathering in. Mike said only if you are starting over completely. • Curt asked if you build a granny flat and make a duplex, would you have to sprinkle. Mike said no, only if you build from the ground up. Nothing for existing buildings. • Dan asked if there were any projects in the pipeline that are affected by the vinyl siding changes. Mike said there could be, but the cost difference is not significant. • Dan asked what kind of siding Provincetowne used. Mike said fiberboard is used there. • Troy asked if eliminating the vinyl siding would eliminate the need for attic sprinkling. Mike gave an example of a building that was burned by the embers of a fire next door landing in on the roof and entering the attic. • Jeffrey asked if there was any way to offset the cost increase. He said if you are adding $4000 to $5000 per unit, can you use capital expansion fees to bring the costs down? • Mike said he is not sure how to reduce fees to offset costs. There has been some discussion about when we develop new single family homes with sprinklers, could costs be offset by installing fewer hydrants, or sending fewer trucks when there is a fire. • Jeffrey said if affordability is desired and higher density is desired, there should be a way to give infill development a break on the fees. Mike said it was presented to Council that the biggest concern is cost. • Joe Frank said that Council will be looking at development fees. Theoretically the infrastructure is already there, so the fees ought to be different for infill. There will be a study done on this. • Mike said this is the direction jurisdictions are going in in Colorado. It is a progression in code. • Jeffrey said we all recognize it costs money and we will be growing in. When it becomes too costly, you drive people out. • Troy said from the AHB recommendation standpoint, if an affordable housing developer was going to build a new development, what would the cost be? • Mike said it would be about $1000 per unit increase in a multifamily home, but more for duplexes and townhomes. • Jeffrey asked how you begin a conversation about fees and codes. Mike said it is unrelated to his process, but not wrong for him to participate in that discussion. He can show how each code cycle increases cost. • Terence asked how other code changes will impact costs. • Mike said the cost to sprinkle a single family home is about $5000. With all codes across the board the total is about $8000. • The board agreed to discuss this issue further before making a recommendation to Council regarding the new building codes. • Jeffrey asked how you encourage interdepartmental discussion about offsetting the costs of building with these new codes. If the buildings are more sustainable, where can there be a cost decrease? • Joe said to go through the Council liaison. It can be a comment on the building codes that Council should look at cost offsetting measures. • Sue said it could be in the recommendation or through a memo. Sue agreed to draft a memo to Council and have it ready for the board to discuss at the next meeting. OLD BUSINESS 2014 WORK PLAN Discussion/Q & A: • This was discussed in last month’s meeting. Sue drafted the changes. • Curt sent an email to the board with edits. Sue addressed his edits. Curt talked about using the triple bottom line and using that framework to discuss AMI. • Sue said the board could use a retreat early next year to talk about the projects, issues and theories that the board members want pushed forward. • Dan said the work plan is designed to be more general and encompassing. • Curt clarified that the items in his email are things he would like to see discussed in 2014. • Troy asked about number 10 with proposed inclusionary housing study. • Sue said we just got approval to start the study in January. The consultants are beginning this process and the board will be asked to participate. Sue said is can be an impact fee, zoning, etc. The study looks at the needs of the community. Incentives alone are not stimulating the kind of development we need. It will most likely take a lot of different strategies to get the housing we need. Zoning is difficult, especially because of the rental market and Telluride case. • Jeffrey said a fee is probably easier to pass than zoning. • Curt said the argument against fees is that it is charging people who aren’t there yet, who don’t have a voice in the matter. • Sue said the board will be receiving an invitation to the GAP Analysis event to give input. • Sue said the board may not be able to have an official liaison to the Housing Authority. The board agreed that it does not need an official liaison to FCHA. • Sue said AHB could have a liaison to the Human Relations Commission. Joe clarified that they work on similar issues to the AHB. Troy agreed to be the Human Relations Commission liaison. Tatiana moved to accept the 2014 Work Plan. Curt seconded. Accepted unanimously, 7-0-0. LAND BANK DISCUSSION – JOE FRANK Joe Frank said the community got invited to a HUD leadership on affordable housing in 2000. It was a training and retreat with professional assistance from HUD. About 10 communities participated. Joe attended with FCHA, N2N, and other City staff. The area selected as an area of focus was available affordable land for affordable housing projects. At that time they there was double digit growth and prices were increasing and there was concern that there could be no property left. Land Bank was born as a long-term approach. They worked with developers to determine ideal acreage, at 5 acres/60 units. They came up with a goal of how many units and a budget to secure a certain number of acres. The concept was to purchase in areas ahead of development that could be secured at a low price. Over time the area around would be developed and a lot of the infrastructure would be in place before the land bank property would be developed. There was a goal of about $100,000 per acre to spend. Whenever opportunities arose, there was a realtor on contract to identify properties. They purchased five properties, about 60 acres total. They figured the development would be multifamily with 10-11 units per acre. They would also go after CDBG money to prepare the land for development, to make the cost of development lower. This was a long term investment, but based on the growth at the time of purchase, they expected this to happen faster. Not a lot of money has been put into those parcels since purchase. However, these are becoming more infill properties. Four of the properties have homes on them and we are receiving rental income from them. The biggest property is agricultural land near Provincetowne and it has been leased out. It has been a sustainable financial investment for the City. Sue added that if properties do sell, the plan is to reinvest. Joe clarified that the idea was to hold them until scarcity and high cost were there, and sell to affordable housing developers at slightly below market value. The point was to have available property with lower cost development because of the infrastructure developed by other surrounding properties. They have been able to negotiate right of ways, roads built, water lines, etc. After 9/11 Land Bank funding went away from the general fund, property values were depressed. A study was done in 2010 to determine if the properties were ready for sale. The recommendation form the real estate people was to hold the properties. Discussion/Q & A: • Dan asked if the City has been approached to purchase any of these properties. • Joes said they have had inquiries but not because land was not available, but because it seemed easier. The City is not a realtor. The growth rate now is at less than 2% per year. With current projections we will see land scarcity in the next planning period (25 years). But we will see more growth in infill and redevelopment. • Sue asked about the vacant parcels update. Are the same numbers of parcels available? • Joe said we have adequate land for the next 25 years. After that we will need to examine what we want to look like. • Terence said that much of the available land has structural issues. • Joe added than Anheuser-Busch will have to free up some land. • Terence questions the 25 years. Joe said that is part of planning. For example there is a capacity constraint at Vine Drive. • Beth said she thinks about the Redtail Ponds and how they had 3 different plots of land that they analyzed. She appreciates keeping that land until affordable housing developers have no options left. • Joe added that we have tools going on to help affordable housing developers get land. • Beth said we have about a million into Redtail Ponds. • Joe mentioned that Care Housing is sitting on Provincetowne 2. The land is attractive to them because it belongs to the City. • Troy asked if there was interest in acquiring more land. • Joe said it is expensive and Council is not currently interested. • Troy asked if a more appropriate parcel was available, would it be considered to sell one to purchase another. • Joe said it would not be for profit, but we might trade a property. However, we never have. • Troy asked if from a planning standpoint in 15 years a certain property would be better to have, would we sell one that is ready to go. • Joe said we have a fixed growth management boundary that protects the foothills, Kathy Fromme prairie, easements by Anheuser-Busch, Laporte; there aren’t many easy properties left. And we haven’t seen any great deals yet. • Sue said that we wouldn’t sell for what we purchased it for, but 10% below fair market value and reinvest. • Curt said but there wouldn’t be any property to buy then. • Joe said he wasn’t sure. • Sue said that the AHB will be viewing the properties in the December meeting and will generate discussion. • Joe added that for some of the properties we have entertained interim uses, such as community gardens. But right now we are generating income from rents. • Sue said there is $200,000 in the fund right now. • Joe said he wondered if that could be used to enhance the infrastructure to make these properties more ready. • Dan asked that if any of the Land Bank properties are near affordable housing projects that we view those as well in the December meeting’s Land Bank Tour. REDTAIL PONDS ADVOCACY Sue said the Planning and Zoning meeting on November 21 has been moved to 5:00pm and they are encouraging as many board and commission members to come as can who will be willing to speak up in favor of the project. Discussion/Q & A: • Tatiana agreed to attend. • Curt asked if the main argument against the development is NIMBY. • Sue said yes, but there are some who don’t like the design. • Beth added that the project needs a variance for a parking lot that requires the P&Z process. This could hold the project back. • Sue will send a reminder to the AHB regarding the P& Z meeting so members can attend. OTHER BUSINESS OPEN BOARD DISCUSSION • Dan reminded the board to stay on top of the mall agreement. The mall has received TIF and there may be an opportunity to improve affordable housing through this process. • Curt asked about inclusionary housing. • Sue said it is zoning. An example is to build one affordable unit per 10 others, or pay a fee. Inclusionary zoning is geared toward home ownership, but she thinks the study will show that we need more rental units. • Beth said housing is relatively affordable for those making AMI. If you compare to Boulder, their indexes are higher. She prefers the idea of an impact fee that brings revenue that can be funneled to the highest need. The mall will bring service sector jobs and those employees will need affordable rental housing. Beth said we need to determine the best strategy. • Sue added that the GAP Analysis meeting will provide another opportunity to discuss housing needs. She said we have never again done what we did at Provincetowne. • Troy said the assumption was that home values were going up and the units would be more affordable than others, but that didn’t happen. • Sue said we are getting some traction in resolving issues at Provincetowne and the units are selling at reasonable prices. We aren’t coming down on them when the market is low. • Troy asked about onboarding of new members. • Sue said there are enough applicants and she will check in on when they will be ready to begin. There will be two new members. Once everyone is in place, the AHB can schedule a retreat. • Tatiana added that Council does not want minutes with recommendations, but a bullet point list. LIASON REPORTS • Curt said P& Z Terra Vida request is going through. There will be 276 apartments with no idea of cost/affordability. He also mentioned 137 single family homes with request for annexation. Old Town Flats will have a 94 unit apartment complex. He is skeptical they will be affordable. • Sue added that Terra Vida is market rate. • Troy said that even if not affordable, it increases the competition and frees up some units. – Meeting adjourned at 6:13pm by Chair Dan Byers. – The next meeting of the Affordable Housing Board is scheduled for: December 5 at 2:00PM Participants will meet at: Fort Collins City Hall Council Information Center 300 Laporte Ave Land Bank Property Tour will take place 2:00-4:00pm, The board will conduct a meeting/debrief in the CIC, 4:00-5:00pm.