Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 08/03/20000 CITY OF FORT COLLINS AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD MEETING MINUTES August 3, 2000 Bob Browning, Chair (970) 225-0137 Kay Rios, Vice Chair Ken Waido, Staff Liaison (970) 221-6753 Chuck Wanner, City Council Liaison (970) 484-0810 The meeting of the Affordable Housing Board was called to order by Bob Browning beginning at 4:00 p.m., at 281 North College Avenue, Conference Room A, Fort Collins, Colorado. Members present included: Bob Browning, David Danforth, Stacey Overton, Isabel Garity, and Dick Clark. Staff members present: Ken Waido and Maurice Head. Council Liaison Chuck Wanner was not present. Others present: Kimberly Stenberg, Director of Government Affairs for the Home Builders Association of Northern Colorado; Felix Lee, Director of Building and Zoning; Lou Stitzel; and Grace Harris. Open Public Discussion Lou Stitzel expressed appreciation about receiving such thorough information from the Affordable Housing Board via the board meeting minutes. New Business Minutes Stacey Overton moved to accept the minutes. Isabel Garity seconded the motion. The motion carried 5-0. Kimberly Stenberg, Home Builders Association of Northern Colorado Ms. Stenberg provided background information on her role in the Home Builders Association; what HBA does; its affiliations; and the membership requirement of being ethical. She discussed the HBA's perspective and issues with the proposed Contractor Licensing Ordinance. Ms. Stenberg stated that the HBA doesn't support the ordinance as it's currently written but is working closely with Felix Lee. Isabel Garity commented that as a private homeowner she went to the City to get a building permit to extend her family room and had to a sign a notarized statement that she would not hire or have her licensed contractor hire anyone who was not licensed. "It just seems there's a double standard here." Ms. Stenberg said "there's a double standard in the ordinance or maybe some ambiguity in the ordinance. Homeowners can pull their own permit; they don't have to be licensed." Ms. Garity asked what would a home builder new to the area need to know to build affordable housing. Ms. Stenberg Affordable Housing Board August 3, 2000 Meeting Minutes Page 2 replied, 'The first and foremost thing is [they must] understand the local regulatory process. The worst thing that could happen to our industry and especially in the affordable housing sector is for a substandard contractor or laborer to come in and give our industry a bad name." Ms. Garity asked, "What percent of the builders in Fort Collins are construction people that belong to the HBA?" Ms. Stenberg said the HBA has about 120 builder/developer members so that's about 10%. The rest are subs, suppliers and associates like realtors and bankers." Ms. Garity asked if there was "Anything else you would like a new home builder to know regarding affordable housing or anything we could do to help them?" Ms. Stenberg said they should understand the demographics, the market, and details such as the needs of seniors, young families, students, and retail workers' demand for housing. Mr. Browning commented that it looks like there are two issues. (1) A private homeowner that really doesn't know what he or she is doing, but needs quality help and understanding of the requirement to sign a notarized statement. (2) General contractors who must be licensed within the City of Fort Collins to pull a permit in the first place. Mr. Browning didn't know how another layer of legislation was going to help these issues. Rather, it would raise the prices of housing. Ms. Stenberg agreed and said, "Our own industry i s trying to police itself. The contractors ordinance is not the way to address it." Ms. Garity asked, "Have your contractors or your members run into any stumbling blocks that are preventing them from doing affordable housing?" Ms. Stenberg said that the market is the stumbling block. The cost of regulations and the increasing cost of land and water are stumbling blocks. Ms. Stenberg suggested an alternative she had heard about, such as employers providing employees with down payment assistance to get into homeownership. Mr. Browning said that the Board needed to make a recommendation to Council as to what to do with the contractor license issue. Mr. Browning discussed the red tagging issue the Board had discussed with Mr. Lee at last month's board meeting and how this issue should be handled with contractors who cut numerous comers. "We should not raise the price of housing in this town and throw another layer of bureaucracy into it. Ms. Stenberg responded that the HBA is "extremely supportive of any project being shut down because [of shoddy workmanship]." Mr. Browning said, "If the intent of the ordinance is to go ahead and insure workman's comp then I don't believe it's a building official problem. So we've got to come up with some way to at least make our thoughts known to the Council on this." Ms. Stenberg supported Mr. Lee's notion of red tagging more projects if the contractor deserved the red tag. There is an aspect in here when you talk about the affordability. Mr. Lee had extended the licensing time and the cost went up a little bit but that's so insignificant to the matter. If some contractor was complaining about paying a $200 licensing fee then that's peanuts in this bigger issue of regulation and over -regulation." Mr. Browning said, "Don't get this crew started on it's only $200." Ms. Stenberg agreed. Affordable Housing Board • • August 3, 2000 Meeting Minutes Page 3 Mr. Browning continued, "That's something that nickels and dimes the fees to double the value of the house." Mr. Browning asked if the level down [from generals] licensing was accomplishing something. Ms. Stenberg said, "No this is different. This is just amending it and extending the license. Right now we're paying $125." Mr. Lee said, "Right now the annual license fees for generals is $125. We're suggesting it go to $200. Yes, there are now requireme nts for supervisors to be certified. We will extend that not just to general contractors, but also to specialty licenses: HVAC, etc. I think most of the committee supports that. One of the things I added after our last meeting with this Board, is when a violation of a license is failing excessively and repeatedly to pass inspection required by the license holder. Mr. Clark asked, "When a general contractor gets a job, does it have to be his supervisor that's on the job site? Or the supervisor from some [sub]contractor that's below him on the job site? If you've got a general contractor that gets his permit for this job, the supervisor is supposed to be on the job site" Mr. Lee answered that "the way the ordinance reads, the general contractor (if they're signing their name on the permit) must be the supervisor on the job site. Now if he's subbing out to another contractor currently that's illegal if it's somebody else and he's really not on the job. That's currently not allowed." Ms. Overton asked "Who is supervising the roofing contractors then? The general?" Mr. Lee said the general is supervising the roofer. Ms. Overton said, "So the roofing person is not considered a sub?" Mr. Lee replied, "Yes, they are licensed specialists. They have to have a license now because they often work independently, too." 20-Year Affordability Requirement The City has discovered that it's 20-year affordability requirement is not acceptable in the case of foreclosure with lending institutions providing permanent financing to an affordable housing project. Lending institutions will require the City to subordinate its 20- year affordability requirement if there is a foreclosure. This is an industry standard according to HUD, CHFA, and the lending institutions contacted by staff. In all the cases, for example, sale of the project to another entity, prepayment of mortgages and loans, etc., the City's 20-year requirement is maintained. Staff is working on developing some alternatives to be used in the case of a foreclosure, for example, including a first - right -of -refusal provision in the City's contracts, and will report back to the Board. Mr. Waido wanted to brainstorm ideas that might be investigated. Mr. Browning asked staff if they had determined any wiggle room on it. Mr. Waido and Mr. Head said no and offered some details why this is so. Mr. Browning asked if the City did a right of first refusal provision would they make us pay for it? Mr. Waido said the staff didn't know and are looking for alternatives. Dry Creek Mobile Home Park Affordable Housing Board August 3, 2000 Meeting Minutes Page 4 David Danforth detailed his concerns about Dry Creek Mobile Home Park via a hand out (entitled Dry Creek MHP, Impact fees charged for each building permit). He discussed the different categories of permit costs in detail. He wondered if the increase in fees was adversely affecting the fill of the park which should be filling at about 4 per month according to national statistics regarding the way this park is managed and a normal fill rate. Mr. Danforth's second issue regards the new permit fees concerned with the park land. Mr. Danforth then projected and discussed the document 'The Master Plan for the City of Fort Collins Parks and Recreation Policy Plan.' "This puts us into a situation where we're essentially collecting fees for a situation that is indeed hazardous and within a very active area. To ask the children who live in this neighborhood to cross a railroad track to use a park is not correct, in my view." Ms. Garity asked if the park could be build in a safer location. Mr. Danforth didn't know. His concerns are: 1. Are the impact fees adversely effecting the park or not? 2. What is the planned use for these funds the City is collecting? Mr. Danforth believes Dry Creek is not filling well. He counted 87 manufactured housing units in the mobile home park at present. Mr. Danforth said the potential number of sites is about 240." Ms. Overton asked "Who does decide where the parks go?" Mr. Waido explained the process the City undergoes to plan and build parks. Mr. Browning discussed a letter from the fees people the Board received a couple years ago which explained that these fees buy the land when it's ready to go. A park within walking safety wasn't one of the criteria. "I'm not sure that calling it a tax instead of a fee is accurate." Mr. Danforth replied, 'The point is that these people are paying for it and they're not getting it. The concern I have [which] should be brought to the attention of City Council is that if these parks were to be constructed without some sort of mitigation of the possible dangers that exist you're going to get kids going across the railroad tracks on Vine Street and they're going to get hurt." Mr. Waido said it was a concern of the City that was not a good place for residential. He discussed some of the history of the redevelopment of Pioneer Mobile Home Park and how it related to Dry Creek. "The Dry Creek site, while not perfect, was the only one in the ball game. It was the only ball game in town, in fact. With some consternation, the City did approve Dry Creek. Is that your recollection, Lou?" Ms. Stitzel agreed. "The City wasn't willing to give [Dry Creek] credit for developing [their own] park. " Mr. Waido said it is standard procedure if a developer decides to add amenities (recreational) in their project, they still owe the City its park fees. Ms. Stitzel said, "But this is an affordability project, you can't make one size fit all. Definitely affordability requires more flexibility than what you're going to demand of the regular marketplace that people can afford. If the City is really sincere about supporting affordable housing, the flexibility should be there." Affordable Housing Board • • August 3, 2000 Meeting Minutes Page 5 Mr. Danforth said, "(1) I'm going to write a letter to the park people and point this out to them. (2) 1 think this board has enough evidence of safety concerns to ask Council to authorize staff to look into it further and mitigate this one way or another. Either develop a park that's available to these people or act in a way to eliminate the apparent safety hazard. Mr. Browning suggested that Dry Creek might not be filling for the reasons Mr. Danforth presented. He discussed how the City and the Board told the Parsons that the site was hazardous to human inhabitation and why it was so. The Board and the City offered help which was declined. Mr. Danforth reviewed some other details from a previous board meeting saying Dry Creek "had indeed created an affordable housing project that meets these requirements without one lick of subsidy. I would hope that this body would make it a matter of its concern that we find other ways to help keep the site affordable." Ms. Garity asked about Pioneer and the City's responsibility to provide an alternate that's safe and not so noisy. The Board discussed Pioneer Mobile Home Park, it's zoning, and demise. Mr. Browning and Mr. Waido said that the City was not responsible for the demise of Pioneer. Ms. Garity asked why there wasn't a better alternative to the Dry Creek site. Mr. Browning said it was only choice without opposition. Ms. Garity said, "is it better to have something like that or have nothing?" Mr. Browning said Mr. Danforth could gather some more facts. Mr. Danforth believed that the board should request staff to audit the situation. Mr. Browning disagreed because an audit had already been done. Mr. Danforth thought that an audit was the next step. He thought someone would say this was a mistake to put the park there. Mr. Waido will invite the division head of the Parks Planning Department to the next affordable housing meeting to discuss this matter. Amendments to the Affordable Housing Board's By Laws The Board's By Laws need to be updated given the City Council's adoption of new expiration dates of Board member terms (December instead of June) and the impact of extended terms as to when officer elections are conducted. Mr. Waido and Ms. Garity found three changes to discuss. The changes are: (1) Article II section 1; (2) Article II section 2; (3) Article II section 5; and (4) Article III section 6. (1) Article II section 1 should read "the first Thursday of every month" and not the second Thursday. (2) Article II section 2 was discussed between board members. March was settled upon as the month for elections instead of the currently stated month of October. (3) Article II section 5 was discussed primarily by Mr. Browning. After some discussion the change to 50% being a quorum was agreed upon. (4) Article III section 6 will strike the part "Research and Special Projects Division" since there is no such division. Affordable Housing Board August 3, 2000 Meeting Minutes Page 6 Mr. Browning asked for "a motion to change Article II section 1 to reflect the existing meeting date; Article II section 5 to reflect 50% of the current board members; and elections in March [Article II section 2]; and section 6 [Article III] with the elimination of the name." Ms. Garity said, "I so move." Ms. Overton seconded the motion. The motion passed 5-0. Larimer County's T,DU Program - Affordable Housing Exemption The City and Larimer County jointly developed the Fossil Creek Area Plan for the area north of the Fossil Creek Reservoir and west of 1-25. Larimer County also has instituted a Transfer of Development Units (TDU) Program as a method of helping to preserve open space in the "corridor" between Loveland and Fort Collins. Essentially, development within the Fossil Creek area is restricted to existing zoning density and required to be clustered on a portion of land in what is known as the "receiving" area. Increased density, and full development of property within the receiving are only possible by transferring units from properties in the "sending" area, i.e., the desired open space corridor. Larimer County is proposing an amendment to the TDU Program exempting affordable housing projects from the requirement of obtaining additional unit from the sending area. Mr. Danforth asked about the County's definition of affordable housing. Mr. Waido said it's below 80% AMI, spending no more than 30% of income." Old Business Update on the Land Banking Program Mr. Head reported that staff and the Land Banking Committee met with the Land Bank consultants on July 7th. After that meeting the consultants requested information which Mr. Head shared with the Board. This information has assisted the consultant in developing a preliminary site selection criteria as follows: 1. Vacant land designated for either current or future residential use; 2. Parcels located in the urban growth area. 3. Parcels located within 1/4 mile of an elementary school or middle schools. 4. Parcels located within 1/4 mile of a park 5. Parcels located within 1/4 mile of a transit route. Mr. Danforth said, "One question is that we had discussed, for example, the idea of buying individual homes creating easements on those individual homes. That is something that came up at the Interfaith meeting. I believe it was incorporated into the work plan." Mr. Head said the City pared this down to a $20,000 study, so there may be some things on our wish list that we may not be able to do at this point. The study will discuss alternative forms of ownership. The study may not be able to get down to a detailed level of buying and leasing homes for the elderly as the interfaith idea suggests. Affordable Housing Board • • August 3, 2000 Meeting Minutes Page 7 Mr. Browning said the Board was "told that the specific details in the Interfaith proposal were going to go to the consultant because David was very insistent on that. We had a big discussion about it and one that we understood was part of the work to do that." Mr. Head reiterated that the study will not be able to get down to that specific level of detail. Mr. Danforth asked if what is being looked at here is raw land. Mr. Head said yes, "Some of the raw land may have single family homes on it." To which Mr. Danforth responded, "Right." Mr. Waido discussed the questions that need to be answered as a first level. "The reality is at most we're going to have a half million dollars." Mr. Danforth said, "That'll about buy the home." Mr. Waido agreed and said "we'll be lucky to get 20 to 40 acres at the most on this. We won't have a lot of money." Initiative 256 Mr. Waido summarized the key points of Initiative 256, which would require the citizens management of growth. He shared the history behind Initiative 256. Mr. Waido said this is not on the ballot yet, however, "they are collecting the 62,000 minimum signatures required to put it on the ballot. If it makes the ballot, then no City employee may discuss it. Mr. Danforth said The Colorado Association of Realtors does not favor Initiative 256. Update on the Manufactured Housing Market Study Mr. Head reported that there is $10,000 committed from the Enterprise Foundation and $5,000 committed from the Colorado Manufactured Housing Association to do two studies. (1) The Manufactured Housing Study will be done by Kathy McCormick of Boulder. The study is expected to be completed by mid -October. (2) The Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Study is contracted to Pat Leese of Denver. This study will look at the need for migrant seasonal and farmworkers housing in the county and will be completed in December. Both studies are regional in scope, covering Larimer County. The county has some real needs and concerns for the farmworkers housing and therefore, both studies will be done within the budgeted amount. Committee Reports Education and Outreach Committee Report Ms. Garity reported, "The Education Committee is moving to increase education within two areas. One is through public meetings and the second is through the City's web site. The City is completely revamping their web sites. I spoke with Doug Moore to see Affordable Housing Board August 3, 2000 Meeting Minutes Page 8 how we could interface and that doesn't seem to be a problem there at all. In fact, I told him we would like to provide all the new information on the old web site and then when the City gets their plans together — I don't care how they do it with buttons or stuff like that — they'll just re -do our web site. So what we have now is our Education Committee needs to do the final approval of the top and second level menu items and then we'll be ready to go ahead with the web site. I think I have mailed to most of you who expressed an interest in this top level menu." Other Business Ms. Garity moved to adjourn the meeting and Ms. Overton seconded the motion. The motion carried 5-0. Meeting adjourned at 5:42 p.m. Submitted by Tammy Kirch Norton.