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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 07/07/2005CITY OF FORT COLLINS AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD MEETING MINUTES 281 N. College Ave. Fort Collins, Colorado July 7, 2005 Kay Rios, Chair Denise Rogers, Vice Chair Ken Waido, Staff Liaison, 970-221-6753 Kurt Kastein, City Council Liaison, 970-223-0425 Board Members Present: Jon Fairchild, Michelle Jacobs, Joe Hebert, Joe Rowan, Peter Tippett, and Kevin Brinkman. Kay Rios and Denise Rogers were excused. Advance Planning Staff Present: Maurice Head, Clark Mapes and Ken Waido. Council Members Present: None Guests: Mark Beck, Chair, Commission on Disability; Dana McBride, Homebuilders Association; Glen Schlueter, Stormwater Utility; Felix Lee, Building and Zoning Director; Tess Heffernan, Policy and Project Manager, City Manager's Office. Acting Chair Jon Fairchild called the meeting to order with a quorum present at 4:05 p.m. There were no comments from the public. New Business Minutes Jon Fairchild moved to accept the June 9, 2005 minutes as submitted; Michelle Jacobs seconded, motion carried unanimously. Conflicting City Policies and/or Regulations and Impacts on Affordable Housing Programs (e.g., Practical Housing for All) Ken Waido began with a summary of the previous meeting's discussion. One issue presented was the difficulty in building ADA accessible ramps given the space restrictions between sidewalk and house on narrower lots. The question raised was whether there were City regulations further exacerbating the problem, for example, Stormwater drainage slope requirements. Glen Schlueter from Stormwater and Felix Lee, Building and Zoning Director, were invited to the July 7 meeting to discuss possible inconsistencies and contradictions in City code that could hinder efforts to provide accessible housing. Fort Collins Affordable Housing Board July 7, 2005 Minutes Page 2 of 4 According to Dana McBride, Practical Housing for All, the main difficulty from a builder's point of view is combining an accessible no step entry with the City's 2% drainage grade requirement. Mr. Schlueter replied that there is nothing in the City's Stormwater code to prevent builders from complying with ADA accessibility recommendations. In fact, builders interested in alternate drainage plans can present them to City staff for review, although lower grades typically require more expensive drainage systems to meet City standards. Mr. Lee added that there is nothing in the Building Code that specifically blocks PHA, and the need to encourage accessible housing in Fort Collins has already been endorsed by Council. Thus builders can comply with City code and create accessible homes, though extra planning will be necessary. Michelle Jacobs inquired about cost effective design examples used in other communities, such as slab construction. Apparently the combination of Fort Collins's climate, soil type, and typical use of basements prevents some of the more common solutions utilized elsewhere. The Board agreed that successfully implementing PHA requires more attention in the early design and development phases, since changes and additions once construction has begun can quickly become problematic. One idea is to have PHA advocated by City staff at the conceptual review stage. Another possibility would be to educate engineers to look for and to tag sites in the drafting phase that easily fit the necessary grading profiles. Jon Fairchild asked that PHA be encouraged —but not mandated —by the City during the development review process. Staff said they will look into it. 3-Unrelated Ordinance Tess Heffernan, Policy and Project Manager for the City Manager's Office, began by summarizing the ordinance and Council's current actions. The law was first enacted in the 1960s, but has been deemed unenforceable for many years now, and has been largely ignored as of late. The new Council at their June meeting asked the City Manager's Office to provide them with three scenarios. The first changes the 3-unrelated offense from criminal to civil. This would shift burden of proof to tenants and landlords, and would, in theory, be more enforceable. Second is a permit system for up to four tenants, applicable citywide. The third scenario is a permit system for specially zoned areas. An additional requirement for the permit scenarios is that any registration system Council enacts would need to be entirely fee supported to fully offset the cost of staff members and inspections. Permits would be tied to properties to help track problem areas. Also, staff discretion would be allowed throughout the process. Ms. Heffernan discussed the Economic and Market Study, the motivation for the possible shift from three to four allowed household members. The study showed that 64% of violator households were found to contain four members. Fort Collins Affordable Housing Board July 7, 2005 Minutes Page 3 of 4 Kevin Brinkman asked about possible negative consequences if the first scenario were enacted. Ms. Heffernan replied that if the current law or the first scenario were enforced, average rents of violators would rise by $100 on average. The City's rental vacancy rate would drop significantly as well, which would increase low end rental prices citywide. Jon Fairchild expressed his concerns regarding the high operating cost due to the inspections that would be required to apply for a permit. Ms. Heffernan explained that the inspection process would be for tenants' safety. The City could make sure landlords truly were in compliance with rental codes, i.e. egress windows in all bedrooms. The City does not want renters to have a false sense of security regarding their housing, which could happen if the permit system were simply based on landlord affidavits. In addition, Ms. Heffernan reminded the Board that spread over three years, permit costs per tenant were not too expensive. Michelle Jacobs brought up the issue of segregation possible with a zoned system. Affordable housing is opposed to such a system due to the creation of possible slums. Santa Barbara, which enacted a similar zoned system, let their college rental areas run down over time. Ms. Heffernan acknowledged the possibility of problems with zoned areas, but noted none of the scenarios were perfect. The real issue is that single family homes were not designed to house large groups of college students. Ms. Heffernan stated that Council's actions regarding the ordinance are a move toward a long term solution. Jon Fairchild said he supported the idea of a citywide permit system, because "philosophically zones create slums". He moved the board state their support for a citywide affidavit style system without up -front inspection. The motion died for lack of a second. Michelle Jacobs was against the motion because the issue before Council is still very volatile at this point. Ms. Jacob and Mr. Herbert felt the Board needs to wait until after the August 23 Council study session before taking a stance. Peter Tippett expressed his skepticism that any permit system could work. Mr. Tippett was concerned that the City is working to create another unenforceable ordinance. Jon Fairchild expressed his concern that the Board takes some sort of stance before it is too late. Tess Heffernan assured the Board they would have time to give their input, and offered to return to provide another update. Budgeting for Outcomes Update Staff updated the Board on the BFO process. At this point, according to Maurice Head, the future of the City's Affordable Housing programs is still in flux. Mr. Waido explained the drilling platform process to the board. Offers are ranked, and funds distributed according to rank. The top ranked offers get funded, but a line is drawn when funds are exhausted. Any offers below the final funded level are cut. He reported that at this point all Boards and Commissions and their staff support are below the funding line. Staff will update the Board as they learn more. Fort Collins Affordable Housing Board July 7, 2005 Minutes Page 4 of 4 Michelle Jacobs stated that affordable housing and economic development are interdependent, and hoped that the City would take this into consideration as the budgeting process continued. Housing Affordability Index Model Update Staff reported that although the HAI generated a great deal of interest at previous meetings, they have not heard from any of the people who volunteered assistance. Maurice Head reported that BBC Consultants will be coming to give a presentation on the HAI and variables being considered in the model. Mr. Head stated that development of the model is going well. Michelle Jacobs will remind people who offered to help with the Index and who agreed to take surveys. Old Business Update/Reports on Sub -Committee Efforts ema ma - Liaison Reports None. Other Business Open Board Discussion None. Meeting adjourned 5:37 pm. Respectfully submitted by Stephanie Sydorko July 25, 2005