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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 09/06/2012CITY OF FORT COLLINS AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD MINUTES REGULAR BOARD MEETING 281 N. College Ave. Fort Collins, Colorado Sept. 6, 2012 4 to 6 p.m. Chair: Dan Byers Staff Liaison: Ken Waido 970-221-6753 City Council Liaison: Lisa Poppaw Board Members present: Dan Byers, Jeff Johnson Troy Jones, Mike Sollenberger, Wayne Thompson Board Members absent: Ben Blonder, Karen Miller Staff present: Ken Waido Council Members present: None Other Staff present: Beth Sowder, Neighborhood Services Manager; Kristin Fritz, Senior Project Manager, Fort Collins Housing Authority; Kate Jeracki, Note Taker Guests: Marilyn Heller, League of Women Voters; Bill Reinke, CARE Housing; Mickey Willis, developer; Ray Roth, citizen Meeting called to order with a quorum present at 4 p.m. by Chair Dan Byers AGENDA REVIEW The Executive Session on Land Acquisition was moved into New Business; review of funding proposals for the Fall Cycle of the Competitive Process was rescheduled to a special meeting on Sept. 20. PUBLIC COMMENT Marilyn Heller updated the Board on an objection by the Denver-based Cross-Disability Coalition to a link from the Affordable Housing Coalition of Larimer County’s website to that of CARE Housing. The objection was based on CARE’s description of its services as for low-income working families, which CDC claims discriminates against those with income from disability payments and single people. Faced with the threat of “fines” to be 2 imposed on an “unreasonable deadline,” LWV dropped the link, but the issue is to be discussed further at the Sept. 19 League meeting. Bill Reinke explained that CARE does not exclude anyone with disabilities from its housing, but the mission statement is language used by HUD for 20 years. He added that repeated attempts to meet with representatives of the CDC have been unsuccessful. Mike Sollenberger said that the Affordable Housing Board had also struggled with the language in CARE’s mission statement in the past when making funding recommendations, and he urged Reinke to consider changing it. Jeff Johnson said there is allogations currently pending at the state Division of Regulatory Affairs involving CDC and CARE Housing. Dan Byers asked Johnson to keep the Board updated on the progress of the action. Marilyn Heller said she would forward the results of the Sept. 19 to the Board as well. Mickey Willis presented information about a parcel of land that could be a suitable acquisition for the Land Bank program. NEW BUSINESS APPROVAL OF MINUTES Jeff Johnson abstained from minutes approval because he was not present at the July 12 meeting; that left less than a quorum present. Tabled for a future meeting. STUDENT HOUSING ACTION PLAN PLAN Beth Sowder, Neighborhood Services Manager, presented an update on the City’s plan to encourage and develop an adequate supply of quality student housing while maintaining neighborhood compatibility. The City has been gathering input from various stakeholders, including an Aug. 29 public open house, and Sowder asked for the Board’s input on specific items related to land use, compatibility and design ahead of City Council consideration of the plan on Oct. 23. However, Council has already given a first reading to four Land Use Code changes, with second reading set for Oct. 2. Mike Sollenberger asked why the Board was wasting its time if Council had already made up its mind? He was deeply concerned that applying the proposed restrictions to all properties in multi-family zoning, rather than the ones directly affected by demand from Colorado State University students, would be a huge mistake for the City and will diminish the supply of affordable housing for low-income families. Jeff Johnson agreed. He said the proposed changes amounted to a back door to a moratorium on student housing development. He felt the Council was being hasty, and there has not been enough time for proper study of the changes, which will have a significant impact on affordability of housing throughout Fort Collins. He added that the 3 speed with which the changes are being considered is contradictory to collaborative process of the SHAP. Sollenberger suggested the Board send a letter to Council asking for a chance to thoroughly review the changes before they are adopted. Ken Waido outlined the changes facing an imminent second read. Jeff Johnson said the Planning and Zoning Board has scheduled a special hearing on Oct. 13 to assess the changes. Dan Byers said there should be a response from the Affordable Housing Board presented there. Kristin Fritz of the Fort Collins Housing Authority said the changes will affect the authority and its projects significantly. The Authority is particularly concerned about the requirement to submit each project’s operations management plan to the City, where it becomes public record. Especially for supportive housing projects, this could create serious security risks. Mike Sollenberger agreed, saying an emergency contact number for neighbors is a good thing, but the rest is proprietary information that should not be shared with competing developers. Jeff Johnson was concerned that the operations and management plan will be made available to the public for review and comment as part of the permitting process. He said such projects ought to be vetted in a more thoughtful process than public hearings. Beth Sowder said she has heard from the public that neighbors are concerned that developers have not kept their promises about management of large projects in the past. However, she thinks there should be a middle ground. Kristin Fritz pointed out that the tools to solve these issues already exist; they don’t need to be in the Land Use Code to be regulated. Dan Byers suggested the Board send a memo directly to Council before the Oct. 2 meeting stating its objections. Mike Sollenberger said the Board has reached consensus that the pace of adoption is too fast; the whole process is inappropriate and could damage affordable housing in Fort Collins. Troy Jones said he may or may not agree with that statement, because he hasn’t had time to analyze it. Byers said the Board could make a statement about the pace of things tonight, then get together to address the specifics of separate items before the Oct. 2 meeting. Jeff Johnson would like the comments to reflect that SHAP has done the right thing up to this point, and Council’s actions are a significant departure from a good process. Council should postpone action until it has heard from the four board and commissions included in the process. Acting without that input would be highly irregular and inappropriate. Jeff Johnson moved the Affordable Housing Board recommend to City Council that Council postpone the second reading of Ordinance 092-2012 until the Dec. 4, 2012, 4 regular Council meeting so Council can consider feedback from the Affordable Housing Board, Planning and Zoning Board, Landmark Preservation Commission and Building Review Board. Mike Sollenberger seconded. Motion carried unanimously. Dan Byers added that the members of City Council need to hear the objections directly from members of the Affordable Housing Board. He asked the issue be added to the agenda for the next meeting and a personal invitation to attend be extended to Council Member Lisa Poppaw, the Board’s liaison. He also asked Kristin Fritz to email Board members specifics of the Housing Authority’s objections. EXECUTIVE SESSION The Affordable Housing Board adjourned to executive session at 5:12 p.m. to discuss a possible property acquisition for the Land Bank program. No decision is expected. The Affordable Housing Board returned to regular session at 5:43 p.m. Bill Reinke and Kristin Fritz returned to the meeting room; Wayne Thompson left the meeting. AFFORDABLE HOUSING REDEVELOPMENT DISPLACE MITIGATION STRATEGIES Ken Waido updated the Board on his research into dealing with low-income residents forced to move when their rental housing or mobile home park is sold for other uses. He said Clarion Associates, who worked on Plan Fort Collins and other planning documents, has been retained to assist in the process. He said the federal Uniform Relocation Act is a good model for the process from initial notification to paying moving expenses; what City Council wants to adopt is a policy to be used when there are no federal funds are involved. Beyond the specific relocation policy, Council has asked for possible techniques to stabilize some mobile home parks and reduce economic pressures to convert the parks to other uses. The first question to be addressed is what would trigger City involvement? Ken suggested that if a developer is asking the city to do something, such as rezoning a property, the developer should be responsible for doing something for the low-income people living on the property. Jeff Johnson said that before the Board recommends a trigger, it should look at the results. Ken referred the Board to the draft outline and mobile home park existing inventory contained in the information packet for this meeting. He pointed out some of the triggering events could be if the land is sold for a higher use or if the infrastructure begins to fail and it would cost too much to upgrade to maintain it as a mobile home park. Some of the stabilization options would be to rezone the parks to help reduce the pressure to use the land for anything else – before 1997, Fort Collins had two mobile home park zoning designations; put an overlay district on the property to require affordable units in 5 exchange for other development; or work with nonprofits to buy the park from the existing owners, so the residents become the owners. Jeff Johnson said he would forward information about resident-owned communities in other locations to Board members. Mike Sollenberger said he was concerned such a relocation plan would be creating a poison pill for developers by adding a whopping amount of costs. That would leave blighted areas blighted, because no one would be able to afford the redevelopment. Johnson agreed, asking how can anyone spend $3 million to bring a park up to code and keep rents affordable? Troy Jones said he likes the owner-coop model. Perhaps the City could buy a park about to collapse and sell it back to the residents? Ken Waido said there are pros and cons to resident-ownership, and affordability is an extremely key issue. There is no blanket solution, he added, but the City should have a plan for when low-income people are displaced. Troy Jones suggested that if the goal is to keep affordable housing in a redeveloped park, there could be a fund that pays for relocation so the developer doesn’t have to take the poison pill. Mike Sollenberger agreed – if a developer doesn’t agreed to include affordable units, he should pay for the relocation. The Board discussed the issue of whether mobile homes are by definition affordable housing, and what population in terms of percentage of AMI is served by parks. Ken will bring more details to the October meeting. The plan goes before a City Council worksession in October for direction, in December for discussion, then will return in January or February for adoption. BUDGET UPDATE Ken Waido said the Affordable Housing Fund will contain $325,047 for 2013, the same as this year. City Council is holding a public budget hearing on Oct. 2, with planned adoption of the budget in November. OLD BUSINESS ANALYSIS OF IMPEDIMENTS TO FAIR HOUSING CHOICE Ken Waido distributed in the meeting packet correspondence from Heidi Phelps, Co- Liaison to the Community Development Block Grant Commission, concerning the joint meeting with the Commission in August and public comments received on the AI. 6 PROVINCETOWNE COVENANTS Ken Waido reported that after further review, no written documentation from the FHA for the need to change the covenants can be found. So staff will draft a covenant based on input from the Board’s subcommittee – Jeff Johnson and Troy Jones – and submit it to the FHA with a request to respond in writing with appropriate citations. Johnson pointed out that the City has messed it up twice and wouldn’t want to repeat the mistake a third time. FUTURE MEETING AGENDAS At the Sept. 20 meeting, the Board will rank funding proposals submitted for the Fall Cycle of the Competitive Process. At some future meeting: Review of the city’s Green Building Code and housing affordability. Clarification of Boulder student housing policy. -- Meeting adjourned at 6:35 p.m. by Chair Dan Byers. --