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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 06/07/2012CITY OF FORT COLLINS AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD MEETING MINUTES 281 N. College Ave. Fort Collins, Colorado June 7, 2012 4 to 6 p.m. Chair: Dan Byers Staff Liaison: Ken Waido 970-221-6753 City Council Liaison: Lisa Poppaw Board Members present: Ben Blonder, Dan Byers, Jeff Johnson, Troy Jones, Wayne Thompson Board Members absent: Karen Miller, Mike Sollenberger Advance Planning Department Staff present: Ken Waido; Beth Rosen, Affordable Housing Administrator Council Members present: None Other Staff present: Diane Jones, Deputy City Manager; Ingrid Decker, Assistant City Attorney; Kate Jeracki, Note Taker Guests: Marilyn Heller, League of Women Voters; Julie Brewen, Fort Collins Housing Authority; Bill Renke, CARE Housing; Kristen Candella, Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity; Ray Roth, citizen Meeting called to order with a quorum present at 4:10 p.m. by Chair Dan Byers There were no changes to the agenda as presented. PUBLIC COMMENT Marilyn Heller reported that the League of Women Voters’ public forum on housing for veterans will be posted on the League’s website, www.lwv-larimercounty.org. NEW BUSINESS APPROVAL OF MINUTES — Jeff Johnson corrected the minutes from May 3, 2012, to reflect his position with CARE Housing: He is member of the building committee but 2 not on the board. The minutes were approved with this correction on a motion from Ben Blonder seconded by Jeff Johnson. FORT COLLINS HOUSING AUTHORITY FEE WAIVERS UPDATE — Diane Jones, Deputy City Manager and Director, Policy, Planning and Transportation, presented a working paper on fee waivers for the Fort Collins Housing Authority. The Housing Authority’s minimal participation in the Provincetowne project as a partner with the nonprofit CARE Housing resulted in the waiver of $557,000 in infrastructure-related fees, and this amount had to be made up from the General Fund. While there are questions about whether current statutes apply to projects not wholly owned by the Housing Authority, City Council has asked for additional options for future projects, especially those in which the Housing Authority has only a minor interest. Jones presented four options: A. Use Community Development Block Grant and HOME funds to cover the fees. The Housing Authority suggested that the fee waivers focus on permanent supportive housing projects that target the chronically homeless. HUD prohibits the use of CDBG funds for impact fees; HOME funds can be used to pay individual or fractional impact fees on specific projects only, not all affordable housing. B. Affordable Housing/Human Services tax or fee Other communities assess such a tax, but the possibility of passage of a tax increase at this time is relatively remote. C. Defer fees to the end of the first financing period The fees would not be assessed until the ownership is transferred, for example, after the tax credit period of 15 years, and the new owner would pay them. However, if the ownership is not transferred, would the fees still come out of the General Fund? Would deferment provide enough money upfront to expand public facilities to accommodate the development? D. Make the fee waivers optional, according to established criteria Under this option, the existing ordinance would be changed from “the City shall exempt the Housing Authority from payment of any of the following fees” to “the City may exempt the Housing Authority from payment of any of the following fees.” Each Housing Authority project would be reviewed with two general criteria as guidelines for exemption: • Projects that are constructed for the homeless or disabled and/or • Projects that are constructed for occupants whose income is less than 30 percent of adjusted median income. 3 Staff is recommending Option D. Julie Brewen said FCHA also supports this option as win-win to serve the most vulnerable members of the community. Jones asked for input from the Affordable Housing Board to be presented at the City Council worksession on July 10. Troy Jones asked if there were any other possible sources of funding other than the General Fund to cover the infrastructure costs paid for by the waived fees. Diane Jones said no. Ken Waido said financing can be structured so federal grants and tax credits cover other parts of a project. Beth Rosen also pointed out that fees management is the biggest administrative burden of any project. Ben Blonder supported restricting waivers to projects serving those with less than 30 percent AMI. Dan Byers questioned making the waivers completely discretionary for City Council. He was concerned about projects with minimal ownership by FCHA, like Provincetown. Blonder said under these new restrictions, Provincetowne might have had a hard time getting the waivers that were granted. Jeff Johnson asked about leaving the term “partnership” undefined; Brewen said the draft is silent on the issue of percentage of FCHA participation. Blonder asked if the waivers could be pro-rated—for example, if 10 percent of a project’s units were for less than 30 percent AMI or homeless or disabled, only 10 percent of the fees could be waived. Diane Jones confirmed that to be the case. Troy Jones asked when in the lifecycle of the project would developers know which fees will be waived? Diane Jones said projects that meet the criteria will be flagged and put into the city’s budget process as soon as they are identified. A BFO offer could include a minimum/maximum dollar amount for waivers, contingent upon approval by Council. Dan Byers said the way the option is worded is a small commitment from the City. He suggested taking out “discretionary.” He would like the Board to formulate a response to Council in writing, and will initiate an email discussion with members before the July 10 worksession, since the Board’s next meeting has been rescheduled to July 12. CARE HOUSING UPDATE — Bill Renke, who became Executive Director of CARE Housing in April, introduced himself and provided an update and overview of current projects. He said the organization is back up to a full management staff, overseeing 324 rental units for very low income people. He said CARE serves low-income working families who have to pay rent, as well as a few individuals eligible for Section 8 sliding scale rent vouchers. CARE also works with seniors and the disabled – he said 55 families are in need of accommodation – and does not discriminate because of age or disability. All CARE clients make 60 percent or less of AMI. There are over 150 individuals and families on waiting lists for a unit. Renke said a pre-application is required to get on the waiting list, but the full application process doesn’t start until a unit becomes available, so the clients are not charged the application fee until then. Renke said the rent formula is based on requiring no more than 30 percent of income be spent on housing. Beth Rosen added that the rents cannot be adjusted if the client’s 4 income changes. Renke said that college students do not qualify for CARE units unless they have a dependent. PROVINCETOWNE COVENANTS — Ingrid Decker reported that she met with the Board’s subcommittee — Troy Jones, Jeff Johnson and Karen Miller — and staff to discuss the need to restructure the covenants in Provincetowne, since the ones that are there are so convoluted. Some of the components can be changed administratively, some require action by City Council. Decker said her department would like to go to Council with recommendations in the near future. Troy Jones reported that the subcommittee discussed two issues: Unit 83, the one that brought the covenant problems to light, has been resolved administratively. But what are the consequences for the other units in the future? Decker said a review of covenants in Provincetowne uncovered that some contained old language referring to “eligible buyers,” even though that had been updated to reflect the fact the City can’t restrict the income of homebuyers. Even the updated language needs cleaning up to change the concept of what “affordable” looks like. Council needs to sign off on a uniform approach as soon as possible. Troy Jones suggested keeping the percentage of owner-occupants to maintain FHA loan eligibility should be a priority. Beth Rosen reported that almost 70 percent of Provincetowne is now owner-occupied. Decker advised the Board work with staff to present Council with the points they need to change or modify and leave the rest to be worked out at the administrative level. Those points include removing “eligible buyer” from all covenants; changing the price definition of “affordable”, and whether units must remain owner-occupied. Troy Jones would like the presentation to include a refresher on what previous councils have done, how the economy has changed since then, and how the city can make an investment in the future, as well as the bullet points they need to vote on. The key question to be resolved is whether to keep the owner-occupied requirement in the covenant. Ben Blonder pointed out that in the current market investors would snap the units up if they could be used as rentals. After discussion, the Board was not prepared to make a recommendation right now, although a poll of the members present showed a majority in favor of owner-occupants. Troy Jones will draft a memo and send it to Jeff Johnson for review before sending it to Ken Waido and the rest of the Board. Ingrid Decker will also review it to see that it agrees with her understanding. Dan Byers suggested asking Lisa Poppaw how Council would like to see it presented. Johnson said he would like to get something to Council this calendar year. AHB BYLAWS – Ben Blonder moved to amend Article 3, Section 1 of the Affordable Housing Board bylaws to read “The Affordable Housing Board shall be comprised of 5 seven regular members who shall serve without compensation” and Section 6 to read “The Secretary of the Board shall be the assigned staff liaison to the Board, who shall be a non-voting member of the Board.” Wayne Thompson seconded. The motion was approved unanimously. This issue will return after Ingrid Decker has reviewed the rest of the bylaws in light of the city’s current Boards and Commissions manual. OTHER BUSINESS Open Board Discussion – Ken Waido reported on the results of the Spring Cycle of the CBDG Competitive Process. The CDBG Commission voted to fully fund the purchase of a building for Disabled Resources, and partially fund the FCHA supportive housing project that has yet to find a site. FCHA appealed to City Council, which upheld the DRS funding, and allocated $130,000 of Affordable Housing Funds to FCHA. This means there will be less in the fund for the Fall Cycle. Waido added than some funds may be coming back to the Affordable Housing Fund from the Union Place project, which faces a July 1 deadline. The draft report on Impediments to Fair Housing is being reviewed by staff before public review and will be sent to the Board before going to City Council. The Board can then develop an action plan based on the findings. An RFP for a consultant to help devise a redevelopment relocation plan is to be released on June 8. The plan will be broader in scope than just mobile home parks, although the Bender situation brought the issue to the fore. While Ken Waido said the city is not at the stage where developers can’t find affordable land, Troy Jones wanted to make sure that when land is acquired for the Land Bank, the city considers how the properties mesh with public transportation plans. Waido said there is currently no money to add to the Land Bank. The current holdings were appraised two years ago. Liaison Reports — Troy Jones said city transportation project manager Kurt Ravenschlag would like to address the board on the subject of transportation linkages, and it would be good to get representatives from the Mason Corridor project to come to a board meeting too. He asked if board members would be willing to extend the hours of the meeting to get through agenda items and hear longer presentations. The board will discuss the idea further in July. Dan Byers will not be able to be at the July 12 meeting. Mike Sollenberger will preside. 6 FUTURE MEETING AGENDAS At the July 12 meeting, the board will discuss:  Relocation plan for low-income residents displaced by redevelopment.  Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice. At some future meeting:  Further revisions to Board bylaws, if needed.  Review of the city’s Green Building Code and housing affordability.  Clarification of Boulder student housing policy.  Mason Corridor Plan. -- Meeting adjourned at 6:15 p.m. by Chair Dan Byers. --