HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 03/06/2014CITY OF FORT COLLINS
AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD
BOARD MEETING MINUTES
300 Laporte Ave
Fort Collins, Colorado
March 6, 2014
4:00–6:00pm
Chair: Troy Jones
Staff Liaison: Sue Beck-Ferkiss 970-221-6753
City Council Liaison: Lisa Poppaw
Board Members present: Tatiana Martin, Terence Hoaglund, Troy Jones, Diane Cohn, Eloise Emery, Curt Lyons,
Jeffrey Johnson
Board Members absent: None
Staff present: Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Social Sustainability Specialist; Dianne Tjalkens, Board Support; Jerediah
Burianek, Transfort Service Planner
Council Members present: None
Guests: None
Meeting called to order by Troy Jones at 4:00pm.
AGENDA REVIEW
No comment.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Sue Beck-Ferkiss handed out a flyer on behalf of Marilyn Heller, who could not attend, regarding a panel discussion
on income inequality Tuesday, April 15, 7:00pm at Harmony Public Library at Front Range Community College
(see handout).
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Eloise moved to approve the January 9 and February 6, 2014 minutes as presented. Tatiana seconded.
Motion passed unanimously, 7-0-0.
NEW BUSINESS
ITEM 1: TRANSFORT ROUTE CHANGES—JEREDIAH BURIANEK
Jerediah Burianek, Service Planner for Transfort discussed the Max and upcoming bus route changes. He gave an
overview of public outreach that has occurred over the last year. He said that City Council approved monies for
additional east-west service, additional service hours and increased frequencies. Some key changes are realignments
of the transit network to continue serving all areas, including elimination of the north-south route on Timberline, and
more east-west routes that connect to the Max. Max will be free for the first three months; afterward the fair will be
the same as all other bus routes. He explained route transfers from buses to Max and vice versa. Another alignment
change is that Max is replacing Route 1 and 15, which changes how other routes work together. They are extending
Route 14 on Mulberry, with an improved stop near the Waffle House. It will also serve the Waterglen and Bull Run
areas, part of Vine, the mobile home park on Timberline, and return to Mulberry. The frequencies will be increased
on many routes. Dial-a-Ride offers door to door service for a small additional fee for those with disabilities that
prevent them from using fixed routes. More routes operating in more areas, means the Dial-a-Ride boundary extends
as a result. Service hours have typically ended at 6:00pm. He showed the east-west feeders to the Max that will be
running until 10:30pm Monday through Saturday year-round. Route 8 in the north will also run until 10:30pm. Max
will run until just after midnight. He explained how the frequency changes throughout the day, running between
every 10 minutes and every half hour based on time of day. Transfort will be working with CSU administration and
students to have an on-campus shuttle. There will be a 10 minute shuttle to the Transit Center, University Station,
and Lake Street Garage paid for by CSU and open to the public. An additional enhancement is a route to the CSU
Foothills Campus. He discussed enhanced technology, including real time information at all Max stations and
mobile apps and interactive voice response to get information on bus arrival times. This is in testing right now and
the hope is to have it available by May when Max opens. He explained how each stop will have signage that will
help customers use the technology.
Discussion/Q & A:
x Troy asked about the Prospect leg and how it goes to Midpoint near the jail. He is curious about that line
frequency being 60 minutes when others are 30 minutes. Jerediah said increasing the frequency means
adding more buses to the routes. He agreed there is still a gap on Prospect, but it would require four
additional buses running all day to increase the frequency to 30 minutes.
x Terence asked about coordination with the trains and traffic. Jerediah said that is being managed. A lot of
the fear of Max is that it will interfere with vehicle traffic, but it is not a train. It takes very little time to
cross an intersection. He has seen trains up to 8 minutes delay, but the speed has improved recently and will
help with the delays. They can now travel up to 35 miles per hour. Tatiana noted that the timing on some
intersections is already improved.
x Sue asked the distance between stops on the Max. Jerediah said they are typically every half mile. He
showed a map of the route and stops.
x Tatiana said she had a criticism about the Max radio ad which says to expect delays because of the roll-out.
She suggests changing the wording because it may deter customers. She asked about Passfort. Jerediah said
it is a bulk-rate annual pass for employers to provide to employees, which will cost $50 per year. He said
he is excited about the changes. As a former driver, he sees the need for the increased frequency and hours.
x Sue asked about Sunday service. Jerediah said Max will not run on Sundays and that Sunday service and an
expansion of the transit service are the next steps, in phase three, but the funding is not yet available.
x Troy said in the January meeting in which all boards were asked to tell Council their top three priorities,
AHB included increased bus routes and hours.
x Sue asked whether as ridership increases, there will be more money coming in from fairs and more political
will to increase services. Jerediah said Transit is a service, so the fairs collected don’t really pay for
additional services. Industry standard is 20% of fair recovery pays for service. However, increasing the
fairs to increase income would deter riders, especially of low-income, and have a negative impact.
x Troy said the Housing Affordability Policy Study may be able to help show the need for transit in relation
to affordable housing.
x Terence said there is a problem in Denver with the light rail not connecting to the places you need to go.
x Jerediah asked for input on how transit is not serving affordable housing. Troy said more east-west on
Prospect is needed. Jerediah said he sees the need in that area, but it will take a lot of funding.
x Tatiana asked about a route on Boardwalk. Jerediah said there are two routes going up and down JFK Blvd.
He showed a number of routes that come to the mall that help serve College Avenue. Tatiana and Jerediah
discussed route changes that serve the Boardwalk area where there are many apartments and businesses.
x Sue asked about next steps. Jerediah gave an outline of education pieces, the ambassador program, and
upcoming important dates.
x Diane asked about the south Transit Station and whether it had an indoor building. Jerediah said there will
be customer service reps, passes for sale, a coffee shop, and restrooms at three stops on the Max route.
x Troy would like to forward a recommendation to Council regarding Sunday service. Tatiana suggested an
email to all of Council regarding the presentation and support of the changes, along with a statement about
encouraging Sunday service, since there are no upcoming items on Council’s agenda that relate to this
topic. The board agreed to draft an email and finalize it via email.
Tatiana moved to allow the chair to send a message to Council that supports and ____ the connectivity of
Transfort. Curt seconded.
Motion passed unanimously, 7-0-0. (see Sue for wording)
ITEM 3: CDBG RANKING
Troy has been asked to attend the CDBG meeting to present the AHB ranking recommendations. There are only five
proposals to rank. The board agreed to meet 4:00-5:30pm for the ranking meeting on March 27. Members are to read
the applications and rank them 1 through 5, considering the Affordable Housing Strategic Plan. All proposals will be
presented to the CDBG Commission March 26, 6:00-8:00pm, and the AHB is invited to observe or watch the
presentations on video before the AHB ranking meeting. Once the AHB ranking is completed, the results are given
to the CDBG Commission for consideration in their funding process. Sue will send an email confirming date, time,
and location. Sue will also send directions for accessing the video presentations.
x Diane asked if all CDBG presentations are open to the public. Sue said yes, but that evening will be only
the five housing project presentations.
ITEM 4: HOUSING AFFORDABILITY POLICY STUDY STAKEHOLDERS WORKSHOP—MARCH 12
All members, except Curt, are able to attend. 70 invitations have been sent, and 20 have responded. Sue is concerned
that the respondents are heavy on agencies, and light on developers. She asked for volunteers to make phone calls.
Tatiana and Troy volunteered. They will organize calls offline.
x Diane Cohn said she is working with Circles and they are looking at affordable housing. She asked about
public meeting dates. Sue gave the public meeting dates and an overview of what has happened thus far
including consultant work and technical team meetings. March and April will be stakeholder meetings. In
May there will be two public meetings and a work session at P & Z, etc. The upcoming stakeholder
workshop will have a welcome PowerPoint, the consultants will show their data, and participants may
break into groups and or have a Q&A/discussion with facilitation.
x Eloise commented that a lot of editing is needed in the Best Practices chapter draft. She also wonders about
their emphasis on ski towns and how those are not a realistic comparison to Fort Collins. The comparison
to Boulder is a little closer. Sue said the technical team asked for additional context on how these locations
were chosen. Eloise added that looking from a developer standpoint, the analysis is not deep enough.
x Troy asked what this is a draft of? Sue said it is a draft of the first chapter of the study, on best practices
and an overview of the regulations and regulatory tools available. She said that a column will be added to
the chart on page four on Incentive Zoning Ordinances.
x Jeffrey asked about the success for the city ordinance that allows for density bonuses, fast-track processing,
etc. Terence said with that a developer can get increased density. Jeffrey asked how often it is used. Sue
said she has asked the consultants to look at our existing incentives and see if they can be beefed up. They
are not sufficient right now.
x Terence said all the fees and fee waiver programs are being changed right now too. Sue said the waivers
changed in March and the delays are back on line. The March ordinance seemed to inadvertently change
that, but PDT can delay fees for affordable housing builders.
x Jeffery said the consultants seem to pair the ordinance with some other incentive program. If they are going
to try to convince that is good, the feedback he’s heard is that doesn’t work. Sue said the paper suggests
that density is the best incentive to offer, but Fort Collins has high density limits already, so it’s not an
effective incentive here.
x Eloise asked if the policy would include impediments to fair housing. Sue there is a parallel process
underway. As you see connections, bring it up at the stakeholders meeting. Staff is looking at impediments
and working with HUD.
x Curt asked about how HUD determines AMI. Half the incomes are above and half are below? Could the
half below be making $8/hour and the half above be making much, much more? Diane and Sue said
essentially yes.
x Jeffrey asked about figure 1 in the draft. The RFP was about implementing by December so some funds
will be available from the mall. Would a required Nexus study have to be done by December? Sue said
even the inclusionary housing ordinance as paired with the Koontz case suggests there must be some kind
of study, though not a full Nexus study, for all ordinances. The full Nexus determines a linkage relationship
to determine fees. They can be done pretty quickly and could be done if needed.
x Jeffrey asked if there was a broad ordinance that covers commercial and residential, would it apply to the
mall agreement. Sue said the language changed from “program” to “fee” so that needs to be looked at more
closely.
ITEM 5: COMPETITIVE PROCESS REVIEW FOCUS GROUP—MICHELLE FERGUSON, NOVAK
CONSULTING GROUP
Michelle Ferguson and Haley Kadish with Novak Consulting are conducting an assessment of the Competitive
Process. They are holding focus groups and meeting with City staff to determine how to make the process more
effective.
Board members introduced themselves, their experience, and three words they associate with affordable housing to
begin the conversation.
Michelle took notes on focus group comments including things the board appreciates in the process, frustrations,
suggestions, items the board feels should be discussed or looked at further, etc.
OTHER BUSINESS
COUNCIL 6-MONTH PLANNING CALENDAR
x Tatiana mentioned budget items are coming up and the Lisa Poppaw suggested the board look at budget
items. Sue added that the process begins in April and is long and involved. She will keep the board
updated.
x In April Seth Lorson, the planner involved in the Transit Oriented Development Study project, will present
to the board.
x Terence noted the regional road impact fee renewal on March 18 and the Timnath IGA.
x Troy likes the idea of focusing on a recommendation for Transit and HAPS (Housing Affordability Policy
Study).
x Diane asked if historical preservation could impact affordability. Tatiana clarified that it is about design
standards.
x Curt said the historic preservation impacts costs on remodeling designated or eligible buildings (50 years
old or more). Tatiana said the process for historic designation is changing.
– Meeting adjourned at 6:14pm by Troy Jones. –
The next meeting of the Affordable Housing Board is scheduled for:
April 3 at 4:00pm
Participants will meet at:
Fort Collins City Hall
Council Information Center
300 Laporte Ave