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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 12/03/2015MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD Date: Thursday, December 3, 2015 Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave. Time: 4:00–6:00pm For Reference Troy Jones, Chair Ray Martinez, Council Liaison Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Staff Liaison 970-221-6753 Board Members Present Board Members Absent Troy Jones, chair Jeffrey Johnson Eloise Emery Diane Cohn Terence Hoaglund Curt Lyons Staff Present Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Social Sustainability Specialist Dianne Tjalkens, Administrative Clerk/Board Support Guests Marilyn Heller, League of Women Voters Leslie Baray, Poudre High student Kenia Baray, Poudre High student Andy Smith, Chrisland Real Estate Properties Gene Wilken, Overland Trail Colorado Properties, LLC Chad Martinez, FCHA Jenna Cifala, citizen Call to order: Troy Jones called to order at 4:05pm. Agenda Review: No changes. Public Comment: Andy Smith, Chrisland, on behalf of client Arthur McDermott, gave a status update on senior affordable housing project being proposed. Handed out conceptual rendering. Has been challenging to get through City processes, but staff has been great to work with. Also working with Oakridge business park. Has become a mixed use project with nonresidential facing the street. Scaled it down, looking at ways to become more compatible with business park and city. Still have work to do around parking requirements; will demonstrate reduced need for parking for low income seniors. Submitting soon. Appreciates everything the board does for affordable housing and will provide another update next month. • Eloise: Agree that affordable housing doesn’t need as much parking, but have services coming in to assist them that will need parking. o Andy: More than adequate street parking on McMurray, and shared parking agreement with neighboring property. o Curt: Commercial activity that will be useful to the residents? o Andy: Discussion with potential tenants about services for the seniors. Great opportunity. One issue is that cannot do restaurant or retail in this area. Must be offices. o Jeff: Is plan fully compliant with what City wants?  Andy: Has a little more work. • Sue: How many units lost? o Andy: Currently at between 122 and 128 units. o Troy: Will you need modification for parking?  Andy: Yes. Probably close to not having to ask for modification for park land requirement. Association has large public park that is shared with residential associations, connects with Power Trail, and is public. Will most likely comply with standard. All residents would have access.  Diane: Is 103 spaces of parking total for residential and commercial? • Andy: Yes. Some of those details can change over the next month or so, but concept is developed. • Curt: Retail is not allowed, sounds like a planning issue. o Andy: Part of Harmony Plan zoning district. o Curt: Single use zoning is planning issue.  Terence: Trying to get away from modification for secondary uses.  Andy: Tough issue with 75% primary use and 25% secondary use requirement.  Curt: Single zoning is anti-new-urban planning.  Andy: City staff has been agreeable to mixed use planning. Review and Approval of Minutes Curt moved to approve the October minutes as presented. Eloise seconded. Motion passed, 5-0-1. Jeff abstained himself as he was not present. AGENDA ITEM 1: Planning for 2016—Nominations for Board Chair and Vice-Chair, topics and speakers Troy did not reapply for the board. This is his last meeting. Tatiana was vice chair and she has moved. Most likely will get two new board members. Jeff reapplied, but has not been interviewed yet due to scheduling issues. Sue added that Council is behind on interviews, but supposed to be voted on at December 15 Council meeting. Sue will check with City Clerk’s Office. Had enough applicants to fill open seats. Do not have to vote on chair and vice chair positions until January. Members requested to think about roles they would like or nominations. Comments/Q&A • Curt: Will we have new board members for January meeting? o Sue: Supposed to. • Jeff: Should elect from members we know will be here. Need a chair in January meeting. • Diane and Jeff were nominated for board chair position. No other members showed interest. o Curt: Bring up institutional knowledge when talking about Jeff’s position with Clerk’s Office. Losing a lot of institutional knowledge.  Sue: Incumbents are usually reappointed. • Diane agreed to interim chair for January meeting. • Jeff is willing to accept chair position for 2016. He and Sue will discuss offline. AGENDA ITEM 2: 2016 Work Plan for the Affordable Housing Board Sue used last year’s work plan and updated it to create draft for 2016. Did not assign liaison positions in work plan. Can discuss more when have new members. Comments/Q&A • Diane: Work plan should reflect what affordable housing strategic plan laid out. Might want to compare the two and make sure they flow together, then align to City’s strategic plan also. o Sue: Already aligns to City’s strategic plan. Have a section that brings work from AHSP into the work plan. • Diane: Hard to know how specific to be; nicely flexible now to work on whatever floats to the top. o Jeff: Favor being general in work plan. This is broad enough. Land Bank is discussed in AHSP, but doesn’t have own section in work plan.  Sue: It is strategy in AHSP. Had RFP out for Horsetooth property; received three proposals and staff is reviewing. Currently has units with horse boarding onsite, managed by renter. Will be looking at whether or not to restructure the ordinance, especially looking at larger parcels to loosen restrictions on 100% residential and AMIs, to allow for mixed income and/or mixed use. Will come back to board before going to Council. Also looking for additional properties. If sell Horsetooth proceeds will be used for acquisition, and can request additional funds from BFO.  Jeff: Was Coloradoan accurate in description of RFP process? • Sue: For the most part. • Jeff: What is quiet period? • Sue: The quiet period is term purchasing suggested, which allows her to review proposals before media gets involved. • Curt: More leaning about planning, less agree with single use property. Forces people to drive for services. o Sue: Agree however small parcels may be okay. Land Bank is to reach piece of community that market does not. Testing by offering Horsetooth. Have great opportunity for disaster relief funding, state tax credits, etc. So even if works on this property, may not work the same in the future. o Eloise: There are some services there.  Sue: Some commercial, transit, school, etc. Better served than some other parcels. • Diane: We are keeping eye on ordinance to see if it works? o Sue: Ordinance as exists now completely binds us; however, heard at Work Session that some Council members may be open to considering other planning strategies for larger parcels, to better serve the community. Ex: South College is 17 acres, so may not be best served at 100% affordable (50% AMI renter; 60% AMI ownership). Incorporated by reference to AHSP in work plan. Can leave as is, or add a specific bullet. o Jeff: Test of Horsetooth is not much of a test with so many unique funds that might help it work. Wonderful to take advantage of unique financing, but not a test of how the ordinance works.  Sue: Have designed process to allow partners to go after that funding. And will test again with next property. • Troy: Coming year will be different from last two; had GAP, HAPS and AHSP. Now it is time to use the tools and move forward with them. Goal of number of new affordable units to get online annually. o Sue: 188 units annually to get to 6% in 5 years, but if want to use this time to reach overarching goal, need 228 per year.  Troy: Many units that need to be built—much more than we have been. Have the strategies, now it is time to get to work.  Sue: Hoping this plan will help decision making. Structure of AHSP and How to Use It Sue said similar to structure of last plan. Data is included in the plan rather than in the index. Added guiding principles—gets to idea that this is housing the people live in, and what we wish to provide to all residents of our community. Chapter 3 shows partners and tools already in place. Page 24 talks about criteria to guide allocation decisions. This is funding decisions and will help AHB ranking and CDBG decisions. Looks at leveraging, numbers, AMI, etc. to help decision makers focus on these issues. Chapter 4 discusses strategies and action plans. Sue’s work plan will be related to these action items. Reaction to plan has been positive. • Troy: Has been adopted o Sue: Yes, October 6. • Jeff: Land Bank property, and ambitious goal of creation of units. How hard would it be to land plan how many units could be built on the land we control. o Sue: All LMN, so 12 units per acre, including density bonus. Would not preclude bonus from going over 10 acres but might require a modification. Best to avoid modifications for development partners. One recommendation to look at changing code for over 10 acres. o Jeff: How many acres?  Sue: 50 acres, so 600 units.  Terence: Minimum density is based on net, and maximum density is based on gross. Complicated formulas. o Jeff: Land Bank property would yield how much of 2040 goal?  Sue: One has flood plain issues, but ditch likely to be constructed in 5-10 years. Then would have 4 usable acres. Realistically could have 450-500 units. Land Bank Disposition Study suggested density be increased, but Council was not in agreement. • Eloise: Need to face fact that have limited amount of space. May be appropriate for some parcels. o Sue: Developer could request modification. o Eloise: But developers fear requesting modifications, so we get less density than possible. o Sue: Study recommends 16 per acre for townhome. Council is concerned about neighborhoods, continuity, etc. around the property. o Troy: But that is parcels owned now. If purchased in other zoning districts, could be different. o Sue: not much MMN available, or not bank-able. City is looking at redoing City Plan which could result in change to zoning. • Troy: McDermott is doing project in Harmony corridor. o Terence: Has taken two years to get through planning. o Troy: Look at zoning districts, such as Harmony, and give up primary and secondary goals. Would free up land.  Sue: Constricted with current zoning. Could at least work with 10 acre maximum limitation for density bonus. o Troy: Gives NIMBY an opportunity to fight project. o Diane: Why is there a maximum limit?  Sue: Concerns about saturation.  Troy: Too much concentration of LMN in one area.  Sue: Planning does not feel it is important restriction to retain. Could happen in a regular update. Sue will bring it up with Planning. Topics and Speakers for 2016 • Curt: Has gotten much better. Used to have too many presentations to have discussions. • Troy: Always ran out of time when had more presentations. But also had a lot to do with HAPS and AHSP. May have less on board’s plate in 2016. • Sue: Successful use of subcommittee this year. Can use more as appropriate. Have request from Ginny Sawyer to come in January to talk about landlord licensing. Expecting to phase in a nominal fee for licensing. o Curt: Long term and/or short term licensing?  Sue: Don’t have any licensing yet. Could potentially be used for both. o Board agreed that this topic is relevant.  Sue: Normal process is to check with chair and vice chair on requests to present. • Curt: Request someone present on fee rebalancing. Have gone as far as we can without knowing what City staff is doing. Council is aware, but want to know what action is in the works. o Sue: Talked to Cameron about this before. Ask him back?  Diane: Want to make sure doesn’t drop off the radar. o Troy: Two types of speakers: 1. Project that needs feedback, 2. Questions the board has for staff.  Diane: Can it just be a conversation? • Sue: Will check with Planning on who is best to engage. Will let them know board requests technical assistance on finding the best route to move this forward. o Jeff: Request that Cameron is the person to talk with. o Jeff: When is next BFO cycle?  Sue: 2017. Gearing up.  Jeff: Have someone who can educate board on fiscal impact. • Terence: Josh Birks.  Troy: If this board recommends to Cameron to create a task force to look at fee rebalancing, he may take that idea forward. Has been done before for office parking requirements. • Sue: Having a specific ask is a good thing. • Troy: Have Josh, Clay, affordable housing developers, Mike Sollenberger, etc. o Sue: And people from Finance, Utilities, etc., those who receive the fees. Also pairs nicely with ADUs topic. Part of reason why not being built is because of fees. ADUs are being discussed as part of Old Town Plan. Public opinion goes through cycles—a couple of years ago people were worried about too many ADUs, now they are interested in this option again. From smart urbanism perspective it is a good way to increase density. This board can drive the conversations. • Eloise: Would like to talk about board’s role in education of the community, especially regarding ADUs. Had photos of nice ADU examples. Get coffee shops to hang photos. Some visuals to start conversations. Low key public outreach. o Curt: Similar to affordable housing outreach campaign. o Troy: Can have pictures of ADUs, affordable housing, etc.  Curt: People need to know what it is. • Troy: “This is affordable housing” • Curt: “What does housing affordability look like?”  Jeff: Get photos from FCHA. o Sue: Idea for a subcommittee. Most important role is to educate Council. Not many other boards use pulpit as educational opportunity for the public.  Eloise: Great source of advocacy.  Curt: Many attractive affordable housing units.  Troy: Impediment to building the number of units we want is people opposed to what they think it will look like. • Curt: Perception is huge. • Sue: Campaign to combat negative misperceptions. • Eloise: Idea for speaker—Zoe LeBeau —harm reduction and housing first. Has important statistics would like shared with the board. She is consultant for City and State on progressively looking at how to deal with homelessness. Her concepts have been implemented at Redtail Ponds. Would like to see them give updates on how this concept is being implemented, progress with residents, etc. o Sue: Would we want to host a discussion with her as a speaker, or just have her talk to the board?  Eloise: This is her business, and she usually gets paid. Would be volunteerism to speak to board. • Jeff: If have photo campaign, could we get space in City Hall, or Council’s private chambers? o Sue: Will find out policies for building gallery spaces. o Troy: Other City buildings are open to the public as well. Our affordable housing projects are outstanding.  Sue: Last driving tour was done by IFC a number of years ago. Could consider hosting a tour.  Jeff: Went on a tour before he was on the board.  Sue: The community is interested. • Troy: Continue with water topic, with Utility and/or water districts. Educate board on what goes into water fees. o Sue: Utilities has been working on a memorandum on how to deal with housing and water. Waiting on draft. On her list to schedule. Suggest starting with City’s utility department, then determine if want districts too. o Troy: City utility said possibility to work with affordable housing because has more rights than using?  Sue: Utilities would love to help bring our raw water charges to affordable housing development. Question is whether they physically pipe in treated water, or other. Looking at Land Bank properties first. Districts all deal differently. Good intention to approach the issue and find solutions, but complicated. o Jeff: Timeline? How do we encourage timeline?  Sue: Not that we know of. No work session scheduled.  Diane: Will it affect Land Bank property that is currently for sale? • Terence: Will affect properties down south, but not this one. o Chadrick: Looking at conservation plans, how can development help meet goals by going with low flow fixtures? If meeting strict criteria, can there be a financial benefit? Lower use than other multifamily properties. Also applied to rehab. These thing benefit city in the long term.  Curt: Great idea. Tap fees are the same despite how much water will be used. Visited a project where negotiated lower utilities with trial period.  Chadrick: That is what FCHA did with Loveland water district for Redtail. Have been well below the mark. If hit the mark, they can recapture those dollars. Took six months to negotiate. • Curt: If can reduce water use below City goals for per capita, should be rewarded. o Sue: Interest in water can be ongoing discussion item. Is an emerging issue.  Eloise: Will this topic include talking about another reservoir? • Sue: Storage will come up. • Troy: Part of reason water is so expensive is lack of storage. Colorado water law, reason for cost, CBT, etc. would be good background to get. • Diane: Want to stay on track for goals. Keep water discussion tied to housing. o Sue: Determine what we can accomplish. Opportunity for subcommittee. • Troy: Mobile Home easement. o Sue: Looking at project in Boulder where using tax credit for preservation of mobile homes where appropriate. City’s mitigation strategy was passed, but never implemented. Easement could be implemented with right project. o Curt: What is zoning for mobile home park? o Sue: Not separate zoning.  Troy: Use allowed in several zones. May be LMN and possibly other zones.  Sue: Recommendation of mitigation strategy was to create mobile home zoning, but was not embraced by Council. Changes value of the land. Affordable Housing Mitigation Disposition Strategy. Available on website. • Troy: Came out of issue of displacement of mobile home owners when sold for redevelopment. • Terence: Ones that have been converted had significant infrastructure issues. • Troy: Looking to help invest in infrastructure needs with affordability addition. • Terence: the infrastructure is private: roads, sewer, water, etc. • Diane: Will board be able to give input into use of new Affordable Housing Capital Fund? o Sue: Yes. The money has not started coming in yet. Will be $100K a year for the first couple of years, starting in 2016. Over 10 years will have (projected) $4M. Not front- loaded but will increase over the 10 years. o Diane: has use of funds been defined?  Sue: All BOB2 funds are allocated. These funds can only be used for capital affordable housing needs. Might go into competitive process or be allocated separately. o Jeff: Can it be pledged?  Sue: Might be able to use as collateral, but unsure of process. o Troy: Opportunity for board to be involved in advising Council on how to use the funds. Look through AHSP for concepts that don’t have a funding source.  Sue: Just has to meet capital restriction. Work Plan Discussion • Eloise: Fine but aggressive. • Curt: Should new members be able to see it? Liaison-ships? o Sue: Should we liaison closer with FCHA? Have activity report in monthly packet. Their board meetings are open to the public. o Diane: That would be really wise. Does anyone go to P&Z?  Troy: Was supposed to but didn’t make it.  Sue: Can check the minutes if cannot attend the meetings. Keep appraised. • Eloise: Minutes can be approved months out.  Jeff: Most is project specific. Can focus on land use code twice a year. • Sue: Most projects the board is already aware of.  Diane: Two way communications would be beneficial. Attended senior advisory and brought info back and forth. • Troy: P&Z when changes land use code, sometimes affects affordable housing. But there is a team of City staff that makes those recommendations. Perhaps have those staff present to the board before going to Council. (Ted Shepard) • Sue: Their team meets frequently, so timing of presentations is not critical. Speakers • Sue: Good to check in with our providers. Working with Board of Realtors to cosponsor a regional conversation on affordable housing. Will be followed up with government conversation later in the year. o Diane: Shared housing, matching service, and HOAs conversation today at IFC. Would like to understand how HOAs influence what can and can’t be rented and where. o Sue: FHA loans are not available to communities that have too many rentals.  Terence: That applies more to condos and townhomes. o Eloise: Would have to be in the deed.  Sue: Have master covenant for Provincetowne that must be owner occupied.  Diane: This is for renting part of the home, and remaining owner occupied. How to research? • Sue: Talk offline about resources. • Jeff: Have to review covenant for subdivision. HOA is governed by covenants. Private contract. • Diane: Related to getting more units out of our existing stock. o Sue: Shared housing could be interesting topic.  Diane: Agency would like to create a matching process.  Jeff: Many covenants have single family restrictions. • Curt: You+2, still don’t completely understand. o Sue: Look at chart on Neighborhood Services site for examples. AGENDA ITEM 3: Discussion of Impact Fee Rebalancing Not discussed. AGENDA ITEM 4: 2015-2019 Affordable Housing Strategic Plan Not discussed. AGENDA ITEM 6: Other Business Other Sue thanked Troy for his service on the board. Council Comments Planning • December: Will determine at next month’s meeting. Liaison Reports • None. Review of City Council 6 Month Agenda Planning Calendar/Future Agenda Items • Not discussed. Meeting Adjourned: 6:02pm Next Meeting: January 7