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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Affordable Housing Committee - 08/09/2021August 9, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 1 Approved on August 23, 2021 AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE August 9, 2021, 10:30 a.m., meeting held online and at City Hall Members attending: Janet Bellavance, Leslie Black-Plumeau, Vince Bolduc, Sandy Dooley, Patrick O’Brien, Darrilyn Peters, John Simson, and Chris Trombly. Absent: Ariel Jensen-Vargas and Minelle Sarfo-Ado. Others: Monica Ostby, PC liaison; Jessie Baker, City Manager; Shiferaw Gemeda, CVOEO’s Fair Housing Project; Barbara Sirvis, SoBu resident. AGENDA 1. Call to order, agenda review, public comment, approval of minutes (06/22/21), announcements 2. Committee reorganization 3. Possible action on draft Welcome Statement for new city manager 4. Guest Speaker: Shiferaw Gemeda from CVOEO on housing committee best practices 5. Communications Update 6. Review and possibly take action on draft FY2021 workplan, Annual Report, and upcoming priority-setting 7. Adjourn 1, Call to order, agenda review, public comment, approval of Minutes (06/08/21), announcements Call to order: Chris called the meeting to order at 10:31 a.m. Note: prior to Chris having formally called the meeting to order, Darrilyn asked that a contact list of names and phone numbers of committee members be developed and shared to promote contacts among members, noting that new members may want to reach out to longer term members with questions about concepts, policies, history of committee action on topics, etc. Everyone present agreed and Jessie volunteered to develop this list and share with committee members. Agenda review: Vince moved and Leslie seconded motion to approve the agenda as proposed. Sandy mentioned need to schedule future meetings. Vince proposed including time for introductions under reorganization. Group decided to include future meeting dates under announcements and introductions under reorganization. Motion approved: 8-0-0. Public Comments: None. Minutes: Leslie moved and Vince seconded motion to approve the draft minutes for the 06/22/21 meeting. Motion approved: 7-0-1. (Janet abstained due to not having attended the 6/22 meeting.) Announcements: Leslie shared that she had communicated with some of the panelists for the Land Use and Equity seminar that took place on August 3, 2021. Sandy noted that more members of this committee had attended than had members of other SoBu committees. Concepts/topics that panelists voiced included: lack of affordable housing; transportation; climate change; housing for climate refugees; multi-jurisdictional approach; lack of jobs, food insecurity; need for additional land for gardens; crops raised by indigenous people in Vermont; need access to land on which to obtain nuts, maintain beehives, and/or carry out traditional ceremonies and rituals; and 24-bison farm in Shoreham. Committee decided to meet on 8/23, 10:30 a.m. and to put a hold on 9/13, 10:30 a.m. Committee did not schedule meeting on 9/13 because it wants to learn whether Ariel will be able to change work schedule so that she can meet on Monday mornings. Question of meeting in-person or online was raised. Jessie explained that State Law allows us to meet either in person only or the hybrid approach of in person and online and added that she would provide a meeting space at City Hall at which she would attend and allow members and/or the public to join her, and that some or all members could continue to meet online. Following brief discussion, Sandy moved and Leslie seconded motion that the committee adopt the hybrid approach of meeting in person and online. Motion approved: 8-0-0. 2. Reorganization: Committee members introduced themselves, stating how long they have lived in South Burlington, how long they have been members of this committee, and their involvement with/relationship to affordable housing. Some stated motivation for seeking to be appointed to the committee. Everyone recognizes the need for more affordable housing in South Burlington and is ready work hard to make this happen. Monica August 9, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 2 shared recent information she received about Vermont imposing a tax on remote workers. Members want to know more about this. Elections: John moved and Vince seconded motion to nominate Chris to continue as chair of the committee. Sandy moved and Vince seconded motion that nominations for chair be closed. This motion approved: 8-0-0. Motion to elect Chris chair approved: 8-0-0. Leslie moved and Vince seconded motion to nominate Sandy to continue as vice chair of the committee. John moved and Darrilyn seconded motion that nominations for vice chair be closed. This motion approved: 8-0-0. Motion to elect Sandy vice chair approved: 8-0-0. Vince moved and John seconded motion to nominate Sandy to continue as secretary of the committee. Leslie moved and Darrilyn seconded motion that nominations for secretary be closed. This motion approved: 8-0-0. Motion to elect Sandy secretary approved: 8-0-0. 3. Possible action on draft Welcome Statement for City Manager: Sandy reviewed modifications that had been made to first draft of Welcome Statement as a result of committee action at 06/22/21 meeting and proposed one additional change, which was that some notation be added to the “Goals for 2021” to reflect that these goals had not yet been adopted. Members agreed to add “in process” in parentheses following “Goals for 2021.” Sandy then moved and John seconded that, with this addition, the Statement for City Manager be approved. Motion approved: 8-0-0. 4. Guest Speaker: Shiferaw Gemeda from CVOEO on housing committee best practices: Shiferaw shared that his work for the Fair Housing Project focuses on protected classes, a project with VHFA (the affordable housing toolbox), and the Housing Survey that is the reason for his attendance at the committee’s meeting. The Survey is for municipalities to complete about whether they have an affordable housing committee and what might be useful to this committee. Some New Hampshire towns’ committees have found the survey useful. Leslie indicated that CVOEO has conducted this survey in the past. The request is for SoBu’s committee to complete the survey as a whole (it is not to be completed by each committee member). Members’ consensus was that Chris should complete survey on behalf of the committee. Chris agreed to complete the survey. Deadline for completion is midnight on 9/5/2021. 5. Communications Update: Ariel had agreed to lead the subgroup tasked with proposing communications efforts and in some cases, following request by committee, carrying out these efforts. Leslie had hoped to communicate with Ariel prior to this meeting but this did not happen. Chris invited members to propose topics for communications efforts. Patrick proposed raising question of why, in municipalities with rigorous review process that includes Act 250 criteria, should developers have to go through a second review process of same criteria via Act 250. Example: for South Village he has had to go through DRB review of 30 criteria and then review of same 30 criteria for Act 250. John provided some of the history of how/why Act 250 came about; a primary reason was that little or no review was taking place at the local level. Vince asked what we might do to help bring about change in this area. John suggested meeting with some of SoBu’s State legislative delegation. Patrick suggested having John Adams (from VT Department of Housing and Community Development) attend a committee meeting to discuss this subject and what has happened vis-à-vis past efforts to “reform” Act 250. Question: Does the housing crisis create a carpe diem situation for making these kinds of changes to Act 250? Jessie raised question of committee’s role in legislative advocacy. Jessie indicated that, at the August 17, 2021, City Council meeting, she would be proposing a process by which the City Council would look at things holistically, rather than reacting, and establish policy priorities that would guide the development of their annual workplan. Vince asked whether the City Council has to “pass” the committee’s workplan. John replied that this has never happened in the past. 6. Review and possibly take action on draft FY2021 workplan, Annual Report, and upcoming priority-setting: Sandy commented that she views the creation and implementation of the checklist described in #12 as something that the City Council should include in its workplan and that its use should apply to all city projects whether done by staff or volunteer committees. In other words, it should not fall to the AHC to develop this checklist though we would certainly want to contribute to its development. Darrilyn agreed. Janet suggested moving on to other parts of workplan. Sandy noted that the committee has already explored many of the funding sources named under #1 August 9, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 3 and determined that they are unlikely to be accomplished due to the need for legislative and gubernatorial approval as they require changes to the City’s charter. Patrick proposed that we focus on the possibility of having Impact Fees on Commercial developments—the fees would support affordable housing. Leslie proposed doing a multi-vote process under which each member receives a certain number of votes that they assign to the proposed goals in a manner consistent with the priority they believe each goal should be given. Example: they can assign all of their votes to a single goal. Chris asked: how do we proceed as we lack time at this meeting for exploration and decision-making? Darrilyn proposed devoting an entire meeting to the workplan. Janet and other members voiced support for this proposal. Process will be to convert the current draft workplan to a Google document on which members can add comments. Jessie: we can do this without violating open meeting law as long as we do not engage in debate about any person’s comments. Chris proposed and all agreed to devote entire 8/23 committee meeting to the workplan. 7. Adjourn: At 12:35 p.m. Leslie moved and John seconded motion to adjourn. Motion approved: 8-0-0.