HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Affordable Housing Committee - 09/21/2016
South Burlington Affordable Housing Committee
MINUTES
September 21, 2016
Members Attending: John Simson, Sandy Dooley, Mike Simoneau, Leslie Black-Plumeau and Tom Bailey
Members Absent: Kane Smart.
Others Present: Kevin Dorn, South Burlington City Manager
Minutes: Tom Bailey
The meeting was called to order at 5:00 PM by Kevin Dorn who suggested that the members introduce
themselves, since this was the first meeting of the Committee. The members introduced themselves with a brief
descriptions of their backgrounds. Then Kevin recommended that the next order of business was the election of
a Chair and a Vice Chair. After nominations and voting, John Simson was elected Chair of the Committee and
Sandy Dooley was elected Vice Chair.
John Simson took over the meeting and summarized the history of Affordable Housing Committees in South
Burlington:
a. The initial committee was established to research, assess and report on the status of affordable
housing in South Burlington and report to the South Burlington Planning Commission. The report
entitled “Path to Sustainability” dated April 24, 2013 made many recommendations.
b. Among the recommendations was the adoption of inclusionary zoning. Therefore, the next itteration
of the committee had the goal of proposing an inclusionary zoning regulation for the City Center
zoning district, which regulation was adopted.
c. The third affordable housing committee was to work up a proposal to establish the South Burlington
Housing Trust. This was completed with the City committed to adding to the trust fund in the amount
of at least $50,000 per year.
Then John addressed the formation of this Committee, which was created by the City Council at its May 2nd,
2016 meeting. It was established to support and assist the City in achieving the goals for housing, especially
housing for households whose incomes do not exceed 80 percent of the Area Median Income as stated in the
City’s 2016 and subsequent Comprehensive Plans. The Committee was given the following charge:
1. Keep abreast of housing policies and strategies in place elsewhere that might be applied here to
increase the stock of affordable housing for employed and senior residents.
2. Review ideas and recommendations in the 2013 Report, Path to Affordability, not adopted thus far to
determine if any should be advanced to the Planning Commission.
3. Assess the need for expanding inclusionary zoning regulations to areas of the City outside the City
Center district and make recommendations to the Planning Commission on this subject.
4. Study ways to permanently fund the Trust Fund and make a recommendation to the City Council.
5. Continue to monitor statistical data regarding the state of housing affordability in the City.
6. Undertake measures to educate the public.
7. Be open to citizen ideas and opinions.
8. Submit an annual report to the City Council.
The Committee discussed briefly Kane Smart, the newest appointed member, who is unknown to the members
present but expressed that it is looking forward to working with him.
John indicated he would send the members an e-mail with links that he thought appropriate for the members to
educate themselves.
There followed a discussion of inclusionary zoning and its possible expansion to other parts of the City beyond
City Center. Sandy Dooley indicated that the development of inclusionary zoning standards had been especially
aided with the input of developers. She felt that standards had to be workable by developers or nothing would be
built. Leslie asked about how the inclusionary zoning is set up in the City Center. John explained that there is a
12 unit threshold and a staggered 15% requirement for affordable housing.
There was a brief discussion of how affordable housing is addressed in Chapter 117 (Planning and Land
Development) of Title 24 of the Vermont Statutes Annotated. Tom indicated he would e-mail the committee
members a link to Chapter 117 and to the inclusionary zoning language in the City land development
regulations.
Then John led a discussion of the items listed in the Charge and possible ways to address them. He asked Leslie
about out-of-state resources of strategies for tackling affordable housing that she might be aware of. She agreed
to provide some helpful links and suggested that members of the committee access the VHFA News Blog on the
VHFA website. John mentioned the state wide housing conference on November 14th and 15th and Leslie
suggested the book “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America” by Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke
Shaefer.
John urged everyone to review the recommendations from the 2013 report. He also suggested that Paul Connor,
who staffs the Planning Commission, come to our next meeting to give us some idea of when the Planning
Commission might be able to address our committee’s renewed recommendations from the 2013 report. Kevin
said he would arrange it. There followed a discussion of funding the Housing Trust and its use in concert with
other resources. There was a discussion of ways to educate the public on affordable housing issues and using
Facebook and Front Porch Forum were raised. Sandy suggested holding a contest for architects to submit
affordable housing designs using new materials. Kevin described a training session which the City is hosting to
help committee officers become more effective and suggested John and Sandy attend.
The committee discussed scheduling of future meetings. The next two meetings are scheduled for:
Wednesday November 1st at 4 PM and,
Wednesday December 6th at 4 PM.
On motion duly made and seconded, the meeting adjourned at 6:10 PM.
Date UNAPPROVED minutes circulated by e-mail to Committee members and Kevin Dorn: Sept. 22, 2016
Date minutes APPROVED by the Affordable Housing Committee: March 6, 2017