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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Affordable Housing Committee - 03/16/2021March16, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 1 Approved on March 30, 2021 AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE March 16, 2021, 10:30 a.m., meeting held online Members attending: Leslie Black-Plumeau, Vince Bolduc, Sandy Dooley, Patrick O’Brien, John Simson, and Chris Trombly Others: Monica Ostby, PC liaison; Minelle Sarfo-Adu, SBHS student (for agenda item #2); Jessica Hyman, Fair Housing Project, CVOEO (for agenda item #3); Paul Conner, Director of Planning & Zoning (for agenda item #5); Dr. Travia Childs, Rosanne Greco & Ariel Jensen-Vargas, SoBu residents AGENDA 1. Call to order, agenda review, public comment, approval of minutes (03/03/21), announcements 2. Project on African Americans facing discrimination in housing by Minelle Sarfo-Adu, student at SBHS 3. Color of Law Follow-up with guest speaker, Jessica Hyman, CVOEO 4. Communications Update 5. Inclusionary Zoning update by Paul Conner 6. Adjourn 1, Call to order, agenda review, public comment, approval of Minutes (03/03/21), announcements, Call to order: Chris called the meeting to order at 10:37 a.m. Agenda review: Sandy moved and Leslie seconded motion to approve agenda. Motion approved: 5-0-0 (Patrick had not yet arrived). Public Comments: There were no public comments. Minutes: John moved and Sandy seconded motion to approve the 02/16/21 meeting minutes as drafted. Motion approved: 5-0-0 (Patrick had not yet arrived). Announcements: Chris reminded those present that the deadline for the committee’s submission of proposals for additional metrics or different weighting of the six goals (each now weighted equally) for the I-89 2050 Study is March 22. He referred them to Sandy’s email noting suggestions that he, Ariel, and Sandy made during the March 10 multi-committee meeting on this subject and said he had received notes from Aaron Guyette (of VHB and working on study) summarizing their (Chris, Ariel & Sandy) discussion at this meeting. He then asked for additional input. Sandy noted that the group at the meeting did not get to considering whether the measures for the six goals should be weighted equally and added that she received an email from Charlie Baker (CCRPC ED) indicating that the City Council group at the March 10 meeting had recommended giving the Safety goal the greatest weight. Those present viewed making a recommendation on weighting challenging and did not propose an alternative weighting distribution. Comments/proposals for new metrics proposed (at this meeting) included: (1) Town of Hinesburg’s input is that new Exit 12B results in no benefit for them. (2) Modify traffic metric by separating “personal” and commercial traffic. (3) Why isn’t the bike/ped bridge over I-89 just south of Exit 14 included in the Study? This bridge is part of SoBu’s TIF plan. (4) How many of these five options are likely to be built between now and 2050? (5) What is outcome of the Study? A prioritization of the five options—i.e. which option does SoBu want to be built first? Plan for submitting committee comments: Chris asked members to review Sandy’s email and Aaron Guyette’s notes (which Chris will forward to everyone) and, should they have any additional comments, get them to him (Chris) by March 19. He will compile all comments and send them to Charlie Baker on March 22. 2. Project on African Americans facing discrimination in housing by Minelle Sarfo-Adu, student at SBHS: Minelle shared that she hopes to use the data she gathers from her research to prepare a presentation. She has not yet chosen a medium or media through which she will share her presentation. She asked for input regarding content of her presentation. Her scope is Chittenden County. Those present were unanimous in recommending connecting with people who have experienced discrimination in housing, learning about their experiences, and seeking their participation in her presentation or permission to use their experience in her presentation. Additional comments included: people remember stories, include data but not too much, provide specific examples of March16, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 2 problems and ways to address them, connect with NAACP & immigrant community, develop a 20-minute program plus a 30-second to two-minute teaser, read Color of Law and/or watch related video, have content that helps viewer see that everyone should care about this discrimination, member shared name of student doing similar research, members will share their contacts with Minelle. Request/Response: Minelle asked committee if she might do her presentation for them at a meeting in April and would they invite others (City staff, volunteers, residents) to presentation. Committee is happy to do both. Minelle thanked committee for assistance and for agreeing to presentation. Plan: Chris will follow up with Minelle once April meetings are scheduled. 3. Color of Law Follow-up with guest speaker, Jessica Hyman, CVOEO: Book group was great but participants were a self-selected group. How do we reach broader community? Wide-ranging discussion: important to reach young people; maybe pay a stipend to each student who reads book (Color of Law) and completes a question/discussion form; apply for grant for Youth Book Discussion Group sponsored by SoBu Library; Fair Housing Project willing to pay for books for this group; also want to reach Planning Commissioners and City Councilors; Planning Commission Chair and two Planning office staff participated in book group; want to involve new City Manager; half-day retreat on discrimination in housing with City leadership, others after new City Manager arrives; wait to do youth book group until it can be an in-person group and provide pizza and beverages; April is Fair Housing Month; Jessica will provide link to BFP article and reach out to Susan Bliss (Adult Services Librarian) at SoBu Library; committee has more work to do; what is committee’s goal for whatever project we undertake? Don’t need to rush this. Close to end of unusual school year for youth. 4. Communications Update: Leslie – we have crafted many good messages, challenge is to do effective outreach so messages reach/influence target audiences. Since last meeting Leslie, along with Charlie Baker, met with Meaghan Emery about need for more housing in all parts of South Burlington. Charlie discussed problem of racial inequities vis-à-vis housing in Chittenden County. Leslie asked those present for recommended additions to AHC webpage on SoBu’s website and suggestions for improvements to this webpage. Send via email or bring to next meeting. Discussion: how do we get feedback on what we post (e.g. on SoBu Community Watch FB page), seems as if comments are always by the same people, make AHS webpage improvements and steer people to it, Ariel shared that she is a certified social media professional and has experience steering social media users to non-profit organizations’ websites and FB pages. Decision by consensus: will include 15 minutes for “Communication” on every AHC meeting’s agenda. 5. Inclusionary Zoning update: Paul began by summarizing new concepts being incorporated in PUD land development regulations (LDRs); for example, multiple housing types to be required, civic space required, no density maximum while including a minimum density. Eliminating density maximums makes current Affordable Housing Density Bonus LDRs (for areas of SoBu not covered by Inclusionary Zoning) unworkable as there is no density maximum to which to add housing units. Staff provided Planning Commissioners information on how to incorporate Inclusionary Zoning in the PUDs and apply current Inclusionary rules for non-PUD developments in areas not now covered by Inclusionary Zoning. Commissioners gave unanimous thumbs up to staff to proceed with developing LDRs that would make these changes. Monica: Many things City Council could be doing while Planning Commission works to complete Interim Zoning projects. Examples: they could waive Impact and/or other fees for Inclusionary housing units, make decisions regarding goal of purchasing one or more parcels that were identified as highest priority for conservation, make decisions relating to TDR committee’s recommendations. Monica’s goal: Planning Commission gets changes to Articles 10 & 12 and related Article changes and new PUD regulations to City Council in time for them to warn City Council public hearing on these proposed changes before Interim Zoning ends (November 13, 2021). 6. Adjourn: At 12:34 p.m. Leslie moved and Patrick seconded motion to adjourn. Motion approved: 6-0-0.