HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Affordable Housing Committee - 08/23/2021August 23, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 1
Approved on September 13, 2021 AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE
August 23, 2021, 10:30 a.m., meeting held online and at City Hall Members attending: Janet Bellavance, Leslie Black-Plumeau, Vince Bolduc, Sandy Dooley, Darrilyn Peters, Minelle Sarfo-Ado, John Simson, and Chris Trombly. Absent: Ariel Jensen-Vargas and. Patrick O’Brien, committee members; Monica Ostby, PC liaison Others: Jessie Baker, City Manager AGENDA 1. Call to order, agenda review, public comment, approval of minutes (08/09/21), announcements
2 Review and possibly take action on draft FY2021 workplan, Annual Report, and upcoming priority-setting Questions for discussion: ● Which items would you like to see prioritized?
● What should be the timing of completion? ● What would you like to see added? 3. Communications discussion
4. Adjourn 1, Call to order, agenda review, public comment, approval of Minutes (08/09/21), announcements
Call to order: Chris called the meeting to order at 10:35 a.m. Agenda review: Sandy moved and John seconded motion to approve the agenda as proposed. Motion approved: 7-0-0 (Janet not yet present).
Public Comments: None. Minutes: Leslie moved and Vince seconded motion to approve the draft minutes for the 08/09/21 meeting. Motion approved: 8-0-0. Announcements: Leslie reported new 2020 Census data for SoBu: net increase of 1,121 households since 2010—lowest decade-to-decade increase since the 1970s. Vince shared that data on the Committee’s webpage indicate 76 housing permits were issued in 2020, the third lowest in the last 10 years. Sandy & Chris shared that they had attended the most recent Planning Commission meeting, which focused on the Infill PUD. The City Council is in the process of establishing a Climate Change Committee; the Affordable Housing Committee will have one seat on this committee. Committee needs to designate its representative to the committee. Question: is this representative’s job to act in accordance with their own position/views on matters before the committee or represent the positon of the committee? Jessie replied that the representative’s responsibility is to represent the
committee. John stated that the representative’s input should be consistent with the Committee’s goals as articulated in its work plan, motions, or other committee documents. Jessie will be developing a charter for the Climate Change Committee.
2. Review and possibly take action on draft FY2021 workplan, Annual Report, and upcoming priority-setting: Questions for discussion:
● Which items would you like to see prioritized? ● What should be the timing of completion? ● What would you like to see added? Draft workplan: Lots of discussion. Leslie mentioned that an important and time-consuming task not included in the draft workplan is committee’s responsibility to maintain a high level of knowledge of the PC’s work when its work relates to supporting (or not supporting) an increase in the availability of affordable housing in the City (for example, PC’s current work on the PUD regulations). Jessie mentioned providing input to the City Council’s recently initiated policies and priority-setting process. One committee member expressed the desire for our City Council to take some kind of action that demonstrates its recognition of the housing crisis and that it places a high priority on increasing the availability and affordability of housing in the City for all but our affluent households (for whom affordability does not present a challenge)—i.e. not solely more affordable housing for very low income households. Other committee members concurred in this
August 23, 2021, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 2
desire. Perception on the part of some committee members is that, since the establishment of Interim Zoning, the
City Council has been disproportionately focused on conservation of open space. Mention made of recent CC letter of support for 72 additional affordable housing units as part of O’Brien Farms
development. Minelle asked for information on the household income levels to which these units would be available. Sandy indicated that most of the units would be for households with incomes substantially below 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) and promised to send specifics to Minelle. Question: what is affordable? Leslie said that the measure of affordability is whether you are spending a sustainable amount of your income on housing. The rule of thumb has been that spending more than 30% of household income on housing exceeds the sustainability threshold. Vince reminded members that our committee’s charge from the City Council is to address housing needs in
general and not solely for lower-income households. John stated that, in recognition of fact that housing for the lowest income households requires substantial public funding (primarily tax credits) to build, the committee decided several years back to focus on Missing Middle income households who, for the most part, do not qualify
for housing that receives public funding. A priority has been to find ways that the City can support private developers in building housing that Missing Middle households can afford.
Considerable agreement among committee members that increased financial resources and/or reductions in City-imposed costs on developers are needed to make progress toward increasing the availability of affordable housing in the City. Committee needs to connect the need for increased financial resources with goals and
strategies included in the Comprehensive Plan. Mention was made that Planning Commission appears headed to including Citywide inclusionary zoning in the Interim Zoning package of LDRs that it will take to public hearing soon. While committee will need to advocate for these LDRs at public hearing and also at City Council’s public hearing, once these LDRs are (hopefully) successfully adopted, this goal can be dropped from our workplan. In addition to working on proposing ways to increase funding for Housing Trust Fund, committee members support draft goals 3 (Review zoning districts citywide, etc.), 5 (Identify regulatory barriers, etc.), and 6 (Identify options for buying or developing, etc.). We need more funding in Housing Trust Fund to replace revenue lost if
goal 4 (Advocate for waiver or reduction, etc.) were implemented. Regarding goal 7 (Request staff support), Jessie is available to provide staff support at this time. Staff support in the future might become available from new City Planner for whom recruitment is now underway. Goal 8 (updating ADU regulations) is in progress.
Committee is supportive of goals 11 & 12 (making decisions and establishing policies that promote housing affordability, equity, inclusiveness, and combatting climate change, and developing checklist for use in operationalizing these priorities/values). However, members believe this should be a priority goal for City as a
whole, not solely the Affordable Housing Committee. Where do we go from here? Leslie: let’s have two (conceptual) baskets. Put what we want to ask the City Council to endorse/prioritize in first basket and other important goals that are less in need of City Council endorsement/prioritization in the second basket. Partnerships across committees was mentioned. Jessie offered to draft a template for use in communicating proposed priorities to the City Council. Members present accepted her offer with notable enthusiasm. Before discussion ended, Darrilyn indicated her willingness to drop goal 10 (book discussion group). Leslie indicated the opposite view, stating she would like to explore having another book discussion group as long as it does not involve a lot of work by committee members. Another comment on this subject was that, for the most
part, the group focused on The Color of Law seemed, in many respects, preaching to the choir. No consensus reached on whether to drop or retain goal 10.
3. Communications Discussion: due to lack of time, agenda item was postponed to future meeting.
4. Adjourn: At 12:31 p.m. Leslie moved and Janet seconded motion to adjourn. Motion approved: 7-0-0 (Minelle was no longer present).