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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Affordable Housing Committee - 12/21/2022December 21, 2022, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes – APPROVED Page 1 Approved on January 18, 2023 AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE December 21, 2022, 6:00 p.m., meeting held online and at City Hall Members attending: Janet Bellavance, Vince Bolduc, Leslie Black-Plumeau, Sandy Dooley, Ariel Jensen-Vargas (left at approximately 6:55 p.m.), Darrilyn Peters, John Simson, and Chris Trombly; members absent: Emily Holt-Gosselin and Tom Getz; also present: Jessie Baker, City Manager; City Councilor Meaghan Emery (CC liaison to AHC); public: no members of the public attended. AGENDA 1. Call to order, approve agenda, announcements, public comment 2. Approve minutes from 11/16/22 meeting 3. City Manager Update 4. Discussion and possible action to provide the requested information from the City Planners' office to support the Comprehensive Plan planning discussions 5. Discussion and possible action regarding the proposed Encampment Policy impacting people experiencing homelessness in South Burlington 6. Adjourn 1. Call to order, approve agenda, announcements, public comment Call to order: Chris called the meeting to order at 6:08 p.m. Approve agenda: Darrilyn moved and John seconded motion to approve the agenda as proposed. Approved: 8-0-0. Announcements: None Public Comments: None 2. Approve minutes from 11/16/22 AHC meeting: Vince moved and John seconded motion that 11/16/22 meeting minutes be approved as drafted. Motion approved: 8-0-0. 3. City Manager Update: Jessie is working with City staff and City Council (CC) to prepare FY24 budget to propose to voters on (and before) Town Meeting Day. Department heads have been presenting their budgets to the Council at Council meetings. In addition to the budget, the Council is likely to approve two bond votes to put before the voters: 1. for funding to upgrade wastewater treatment plan off Shelburne Road and 2. for final TIF project funding. This information is available on the City’s website. John then inquired about CC action on the various City committees’ proposals on how to invest the remaining unallocated ARPA funds. He inquired in particular about the Affordable Housing Committee’s proposal to invest ARPA funds in a pilot program that would provide funding and technical assistance for homeowners to add an ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) to their home (either within the primary dwelling unit structure or separate from it but on the same lot). He raised this question because he recently learned that the State of Vermont has a program that offers up to $50,000 per unit and technical assistance for homeowners seeking to add an ADU to their home. With regard to CC action on the committees’ proposals re ARPA, no action has occurred. Jessie is developing a matrix for CC use in scoring the proposals. Leslie clarified that the recent announcement of State funding for ADUs is a clarification that funds for ADUs are available from a pre-existing program that funds additional housing initiatives. The initiative to support development of ADUs is not “ready-to-go” because the technical assistance component is not yet in place. John will follow up and determine when the State’s program will be operational. He also plans to write an article about the State program for The Other Paper. 4. Discussion and possible action to provide the requested information from the City Planners' office to support the Comprehensive Plan planning discussions: The Comp Plan work group (Chris, Leslie, Sandy and Vince) met three times (12/7, 12/14, and 12/15), plus an additional meeting with Kelsey Peterson (12/14). Kelsey shared that the goal is to have an 85% draft of the updated Comp Plan ready by June. General schedule is as follows: Committees respond to Kelsey’s 11/7/22 letter by 12/31/22. The Planning Commission (PC) will begin work with committee submissions in January. Ten public meetings will take place in February and March; six of the meetings will focus on subject areas covered in the CP (Housing, Economy, Community Services, Environment, December 21, 2022, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes – APPROVED Page 2 Recreation & Culture, and Transportation); the other four will focus on geographic areas of the City. There will be an informal poll similar to the one done to obtain input regarding how to invest ARPA funds. Input can also be provided via the website. The PC will review the drafted CP sections in April & May. They are looking for measurable objectives and plan outreach to underrepresented groups. Another objective is that the final document be considerably shorter than the current CP. Kelsey emphasized that her 11/7/22 letter to committees is only the first of several requests she will make for committee input into the updated CP. The following committee discussion focused on the draft that the work group forwarded to the committee along with the meeting’s agenda. Committee decision-making vis-à-vis the final version of the memo to Kelsey is likely best understood by reviewing the work group’s draft and the version of the memo that the committee approved. Both are attached. In addition, a copy of the approved document that highlights where the changes were made is also attached. SoBu-AHC-Memo-K-Peterson1215-clean.pdf SoBu-AHC-Memo-K-Peterson122222.pdf SoBu-AHC-Memo-K-Peterson122222wHigh.pdf Sandy moved and John seconded a motion to approve the work group’s draft memo as modified during the meeting, and forward it to Kelsey Peterson. Approved: 7-0-0. 5. Discussion and possible action regarding the proposed Encampment Policy impacting people experiencing homelessness in South Burlington: There was very little time to discuss this agenda item. Darrilyn indicated that she agrees with City Councilor Chittenden that the encampment procedures be adopted, initially, as a policy; monitored during initial application; modified if necessary; and then adopted as an ordinance. In the brief time available, she suggested that the committee add monitoring the policy (adopted by the CC on 12/19/22) to our Work Plan and revisit it sometime in 2023. 6. Adjourn: (8:05 p.m.) By members’ mutual consent (seven still present), meeting was adjourned.