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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Affordable Housing Committee - 01/07/2020January 7, 2020, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 1 Approved on January 21, 2020 AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMMITTEE January 7, 2020, 10:00 a.m., City Hall, Champlain Room Members attending: Tom Bailey, Leslie Black-Plumeau (left 11:25 a.m.), Sandy Dooley, Michael Simoneau, and John Simson Members absent: Paula DeMichele, Others absent: Monica Ostby, PC liaison Guests: Kevin Dorn, SoBu City Manager, and Patrick O’Brien, S.D. Ireland Company, AGENDA 1. Call to order, emergency procedure, agenda review, comments from guests 3/2. Review and approval of minutes of 12/03/19 committee meeting 4/3. Chair’s Comments – Planning Commission meeting 01/07/20 2/4. Kevin Dorn to discuss his appearance before Senator Sirotkin and the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee on January 9th regarding affordable housing 5. Update on housing land priority sites project – Mike and Tom 6. Review 2020 Work Plan to schedule Committee work 7. Reports and updates by committee members 8 Adjourn 1. Call to order, emergency procedure, agenda review, comments from guess: John called meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. John reviewed the exit procedures. John welcomed our guest. There were no public comments. At this point, Kevin Dorn arrived and committee, by consensus, decided to move agenda item 4 to become item 2 and renumber subsequent agenda items accordingly. 2. Kevin Dorn to discuss his appearance before Senator Sirotkin and the Senate Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs Committee on January 9th regarding affordable housing: Members present suggested that Kevin include the following in his remarks at committee meeting: ● 1,000 of the 8,000 SoBu households pay 50% or more of their income on housing. This puts these households at risk of mortgage foreclosure; eviction; and inability to pay for medicine, heating or light bills, and/or an adequate diet. ● investing in housing is an important economic investment tool. ● the $37 million bond for housing passed by the legislature provided funding for housing built by Cathedral Square and Champlain Housing Trust in City Center. ● stormwater requirements unnecessarily remove land from development for housing. ● wetlands regulations need to be relaxed. ● in spite of the good that has come from the recent $37 million bond, Vermont continues to need more housing. More housing is needed at all price points. ● encourage the committee/legislature to pass another bond for housing. ● municipalities, developers, and businesses in this area have collaborated through the CCRPC-organized Building Homes Together campaign to promote construction of more housing ● need to modify Act 250 to provide waivers for construction of housing in designated downtown areas. Kevin thanked the committee for these suggestions. Committee then raised subject of requesting that the City Council advertise to fill the three vacancies on the committee. Committee now has six members; the three vacancies resulted from death of Larry Michaels, and resignations of Cindy Reid and Todd Rawlings. Kevin pledged to raise this subject with Council Chair Riehle. He is optimistic that she will view this request positively. Committee pledged to identify and encourage January 7, 2020, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 2 interested City residents to apply. Kevin encouraged committee to proceed along this path and left the meeting. 3. Review and approval of minutes of 12/03/19 committee meeting: Mike moved and Tom seconded motion to approve the minutes of the12/03/19 meeting, as corrected. Motion passed (5-0-0). Corrections (proposed by Sandy) were to indicate that Monica Ostby attended the meeting, Paula remained until adjournment, and the adjournment vote was 5-0-0. 4. Chair’s Comments: John shared with those present that he had called Faith Ingulsrud, planner for the VT Department of Housing and Community Affairs, inquiring about pending legislation and the zoning for great neighborhoods program. In response to a request by Paula, Sandy gave a brief summary of what happened at the 12/17/19 Planning Commission (PC) meeting re the proposed expansion of Inclusionary Zoning. In summary, in response to input from Andrew Gill of O’Brien Brothers, PC concluded that a few more modifications were needed, which it asked staff to draft, with the plan to review these changes and approve the “package” quickly at its first January meeting. The PC’s first January meeting is 01/14/20. John is hopeful the Inclusionary Zoning rules will be on their way to the City Council immediately following the 01/14/20 PC meeting. A brief discussion followed regarding the new development on Shelburne Road that Joe Larkin will present at Sketch Plan at the 01/07/20 DRB meeting (that evening). Prior to the meeting Mike had invited Larkin to meet with the committee but did not specify a date. Members then discussed under what conditions they should/could/would invite developers that brought a proposal to build housing to the DRB to meet with the committee. Sandy indicated her view that we should strive to be balanced in reaching out to developers. This discussion included when, within the context of the committee’s ongoing work, John should ask Larkin to come. Members present chose to defer the date question until later in the meeting. 5. Update on housing priority sites project – Mike & Tom: discussed within the contest of the Work Plan (below) 6. Review 2020 Work Plan to schedule additional Committee work: John indicated desire to have one or two committee members accept task of identifying areas on the Zoning Map that are within the Transit Overlay District and underutilized. This would include identifying land in Zones that do not permit residential housing but might be appropriate for housing within a mixed-use context. Not having volunteers, John agreed to take on this task and report back to the committee at a subsequent meeting. Members then focused on identifying residents that may have an interest in applying to for appointment to the Affordable Housing Committee. Patrick O’Brien has already expressed an interest in applying. We need at least two more applicants to fill the three vacancies. Five residents were identified and placed in priority order. John will reach out to them to explore their interest in applying to join the committee. When he has two residents interested in applying, he will conclude his outreach. Mike shared that he submitted a “letter to the editor” of The Other Paper. It presents the dual desires for conserving open space and needing more housing, especially affordable housing, as either challenges or opportunities and encourages them to be viewed as opportunities. He will send a copy of his letter to committee members. Regarding goal #9, John brought up the need to follow up on Todd’s work in preparing some information sheets about the revised Inclusionary Zoning rules; one sheet would be for developers, the other would be for potential renters or homebuyers. Regarding goal # 2a, Tom volunteered to do research on Accessory Dwelling Units and find out what the programs in Montpelier and Brattleboro have accomplished. January 7, 2020, SoBu Affordable Housing Committee Minutes- APPROVED Page 3 Patrick brought up the need to generate revenue that can be used for affordable housing. There followed a discussion of various methods and timing. Reaching consensus, Sandy moved and Tom seconded a motion that the Committee prepare and bring to the City Council a proposal to place an item on the November 2020 ballot to add 2¢ to the property tax for affordable housing. Motion passed 4-0-0. Following this motion, John noted that the committee needs to set dates/times for its February meetings. Members scheduled the following meetings by consensus: Tuesday, February 4, 2020, 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, February 18, 2020, 10:00 a.m. John proposed that Joe Larkin be invited to meet with the committee at its February 18th committee meeting. Those present concurred with this proposal. Mike will invite Joe on John’s behalf. 7. Reports and updates by committee members: Due to lack of time deferred to a subsequent meeting. 8. Adjourn: At 12:06 p.m., Tom moved and Mike seconded motion to adjourn. Motion passed 4-0-0.