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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-11-29 Housing MIN ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES NOVEMBER 29, 2000 CALL TO ORDER - The meeting was called to order at 4:10 p.m. by Chair Larry Medinger. Other Commissioners present were Nancy Richardson, Jan Vaughn, Joan Legg, Carlus Harris and Madeline Hill. David Fine arrived at 4:20 p.m. and Joe McKeever arrived at 4:30 p.m. Staff present was Sue Yates. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - There were no minutes from the previous meeting. EMERGENCY SERVICES PERSONNEL Medinger said he communicated several times with Bill Molnar over the last month regarding the information that would go to the Council with reference to affordable housing for emergency services personnel. Medinger had some back-up material he wanted to include as examples but was not able to do so because of his own time constraints. Medinger heard from Susan Reid that she had some concerns about emergency services personnel proposal. Hill noted she had a similar conversation with Councilor Reid. Harris said the Housing Commission was asked by the City Council to consider the matter of affordable housing for emergency services personnel and bring forth a recommendation to them. He saw the final draft of Molnar’s memo and thought it was excellent. He was not at the last meeting, however, he got the impression we would go ahead and present it to the Council. He does not know what attachments Medinger is referring to, but when he found the Council had not gotten the information, Harris was quite concerned because the Commission was not following through with the mandate given to them by the Council. He did not think the Commission had discussed what the attachments were unless it happened on the day he was not present. Medinger said they decided to have a broader focus of two houses a year for a couple of years as a pilot program while they were building a needs assessment. He was suggesting they include a specific example of a new employee to the emergency services and new teacher and compare salaries. Harris felt those concerns were addressed in Molnar’s memo in a more objective way. Was it the group as a whole that decided the attachment would be included? Richardson does not remember an attachment. She recalls talking about to whom the proposal would appeal to and that should be included. Medinger said it was his idea to provide the attachments and he did not follow through. Hill said as a result the proposal was not presented at the last Council meeting. Harris said there seems to be a lot of concern out there with the Council that this may not be a very good idea and it is sitting is our laps to make a recommendation. The longer it sits in our lap waiting for a recommendation, the more of this kind of rumor and innuendo will fulminate to the point where the Housing Commission is in the middle of it. The sooner we can give the Council their recommendation, the quicker it is off the Commission’s table. Harris believes Molnar’s memo succinctly stated the proposal may be a good idea, it may be something to be considered, but the Commission is interested in the broad-range concept of bringing affordable housing to people in our community. Legg asked where we go from here. Medinger asked if we want to take Molnar’s memo without any attachments? As Harris stated earlier, he was perfectly okay with the memo Molnar put forth. Legg moved to forward Molnar’s memo to the Council with or without the appropriate attachments. Hill seconded the motion. Medinger wondered if we could focus on this as a pilot program and the EMT personnel as only one alternative. Hill said the appendix should be pulled. The Commissioners voted favorably to the motion with no appendix. As a summary, drop the specific reference to the EMT in the discussion of the pilot program, and include a specific information memorandum aimed at EMT’s answering the Council’s request. Cate Hartzell wondered if rental housing was talked about for emergency service personnel. Medinger said the Commission has not dealt with rentals adequately--in this discussion. The only rental housing is a little loan program. Hill said the Land Trust would be very open to considering rentals as part of the pilot project. Fine said he has heard from some of the younger people in the fire and police departments that those who want to live in Ashland and are going to rent, don’t face a problem finding something they can rent and still afford--at least, not yet. LETTER FROM CATE HARTZELL Hartzell said the formation of the Ashland Community Land Trust heightened the visibility of affordable housing in Ashland. She began talking with Medinger and Harris and she has concluded that as a community we lack targets. She does not think success is assured without goals and targets which can be formulated through strategic planning. She would encourage more people to join the Commission in or if others are ready for a break, get an advisory group or if there are people who don’t want to put in the time but have expertise, use them. All of this can be part of the strategic plan. She spoke with Greg Scoles earlier in the year, and he said there was money to hire a consultant to work with the Commission on a strategic plan. That way, Molnar could come as Staff and participate and bring his expertise. Molnar seemed open to it and moving ahead with strategic planning. Molnar said the parts of the Housing Element that have to be fulfilled by the strategic planning process, he would be willing to put in the time to do that when Council directs it as the highest priority. Since Hartzell will be on the Council, she will argue that it is a high priority and will support it. Hartzell has talked with Harris about going to a private foundation and trying to get funding to get training on effective meetings. Legg is completely in favor of Hartzell’s proposal. In particular, she liked what Hartzell’s memo had to say about allies, places we might partner, who else we might work with, and other resources. Medinger wondered if Hartzell thought there was really money. Fine said there is a line item in the budget for contracted professional services. Hartzell wondered when the Commissioners could start. She suggested getting someone like Debbie Price to help brainstorm and meet on a Saturday or for a day. Medinger suggested doing something in January. Fine said it would be best to ask for money in writing, tell Scoles what the Commission would like to do, and approximately how much money is needed and what is there to be gained. Fine would be happy to speak with Scoles in support of this request. Hartzell said she could help line up a facilitator. She asked if anyone would be willing to write the memo. Her experience with strategic planning is to look externally and internally. The Commissioners decided to meet January 18th at Ashland Hills. Fine thought there was still $500 in the general fund this year. January 11th will be the fallback. Coffee will be served at 8:30 a.m., strategic planning begins at 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Hill left the meeting. ASHLAND COMMUNITY LAND TRUST UPDATE Harris said the ACLT appeared before the Parks Commission on Monday and discussed the North Main properties and the possibilities of adding a another small parcel of land to what the Council has already allowed them to make an offer on. There was a measurable amount of acceptance to that proposal. There were some legal concerns. He had the idea some of the Commissioners had not been out to see the property in awhile. They agreed to look at the property again and see what a park would look like on this property. He is going to request that Molnar help the ALCT and Parks Commission on a work /study field trip to look at the property. Harris does not think the Parks Commission understands how much the house is deteriorating with no one living in it. In addition, one of the tenants has brought an Airstream onto the property and parked it in back of the house and they are living in it. There are now two cars on the property that look to be inoperable. There are paint cans everywhere. It is his understanding the Parks Commission is in control of part of the land and the City is in control of the part they have decided to sell--the part of his greatest concern. His questions: What if someone goes out there and gets hurt? Does the City have insurance on a vacant house? The Land Trust does not want to inherit or ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION 2 MINUTES NOVEMBER 29, 2000 buy a property that has degraded to the point where clean-up has to be done, yet no one seems to be in a big hurry to move on this property. Overall, the Parks Commission is willing to not dedicate the property as a park until they have made a decision as to whether or not they are going to include the other property. The ACLT could get three units or they could get six units. Harris believes economically, it would be better to get the six units. Medinger said they will meet with the Parks Commission in two months and during that time, Staff will work up some possible park layouts. Harris also noted we are up against a Consolidated Fund cycle and State funding for funding for this project. ACLT would need to have site control to be able to go out and say we have the right to first refusal for the property and yes, we need the money. It would be the Land Trust’s advantage to get a determination as soon as possible. Fine suggested talking with Scoles concerning the repair of the house. There was discussion about the value of the property. Harris said the ACLT wants to be able have an opportunity to get buy-in and have the right of first refusal. Then discussion can ensue regarding how the property can be paid for. EMERGENCY SERVICES PERSONNEL Legg wanted to finish talking about the appendix and the memo. Included in this memo, she would like to state why we are writing it. We were asked to look into affordable housing for emergency responders and mention the concerns raised such as response time. We did a study and found various pay levels. The Commission is willing to go wherever the Council would like us to go. She would like a draft memo at the next meeting to review. NEXT MEETING - The next meeting will be December 27, 2000. ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m. ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION 3 MINUTES NOVEMBER 29, 2000