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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-02-23 Housing MIN ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES FEBRUARY 23, 2000 CALL TO ORDER - The meeting was called to order by Chair Gerry Sea at 4:05 p.m. Other Commissioners present were Joe McKeever, Nancy Richardson, Madeline Hill, Joan Legg, Jan Vaughn, Carlus Harris and Larry Medinger. Council Liaison, David Fine, was also present. Staff present were Maria Harris and Sue Yates. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - The minutes of the January 26, 2000 meeting were approved. ELECTION OF OFFICERS - Larry Medinger was nominated for Chair and Jan Vaughn for Vice Chair. Medinger was elected Chair and Vaughn Vice Chair. CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) PRESENTATION - Maria Harris, Associate Planner, said a portion of the next Housing Commission meeting will be set aside for a public hearing for the update of the Consolidated Plan. Harris explained that every year the City gets some Federal funds from the U. S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant funds. As part of getting that money, the City is required to have a Consolidated Plan. The Consolidated Plan is a strategic plan for spending money in the community on certain housing and community development needs. The Federal regulations strictly outline how the plan is updated and what information is required and the process for reviewing the plan. As part of the process, two public hearings are required; one during the development of the plan and one when a draft is ready. It seemed appropriate to bring the plan before the Housing Commission and the Social Services Commission jointly before the public to look at the first initial data analysis. M. Harris said the Consolidated Plan looks at housing needs, other demographic information, and a housing market analysis. Based on that information, a list of priorities is developed as to how the CDBG funds will be spent for the next five years. This plan will start from 2001. C. Harris asked if there is a direct correlation between the plan and how the funds are actually allocated. M Harris said the projects have to meet one of the priorities in the Consolidated Plan. The proposed projects selected are consistent with the priorities in the plan. McKeever asked who makes up the Social and Human Services committee. M. Harris said it is a new committee and she believes it is an ad hoc committee. Steve Hauck is the Council Liaison with mostly public service persons serve on the committee. M. Harris said they sent out 45 surveys but received only 20 back. She will be compiling the results of the survey as well as making some calls to encourage more people to send them in. She said it has been difficult to find good data. HUD won’t let the City wait until the new census data comes out to do the update. Using projections based on the 1990 census is unreliable. Hill asked if Harris wanted members of the Housing Commission to fill out the survey. M. Harris said that would be helpful. ACLT (Ashland Community Land Trust) UPDATE - C. Harris noted the Minutes from last month should be amended. The Minutes stated that ACLT was trying to have taxes “lowered” when in fact they are trying to have the taxes reflect how much money people are paying for their homes, rather than lowering the taxes on some arbitrary basis. If someone pays $89,000 for a home, they should be paying taxes on $89,000 because the purchaser will never be able to sell the house for more than what the formula would dictate. C. Harris stated the ACLT is at a crucial phase right now. They have been successful in getting three increments of low interest loans from Rural Development through the RHLP program so people that qualify at 80 percent of the area median income or below, could capture these loans at very low interest rates. Two of the applicants who were first on the list for the available homes, have qualified for these loans. One person is getting a one percent loan!! for the portion loaned from Rural Development. Rural Development and Key Bank are partnering with Rural Development putting up 80 percent of the loan amount. The purchasers are buying the homes for approximately $89,000 each. These homes are $121,808 under Ashland’s Affordable Housing and even more on the open market. They are about 44 percent of the normal cost of a home. The owner’s payments will be around $500 per month. Unfortunately, they are paying taxes on $121,000. Hill said, in other words, they are paying property taxes on something they do not own and cannot benefit from that much appreciation. C. Harris said the local assessor is not willing to budge on that. They have been trying to negotiate legislation in this regard. However, there was such a cry by assessors, it was pulled from committee and they are once again fighting the battle for the next biennium. There are other groups getting on board so hopefully, they will be more successful in the future. Legg suggested having a meeting with the local state legislators. Hill said the Commission should talk to the candidates. Fine said any taxpayer has the right to take his/her valuation to a Board of Appeals for a hearing. C. Harris said that is a good point and it is within their lease agreements that they would join in any kind of activity with regard to this issue. He added, another new and valuable ally is going to be the Portland Community Land Trust. They are planning to be very heavy-handed about it and bring in all the land trusts in Oregon on this issue. C. Harris mentioned that ACLT is the only pure land trust that has properties on the ground at this time in the state. He said they will keep the Housing Commission apprised of anything that is going on so the Housing Commission can act, if they so desire. C. Harris reported there are folks that are poised to buy with some very lucrative kinds of incentives and subsidies and the down payment/closing costs assistance program. The next steps include attempting to get funds to purchase another property on North Main Street owned by the Ashland Parks Dept. and make available for future ACLT buyers. The Housing Commission is also working on a change in the City’s affordable housing guidelines so a donation to an ACLT would be one of the options that a developer could use in meeting their elective incentives for density bonuses. C. Harris said it looks like the end of March or mid-April will be the ribbon cutting on ACLT’s first three homes. Those that are buying are truly those the Commission has been striving to help in this community for quite some time. The other Commissioners are thrilled their efforts are coming to fruition. C. Harris noted that according to the City’s Strategic Plan, that it seek out sustainable revenues to support affordable housing and the Land Trust is part of it. He would hope the City Council is moving in the direction to identify a sustainable stream of resources to sustain affordable housing and further, that the affordable housing that supports its many different facets, is Ashland Community Land Trust. Fine believes there is strong commitment to both affordable housing in general and commitment and enthusiasm to the Land Trust. He challenged the Commission to encourage candidates running for Council positions to become informed about the ACLT and the Housing Commission. COMMUNITY INCENTIVE FUND - Medinger reported there is a $25 million Community Development Incentive Project Fund at the state level. The purpose is to create partnerships with local entities from private to public municipalities for things such as downtown redevelopment, affordable housing near job centers, and rebuilding of rural and distressed communities so all sectors of the State can share in economic prosperity. Affordable housing is a big part of this project. Medinger is excited about being a part of this in order to bring a non-Portland perspective to the group. The first meeting is tomorrow. Legg would like to have this on the agenda each month for a report from Medinger. Legg said there is a new study out by Oregon Action called “Moving Toward Good Jobs”. It is about re- thinking economic development in the Rogue Valley. She will get a copy of the report to Medinger. Medinger said he would be happy to have any information like this. INCLUSIONARY ZONING AND RE-CAPTURE CRITERIA - A draft is included in the packet. C. Harris is interested in hearing what the developer’s point of view is on this proposal. Sea said it gives people three choices. McKeever said it is difficult enough to get the grants for affordable housing but then there is the battle to get the land. If they could get the same income streams but in the land side from the developer, then this ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION 2 MINUTES FEBRUARY 23, 2000 ensures them there will be inventory for land. Medinger agrees with what is contained in the wording of the ordinance, however, we need to have a double buy-down that gets us below the 100 percent of median and addresses the real problem. He is not sure what the 1.4 percent base density means in terms of numbers. C. Harris said if the land was made available to the Land Trust under this kind of guideline, then the income stream for which the actual building would be made available, would in many ways dictate what part of the community (with regard to median income) the Land Trust could help. In other words, it depends on where the funds are coming from. Richardson likes the plan but believes the median income should be 100 percent and low income 80 percent and below. C. Harris said this plan does not preclude the Commission from helping people that are at 50 to 60 percent but what that means is more subsidy. Hill would like the developer to pick the Community Land Trust option so she would want to make it the most attractive of the choices to the developer. She would put the biggest percentage of density to the Land Trust. McKeever asked what the incentive is to get extra lots? Most homes seem to be $200,000 and up. Hill said if you have a piece of land you can divide into18 lots instead of 15, and give one away, the developer is better off. She thinks we would be best served by having the developer give the land to the Land Trust. When Molnar is back from vacation, Medinger would like to meet with him along with C. Harris. NEXT MEETING - Sea asked if Richardson give the Commission a report on Harvest Built Homes and Habitat for Humanity too. ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m. ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION 3 MINUTES FEBRUARY 23, 2000