ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION
MINUTES
MAY 26, 2004

CALL TO ORDER
Chair Matt Small called the meeting to order at 4:08 p.m. at the Community Development and Engineering Services building in the Siskiyou Room located at 51 Winburn Way, Ashland, OR 97520.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES - The minutes of the April 28, 2004 meeting were unavailable and will be reviewed at the next meeting.

PUBLIC FORUM
Allan Sandler, 1260 Prospect, said he wanted to withdraw his request to develop the area above the parking garage on Hargadine Street and switch to developing the Pioneer/Lithia Way parking lot area for affordable housing. He can satisfy the request for proposal (RFP) with no variations.

Goldman noted that the Council would be reviewing the definition of a "story" at their next meeting on June 1, 2004. The Council has not yet approved the RFP. The Hargadine parcel is zoned C-1-D and the Pioneer/Lithia Way property is zoned C-1.

Mackin/Weisler m/s to encourage the Council to consider the alternative Sandler has proposed and in the interim Planning Staff and Legal explore in detail the Pioneer/Lithia Way site to make sure it meets all codes. Also, that the Housing Commission wants to be aware of where the consensus is on the Council of where they want to go with affordable housing in the downtown. Voice vote: The motion passed. Korth abstained as she missed a portion of the discussion.

Goldman said they could put the Pioneer/Lithia Way proposal on next month's agenda.

SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS
Finance
Small said they are working on developing a Housing Trust Fund. Step 1 is to create a platform - what is the trust fund going to be? Step 2 is to make a legal structure. They would like to present the platform to the Commission in July and the legal structure in October. Putting a Housing Trust Fund in place will probably take a year to a year and a half.

Small said the Finance subcommittee would be meeting the second Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. at the SOU Student Union.

Small said the subcommittee also discussed the Strawberry Lane partition and the proceeds they hope to receive. From the proceeds, $214,000 will be used to pay off The Grove. They would like to see the remaining funds used to initialize the Housing Trust Fund.

Education
Weisler reported that Rich Rohde filled them in on what is going on statewide. There is a statewide media campaign being developed to do focus groups to find out what message is getting through to people on affordable housing. The committee discussed doing focus groups locally (developers, bankers, etc.) to find out what the issues are and conduct some mutual education.

Land Use subcommittee did not meet.

HOUSING ALLIANCE - Presentation by Rich Rohde
Rohde had a handout outlining ways to bring affordable housing to a higher priority, particularly at the state legislature. He is representing Oregon Action and Jackson County Housing Coalition in asking the Commission if they would be willing to recommend to the Council that the City of Ashland join as a founding member of the Housing Alliance. The Housing Alliance will bring together the affordable housing players (government and housing authorities, non-profits) into one group with resources to bring it up to the state. Annual dues are $500. Rohde said the next meeting is June 29th in Portland. The formalization of the Housing Alliance will occur in September.

Voisin/Peck m/s that the Housing Commission would recommend that the Council join the Housing Alliance and pay the annual dues of $500. Voice vote: The motion passed.

The Commissioners asked if Rohde could get a speaker, possibly from Portland or even locally, to speak at a Housing Commission meeting. They also asked for a breakdown of the $500. Rohde agreed.

Voisin also hoped the Council would seek representation from Ashland.

STRATEGIC PLAN PRIORITIES
Goldman handed out the Potential Land Use Strategies to address affordable housing and explained each item. The Commissioners requested a map of the Historic District to see what percent of the city the District represents.

John McLaughlin, Director of Community Development, mentioned to the Commission that the encouraging of accessory residential units by making them a permitted use in Single Family zones is a discussion that the Planning Commission would likely be involved in too. At the last meeting a neighbor expressed his concerns during the Public Forum regarding the number of rentals that are cropping up in his neighborhood.

Goldman felt a good starting point for the Commission would be the first two items - 1) Establish minimum densities for multi-family zones and 2) Prohibit, or only conditionally allow the development of single family homes or townhomes (individual homes on individual lots), on multi-family zoned property.

After Commissioners' discussion, Weisler/Voisin m/s to prioritize and direct Staff to move ahead with the first two items. Voice vote: The motion passed.

Weisler felt a study session with or without a facilitator is needed to go through the whole Housing Action Plan to set priorities, timelines and responsibilities and move forward. Mackin felt the Plan already assigned tasks. He felt it would be more appropriate to go through the Commission's liaison, Kate Jackson, to get clarification from the Council on the Housing Commission's charge. Consensus was reached to set Monday June 14, 2004 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. for a study session to review the Housing Action Plan. They will meet in the Siskiyou Room, if it is available.

It was m/s to extend the meeting to 6:15 p.m. Voice vote: The motion passed.

ELECTION OF CHAIR
Peck/Mackin m/s to nominate Small to Chair and Weisler as Vice Chair. Voice vote: The motion passed.

ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 6:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Susan Yates, Executive Secretary

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