MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER
Chair Steve Hauck called the meeting to order at
Commissioners Present: |
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SOU Liaison: Alex Amarotico, Absent |
Steve Hauck, Chair |
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Alice Hardesty |
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Council Liaison: Carol Voisin |
Graham Lewis |
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Aaron Benjamin |
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Staff Present:: |
Absent Members: |
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Linda Reid, Housing Specialist |
Bill Smith |
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Carolyn Schwendener, Account Clerk |
Richard Billin |
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Nick Frost |
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APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Voisin/Hardesty m/s to approve the minutes of the
PUBLIC FORUM
No one came forth to speak.
Two guests in the audience introduced themselves. Jack Murphy, a senior at
REPORTS AND UPDATES
Subcommittee Report
Finance – No meeting/no report
Education –No report
Land Use –Hardesty reported that the sub-committee discussed what to focus their attention on for the near future. They discussed the possibility of building over a parking lot or just focusing on the
Madeline Hill was present at the land use sub-committee meeting to provide input about FHA and HUD rules for loans on mixed-use structures. Ms. Hill stated that it is a problem for some developers because they are required to have a certain amount of square footage devoted to Commercial. Graham said Ms. Hill is also concerned that we as a City understand the ratio of commercial to residential in mixed use. Even if something is approved it might not really be qualifying for affordable housing because of the ratio issues.
Reid acknowledged that the Housing Authority of Jackson County did receive their funding from Oregon Housing and Community Services. HAJC was the number one application in the state. They do have a revised timeline and will submit that soon to the Housing Commission. At the next land use sub-committee meeting on the 10th there is going to be a site visit to the
Liaison Reports
Council – Voisin reported that the Council is working on their goals and prioritizing them. The Council has put the Riparian Ordinance on the back burner until the July meeting because they are still discussing and working on it. They have determined a budget and are getting ready to adopt it. The budget committee decided to raise property taxes to make up for the short fall. Because property taxes will be raised they voted for a reserve of $215,000 in a savings account that would have otherwise been used to pay for employees salaries that would have lost their jobs. The budget will be finalized on June 16th so that it can get to the State by July 1, 2009. If the meals tax does not pass sewer rates will increase by 60% the first year, 40% the second year and then 20% the third year.
Voisin would like to recommend that the Education sub-committee work on having a plan where people come to Council during the public forum time and give a fact on affordable housing. Some of the Councilors at this time are not at all convinced that affordable housing has anything to do with City Government. It would be beneficial for the Council to hear that it is.
Parks - Hauck stated that he went to the Mayors meeting of Committee Chairs and the Parks Department reiterated that if they pass the meals tax then they will be buying their portion of the
School Board – No report
Planning – Benjamin reported that the Planning Commission has become deeply involved with the Croman Site. On April 28th the Planning Commissioners went on a site visit to the Croman property and on May 12th there was a discussion on the various aspects of their visit to the site. On May 26th they presented a tentative revised land use plan which they thought very highly of, the staff did an excellent job. The site will include 24.8 acres of light industry, 21 acres of office and 12.7 acres of mixed use including housing over Commercial.
Pat Acklin brought in her class to make a presentation on walking distances between important sites within the city. It is likely that the planning staff will develop a map for tourist encouraging alternative transportation.
SOU- No report
Staff – Reid reminded the Commissioners about Project Homeless Connect on June 5, 2009 at the Medford Armory. Bus tokens to get there will be handed out by the downtown police. The City received the CDBG recovery Act funds. Reid talked with the Fair Housing Council of Oregon regarding the analysis of impediments that they are working on for the City. Reid will add it to next month’s agenda the presentation from the Fair Housing Council and email the surveys to the Housing Commissioners.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT PROJGRAM – RECOVERY ACT
The City of
Because of the short timeline it was not possible to do an RFP, which would have been the normal procedure. The City Council is the deciding body and the Housing Commission is a recommending body. Bill Molnar, Planning Director, Brandon Goldman, City Planner and Reid looked at activities in the City that the money could be used for. The City staff prepared the proposals for the City Council with their recommendation. The Staff looked at what activities were currently going on internally within the City that we could partner these funds with or use the funds independently that would help meet some of the priorities established under the recovery act rules and still meet the requirements of the CDBG program, said Reid. They came up with three projects.
Staff is recommending to the City Council that the
The Commissioners discussed the different proposals.
Hauck opened up the public Hearing: No one came forth to speak. The Public Hearing was closed.
Hardesty/ Benjamin m/s to recommend to the Council that the whole amount $50,060 of the CDBG Recovery Act funds be targeted to the conservation program for weatherization in pursuit of the healthy housing objective.
Roll Call: Voisin, Hardesty, Benjamin and Graham voted yes, Hauck voted No. Motion Passed
CONSOLIDATED PLAN DEVELOPMENT
Reid gave an overview of the Consolidated Plan components. The Consolidated Plan has to be done every five years in order to receive CDBG funds. The program has three main goals; decent housing, sustainable living environment and expanded economic opportunities. The purpose of the Consolidated Plan is to evaluate your community needs and then prioritize your CDBG funding to meet those needs.
The Commission will form a sub-committee to create the new Consolidated Plan. The duties and responsibilities of those sub-committee members will be to gather information from interviews and surveys, organize data, analyze data, discuss all information gained from research/interviews/surveys and generate priority needs based on conclusions drawn from collected data. It was suggested to partner with the college.
Hauck volunteered to be on the sub-committee and it was suggested that Ayars wanted to participate though she was not present. The Commission will discuss who wants to be on the committee at next months meeting when those that are absent this evening might be present.
Tabled until the July meeting
Fair Housing Council
Quorum check- Graham and Voisin will be out of town.
Hardesty announced that she is moving to
UPCOMING EVENTS AND MEETINGS
July 21st 2009 7 pm City Council Meeting – HC Ordinance 1st Reading
Aug 4th 2009
June 10th 3:00 pm site visit to the
Next Housing Commission Regular Meeting –
ADJOURNMENT – The meeting was adjourned at
Respectfully submitted by,
Carolyn Schwendener, Account Clerk