ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION
MINUTES
SEPTEMBER 22, 2004
CALL TO ORDER
Chair Matt Small called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. at the Community
Development and Engineering Services building in the Siskiyou Room located
at 51 Winburn Way, Ashland, OR 97520.
Commissioners Present: | Matt Small, Chair Don Mackin Liz Peck Carol Voisin Faye Weisler Kim Miller (arrived at 4:20 p.m.) |
Absent Members: | Alice Hardesty Amy Korth |
Council Liaison: | Kate Jackson, present |
SOU Liaison: | Ryan Heihn, present |
Staff Present: | Brandon Goldman, Housing Specialist Sue Yates, Executive Secretary |
1. | APPROVAL OF MINUTES Voisin noted a correction to the minutes. Page 3, under Allen Douma's Public Comment, last sentence: remove the word "are" before the word "far". Voisin moved approval of the minutes, the motion was seconded and the minutes were approved with Heihn abstaining. |
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2. | PUBLIC FORUM - No one came forth to speak. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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3. | PROJECT UPDATES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A. | Fair Housing @OSF - Due to a lack of response, the event scheduled for September 26th has been cancelled. Diane Hess, Education Coordinator for the Fair Housing Council will speak on October 10th after the showing of "Raisin in the Sun". It will be held at 4:30 pm in the Elizabethan Theater. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
B. | Parking lot RFP, update on City Council review held September 21st - The City Council recommended on September 21st to go ahead with the RFP with the following parameters: 1) Target incomes of 80 percent of median or less, 2) have a 40 year period of affordability, 3) return project to the City at the conclusion of affordability and 4) the units be rentals. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
C. | Master planning large parcels - RE: Council study session September 22nd
at noon - The Council discussed how master planning might be done on the
Croman site and the North Normal area. At that meeting, Jackson requested
that Staff write an issue paper for each area. What does the Comprehensive
Plan tell us about this area? What are the current needs for housing? What
are Staff's recommendations?
Reminder: The Planning Commission holds a study session the fourth Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm at the Council Chambers. The agenda is posted on the website a few days in advance. |
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4. | OTHER BUSINESS FROM HOUSING COMMISSION MEMBERS - New and
Miscellaneous Commissioner Discussion Items Not on the Agenda - The ad hoc
committee had fruitful discussions with Philip Lang regarding his bond proposal.
As a result of that meeting it was proposed to restructure the subcommittees
to have one committee research financial resources and a real estate committee
to find what real estate is available. Should the Commission focus on this?
Mackin moved to create a new Real Estate subcommittee and expand the role
of the Finance subcommittee. It was decided this required a larger discussion
and would be a good topic for the quarterly study session. Mackin withdrew
his motion. A study session was tentatively set for October 16th from 9:00
a.m. to noon at 51 Winburn Way.
Public Comment: Jennifer Henderson commented that she sees the Education subcommittee as vital. The community has to be educated about low income housing. The regular Housing Commission meeting dates for the months of November and December have changed to November 17th and December 15th at 4:00 pm in the Siskiyou Room to accommodate the Holidays. |
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5. | SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A. | Ad Hoc-Bond Proposal Evaluation - Small read a letter from the committee
evaluating Lang's proposal. The proposal left the committee with questions
regarding administration and costs. The committee was not in a position to
make a recommendation on Lang's proposal to the Council. The committee
recommended Lang's proposal go to the Finance subcommittee to research funding
opportunities.
Public Comment: Philip Lang responded that there is a lack of political will. He entered his letter dated September 21, 2004 into the record. |
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B. | Education - A community event will be planned for later in the spring. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
C. | Land Use - They met with Goldman and talked about master planning. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
D. | Finance - No report. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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6. | PUBLIC HEARING - COMMUNITY DEVELOIPMENNT BLOCK GRANT
PROPOSAL Goldman stated there are two separate uses to be discussed at this meeting for CDBG funding. The first is the issuance of a RFP for using a $274,000 carryover. The RFP was issued and one response was received from the Rogue Valley Community Development Corporation (RVCDC). The second proposal is from the Ashland Community Land Trust (ACLT) to shift $80,000 awarded to them in 2001 to an alternative site.
Staff Evaluation/Recommendation
Overall, Staff is recommending approval of the award to RVCDC. If there is any concern on the part of the Housing Commission that the funds would not be expended in a timely manner, the recommendation from the Housing Commission should be to roll over the funds for an immediate award at the beginning of 2005 in February. The completion of the project is not just the spending of the money; it is development of the units. The units need to be underway and typically completed within one year of purchase of the property. Weisler asked why there had been a delay of the pre-application. Goldman said the cause is just normal development activity. The pre-application could have been filed sooner but was filed only recently. The applicant wanted to have an architect before submitting for the pre-application. From Staff's vantage point, there was little justification for delaying the submission of a pre-application. The pre-application was submitted August 10th and given a September 29th pre-application meeting.
RVCDC's Presentation The beauty of Self-Help is that it is a single source of funding for the most part. The federal government provides RVCDC staff to get the work done. Once the families are signed up and the subdivision is completed, the clock starts ticking and they have two years to complete the 15 or 16 units they envision. Demele introduced Roxanna Zapata. She will be screening applicants for housing. Very few will qualify. After spending considerable time building their homes, the buyers seldom sell. To date, they have preliminarily qualified two to three families. Demele said the numbers shift in the budget because of the way the questions are asked. Acquisitions and legal fees were two examples he gave. He made some mathematical errors. Two things will guide the cost of the project. Who signs up - families (two or three bedroom)? How many units? He can assure the Commission they can get six units on the lot. If they are not granted funding for this project, they will still move ahead with the Siskiyou site. Demele said if there is not approval for the pre-application, Self-Help doesn't feel there is the ability to move ahead. They will be submitting their pre-application tomorrow or Friday (Sept 23). They submitted for a pre-application on July 22nd. Goldman said he secured a date for the pre-application - that was the date the pre-application was reserved. The plans were actually submitted by RVCDC on August 10th. Demele said they have a realistic timeline for this project. They are starting the Siskiyou project in January. They are looking at completing the purchase on Park Street through the option they have on the property in January. They are looking at getting through the planning process at roughly the same time, along with the release of funds for the Siskiyou project. The Park Street project will start in the fall. They are hoping to have families at that time with some carryover from the Siskiyou project. They would begin building the Siskiyou units in February with completion in the fall. They would begin the Park Street units in the fall. Weisler asked about the 20 year affordability and/or affordable in perpetuity. Demele feels the homeowners have worked hard for a year and should be able to recapture some equity, however, he also wants to preserve affordable housing. Year one through 20, the housing would have to be resold to a low income family. RVCDC's lease will be worded to discourage a sale. If there are sales, they would share the equity with the families, recapture some of the money and put it into affordable housing. Weisler expressed some concern that in its' ten year history, RVCDC has produced only 24 homes to date. Demele said prior to 2000 they had a broader mission. Miller lauded RVCDC, but also said this is a scary project. You have to find poor people with excellent credit, no loans, with fulltime jobs that can pay the mortgage but can build their houses at the same time. The difficulty is finding the people. Demele disclosed he and Miller have spoken about this program. He added that this will work in Ashland because people will fight to live in Ashland. Miller thought $25,000 for the architect and engineering seemed really low. Demele said they are using this project as a building block project. They are using work done under the Grape Street Village in Medford. Jackson/Weisler m/s to extend the meeting to 6:15 p.m. The motion was seconded and approved. The public hearing closed.
Commissioners' Discussion and Motion
ACLT'S Presentation No one came forward to testify. The public hearing was closed.
Commissioners' Discussion and Motion |
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7. | COMMISSION COORDINATION Goldman noted the upcoming meetings outlined on this month's agenda. Also, the Housing Alliance will be held on October 6th. |
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8. | OCTOBER 27, 2004 MEETING AGENDA ITEMS The study session is scheduled for October 16, 2004 from 9 to noon. The purpose is to further refine the priorities they ended with at the last study session and look at new information that was brought forward to the ad hoc meeting.
October 27th meeting |
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9. | ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m. |
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Yates, Executive Secretary
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