Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995-11-27 TranscriptionNovember 27, 1995 council Work Session 7:50 PM Council: Horow, Baker, Kubby, Lehman, Nov, Pigott, Throg. Staff: Atkins, Helling, Woito, Karr, Franklin, Milkman, Boothroy. Tapes: 95-137, all. Housin~ Plan 95-137 Sl Baker/ I would like to suggest that this issue be turned over to the next council .... Got three people going off and three people coming on .... Dee Norton is not here tonight ..... council/ (All talking). Baker/ I would say let's thank everyone for coming and let's go home. Lehman/ Larry I think you have a point but I also think there are some things that Steve needs to know. Baker/ I would do the same for tomorrow night .... Nov/ We need to give some guidelines to staff on this public private partnership .... Horow/ Going to need more than one meeting ..... What is your pleasure? Kubby/ I think the majority of the new council is here and we should proceed ..... Horow/ Karin, I have asked you to recap ..... Council/ (All talking). Franklin/ First of all just a recap for the new council members but to refresh the old timers, too. The last time that you had a discussion of ho~sing on September 30 we talked about a definition of the problem and basically we are looking at three different approaches or facets of the housing problem. The ability of modern income people to enter the housing market and move out of the rental market. The lack of rental units affordable to low income people and the lack of adequate basic shelter for the homeless. We talked about the policies that are in place .... that we approach this issue from a programic as well as a regulatory aspect ..... funding of programs being the most aggressive way and most active way that the city has been involved in dealing with housing issues Thlsrepresentsonlyareasonablyaccuratetranscrlption ofthelowa CltycouncllmeetlngofNovember27,1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 2 and then the conclusions of your discussion were included in Tim Shields piece that he sent to you and the page that is pertinent is the team agreements and that Housing Policy Review that was sent out in the packet to you and what you resolved to do was to explore the concept of inclusionary zoning and I believe... in terms of inclusionary zoning as it applies to the multi-family rental market as well as to subdivision and s.f. development. That the council agreed to study the fair share concept that is a geographical distribution of low to moderate income housing throughout the community. That you agreed to review the criteria, the guidelines for density and that was something that we said was going to be part of the comp plan review and this was that whole notion of when it says 2-8 dwelling units per acre in the comp plan, what does that mean in terms of the zoning and make sure that that is clear ..... That you need to analyze the long term viability of programs and what goals you have for them. That you establish some kind of a community process to further develop the housing policy to include neighborhood associations and other key players ...... to introduce this concept of fair share and see what neighborhoods were willing to accept ..... Throg/ To involve them in the process of determining what would be the fair share .... Franklin/ I have to say I am not particularly sure about the ability to go through that and do that .... going to hear from neighborhoods that we have all we need here ..... Throg/ Wouldn't hurt to have that on the record ..... if they all say that to one another .... Horow/ Social behavior modification... lay a guilt trip on them. Kubby/ Talk about ..... attitudes .... Talk them through the bind that we have been in ..... Horow/ Question... at City STEPS p.h .... challenged people to identify where the city supported homes ....... mixed blessing ..... Different neighborhoods are going to react differently Council/ Franklin/ What I am hearing... it is more to discuss this housing issue with neighborhoods outside a particular project ..... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the iowa City council meeting of November 27, 1995. WS112795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 3 Thorn/ Before it gets to the point that it was tonight. Kubby/ Pigott/ Franklin/ So we can put together something as work in terms of the council's neighborhoods .... to how that might involvement in Baker/ ...when you talk about what is the fair share, I assume numbers... types. Throg/ Baker/ Single family, multi-family, ranges of incomes involved ...... Concern is this... people will say something because they know it is politically correct to say... certain opinion ..... Until the real project hits them that nothing that they have said before is going to prepare them for acceptance of the reality ..... Kubby/ That is one of the purposes of the process... we have to provide leadership... attitude towards public housing .... Horow/ .... getting together with the developers. Franklin/ That is the next item which is council agreed potential public private partnerships ..... that where Ben comes in. to discuss is exactly Horow/ .... More than just ..... Greater Iowa City Housing Fellowship. Kubby/ With Saratoga Springs you had for profit developer ..... complicated partnership Thorn/ ..... Only other comment that I haue on this fair share thing is I think that when property is annexed into the city that would be a good time to say X number of, this amount of area is for this like they used to do for schools .... Do that when we annex property .... Kubby/ Fair share concept ..... land that is not developed yet... maybe the city would buy a lot in Walnut Ridge .... F Street This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of November 27, 1995. WS112795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 4 Throg/ The motivation is to find some way to keep from concentrating lower income housing in one part of the city and thereby keep from creating the ghetto like conditions that exist in other cities. Thorn/ Horow/ Area between Kirkwood and Highway 6 are... well scattered affordable houses, individual houses .... Kubby/ May not be we do total scatter site of total clusters. It may be we do a little bit of a bunch of stuff to make a lot of things happen .... Franklin/ That is something that you are going to have to wrestle with... What does the council mean by cluster? What do you mean by scattered? What do you mean by inclusionary? We will get into that very specifically .... Tonight we were going to talk about public or private public partnerships. In terms of what we do now, Marianne is going to address that ..... Projects... we do already are in fact a partnership .... Partnerships are those kinds of circumstances in which both parties bring to it some piece of it and work together toward some common end ..... Marianne is going to go over some of the partnerships that we already do and then I want to talk a little bit about some of the difficulties .... Milkman/ Just to remind you that practically every CDBG project we do involves some form of public-private .... Most to the CDBG money .... goes to human service agencies and it can be used for a variety of things .... We have a partnership with HACAP ..... We, as the public, are working with various parts of the private sector. That may be non-profit and .... In the CDBG Program that the city runs... rehab program... partners with the private sectors, the homeowners. We are assisting the homeowners to keep up their houses... In many of these programs we are dealing with loans with the private sector ..... Getting the money back to use in our other programs. Then we have the kind of partnerships where more than just the city and a client or a human service agency .... like the one we talked about tonight .... involves for profit as well as non-profit, corporation .... many cases... a local lender .... We do have a number of fairly extensive public private partnerships in a lot of things that we do. The Rental Rehab Program .... the idea was to raise the standards to improve the conditions of the rental units but for ten years they had Thisrepresents only areasonebly accuratetranscription ofthelowe Clty councilmeetin§ofNovamber27.1595. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 5 to keep the rents at affordable levels. They got something, we got something ..... There are a lot of partnerships going in the community .... Horow/ Marianne .... have private efforts ..... own ..... you seen any private efforts, totally to spin off on this and do it on their Milkman/ That is one of the things that I have always wanted to see happen, that is not be a city initiative. Most of the time it is a city initiative .... Greater Iowa city Housing Fellowship on its own has a loan program with First National Bank for deposits that is not city initiated .... Habitat for Humanity .... Horow/ Are there any others in there? Milkman/ Sycamore View, I think there was one house built that was like one of the Sycamore View houses .... I think the direction that you are moving it seems to me to get more of the private sector involved... I think is probably the way to go and also to have much more emphasis on real mixed income units ...where you build maybe 12-24 units but at least half of them are market rate... maybe only 20% at lower rents... with a subsidy... In many cases you don't even know which of the units are subsidized projects like that. Nov/ .... If you are dealing with individual homes and individual lots, it is more difficult to get to that. Milkman/ If somebody bought a couple of lots ..... and we subsidized two or three homes in a 20 unit subdivision .... thy could virtually identical... Franklin/ I want to talk a few minutes about the barriers. Why is it that we don't do more public private partnerships? .... It is very complicated ..... Burns... and the Greenview Project are two cases on point. The Burns Greater Iowa City Housing Fellowship Project involved the city, private developer... the non-profit... The funding sources were multiple and complicated and having to occur in some kind of sequence with things dependent upon the other ..... Low income tax credits where there is a limited number of tax credits ...... Then depends on people choosing to invest in those low income housing tax credits. Secondary mortgage market. That plays a factor .... lending institutions always plays a factor in these projects, too ..... take away .... some of the local decision Thlsrepresentsonlyareasonably accuratetranscriptlonofthelowa Citycouncil meeting ofNovember27,1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 6 making. We can't do that because the secondary market says .... It is very very complicated .... Federal rules, CDBG, HOME, state rules... procedural rules that you have to go through and then whatever rules we decide to impose. When you are working with the public sector the scrutiny that is involved... public .... Also the public scrutiny of your financial situation .... has to take place at some level ..... The time that is involved .... With Greenview, the Burns Project, the time that has been put into these projects is phenomenal ..... For the private sector, that is a critical factor. The incentives that are provided for the private sector involvement sometimes don't outweigh all of this stuff that you have to go through .... Then the long term management obligations that you have to make sure that those projects stay within that rental range and that you are always targeting that income bracket. That is a long term commitment Nov/ Is it worth it in this instance because there is a Greater Iowa City Housing Fellowship that has agreed to administer? Franklin/ Having a non-profit that is going to be involved certainly does add to that .... Bob Burns has done a lot of these projects .... he will do that .... Nov/ Does he then administer the affordability for the next 20 years? Franklin/ He hires a management company out of Des Moines that manages his properties and they do that .... One thing that we have in Iowa City... is major employers that really don't get involved in the housing market ..... Our major employer is a public institution .... We have a large institution that generates a demand for housing that has made a policy decision not to provide additional housing. That represents a challenge for us ..... Then limited involvement of financial institutions and utilities ..... Financial institutions are traditionally fiscally conservative .... some of these projects require some risk and how far an institution can go .... and secondary mortgage market issue. Utility companies... who do get involved .... Those are some of the things that are out there that do act as barriers a lot of which we don't have a lot of control over. If public money is going to be used, it is very hard to say we are not going to have public scrutiny .... How can we make that work a little better, that is something we can talk about .... Maybe the dialogue with the neighborhood associations and that has to keep ongoing .... Th~srepresents~n~yareas~nab~yaccuratetranscr~ptj~n~fthe~~wa~~tyc~unci~meeting~fN~vember27~1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 7 Kubby/ In the last couple of years there really hasn't been leadership from this body as individual or as a group .... We need to pay attention to these issues ..... Community Investment Act. Can we get a brief listing of who is doing what? .... what their obligations are?... Horowy Karen, we asked about this a couple of years ago... their end of year reports .... Nov/ Well, we are not assigning the reinvestment in the community .... We accept what they have done ..... Pigott/ That is a tool that we have used that may be out there. What other tools do you, Karin, see as ways to reduce the size of our hurdles .... What is it that we can do? Franklin/ It may be a very different type of project than what Bob is involved in .... In the possible approaches to new partnerships... trust funds. Now those can be publicly or privately capitalized and trusts funds can be either revolving loan funds in which you turn that money over .... or with grants ...... Nov/ Perhaps a private employer might participate ..... Franklin/ How you get that to happen... the leadership coming from somewhere to convince people ..... That there is an important aspect of the community here that needs to be addressed and gets that involvement. Horow/ I think the community has challenged the council in terms of its public involvement and aggressiveness in economic development .... also need to be challenged in terms of its involvement in housing ..... Thorn/ These are not new questions ..... We have got to look at the whole scope ..... Throg/ That is a rationale for trust funds .... Franklin/ Then you can keep that turning over. Kubby/ And hopefully growing ..... We should contact the AFL .... Horow/ Karin, is it useful, would it be prudent for the council to actually be aggressive with the University? ..... in a nice way say that we hope that we will continue the public public Thlsrepresantsonlyareasonablyaccuratetranscfiptlon ofthelowa Citycouncll meetlngofNovember27,1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 8 partnership that we have ..... Would it be prudent to be aggressive on that? Franklin/ .... I would approach it in as positive a way as possible. Nov/ Horow/... University, in terms of their budget cutting procedures .... legislators... feel University is spending too much money... cut the funds that would be supporting housing .... Nov/ I cannot imagine that happening at the legislative level .... Pigott/ Nov/ The University decided long ago they will not build any more housing .... private sector has taken care of it. Horow/ Baker/ Mace Braverman/ ...Why don't you challenge the private sector like the Homebuilders ..... to come up with a plan...? Franklin/ ...I do have to vent... barriers study on affordable housing. We, on two occasions, attempted to survey the Homebuilders Association .... we got three responses for the whole- I am calling the Homebuilders tomorrow in response to Ben Moore's comments. So whatever you can do in that regard. Braverman/ (Can't hear-in audience). Nov/ The Housing Fellowship has proposed such and such, what will the Homebuilders do to support it? ..... Come up with a proposal .... Can we do it? Kubby/ We did that with Sycamore View... people bid on it. Arkins/ You appear to be discussing specifics but I am also hearing you say you want us to be more aggressive? Nov/ Yes. Arkins/ That is what you want? Nov/ How do you define aggressive? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of November 27, 1995. WS112795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 9 Atkins/ Theoretically if you want land, we can go and get it, own it, put it out for proposal and build housing on it. That is aggressive. Baker/ We don't want to be quite that aggressive. Nov/ I wasn't thinking of owning the land .... Kubby/ .... Braverman/ (Can't hear-in audience). Council/ (All talking). Franklin/ There are two other items...Land trust ..... You decide where you want the housing to be and you buy the land... Atkins/ We have had private developers. Bob Burns has said I can't find any land or they won't sell it to me .... If they are not going to sell you the land... you are wasting your time... If you want us to be aggressive, define that for me. I just don't think you are going to see the private developers come knocking on your door ..... Braverman/ ...unless you put a carrot out there .... or at least the interest rates. Atkins/ We just put a carrot out on North Dubuque and it blew up in our face. Horow/ But if you keep in in those parts of the city where property is going to be more expensive, then it is a self imposed restriction. Kubby/ Self imposed expansion in my land is cheapest ..... to the restricting ourselves- mind ..... southeast If we go where the part or outside... CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 95-137 SIDE 2 Kubby/ I want to expand that availability and that may cost us more. Horow/ I don't totally disagree with you .... the fact that so many people already commute to Iowa City for a job. I am more concerned on getting a house that people can live at .... I don't necessarily think that that has to be Iowa City. Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratotranscrlption ofthelowa CJW council meetingof November27,1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 10 Kubby/ When we are using Iowa City allocated CDBG moneys, I don't like ..... Horow/ Braverman/ I don't understand .... Kubby/ We should be developing affordable housing in Iowa City .... Braverman/ Give me your definition of affordable housing ..... Kubby/ I don't want to get into that. Braverman/ I would like to know .... Kubby/ When people are spending 30% of their gross annual income on housing and utilities and no more than that. That is my definition of affordable housing. Braverman / Kubby/ What is the income of people who are paying more than 30% of income on housing. That is the need out there ..... Baker/ Pigott/ .... that is how aggressive do we want to get? ...... What we need .... a menu of options to look ..... Atkins/ I would be happy to develop a menu .... private public debate over defining a very term that you are trying to deal with ..... You haven't come to an agreement on what you are willing. I like the idea of challenge ..... X number of units for this many people at this income level. Kubby/ We know all that ..... All that information is here and all that information has been broadcasted. Franklin/ You are still going to come back to where is it going to be ..... comes back to this group ..... I don't think it is reasonable to talk about s.f. or duplex affordable housing for 80% median income group. It is not realistic ..... Braverman/ Let me tell you from experience ...... Pepperwood .... Horow/ Mace, you are not getting picked up. You have got to get closer. Thisrepresents only a reasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of November27,1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 11 Braverman/ ....... If you would say that we are going to mandate in a new neighborhood for public housing, you would have a riot Kubby/ That is not at all what we are talking about .... a house that would go on the open market .... mixed housing neighborhood .... Braverman/ Then the people who want that grandiose house like in Walnut Ridge won't buy there... They will move to the county... Walnut Ridge...expensive housing within the taxable area. That is why it is there ..... You are extremely naive. Kubby/ .... inclusionary zoning .... Braverman/ I would like to know the population base of those areas. Franklin/ Large project, that may be hundreds of acres, that have areas that are set aside for townhouses, condos within a larger area ..... That is one reason why it works... We sort of did that in Windsor Ridge .... the opportunity. Kubby/ That is what we did. We put out a challenge to the private sector .... A private developer came to us... set up on the front end .... Horow/ Franklin/ This is a perfect segue to infrastructure improvements. To make that neighborhood happen ..... in Windsor Ridge .... It is going to require the extension of Court Street. Is the council going to be ready to condemn for Court Street because there is an intervening property owner that won't cooperate Throg/ Go talk to him ..... Kubby/ That would take a change in our comp plan that we do not do involuntary- Arkins/ You can go around and around .... Council/ (All talking). Franklin/ Another aspect that you can look at is doing infrastructure improvements ahead of time targeting it in areas where you want to bring those development costs down Thlsrepresentsontyareasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa CtW council meetlngofNovember27,1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 12 Kubby/ Do we'have the tax base to support a public transit system that can get out to those condominiums? ..... Franklin/ Some of them might not be so far out ..... Look at the northeast part of Iowa City ...... Kubby/ ...Some of the ideas of Urban Design Committee of EA .... increased environmental degradation and increased density. Horow/ You still need the transit out there. Kubby/ I know that the Urban Design Committee and Mace had talked about...Mace doing the possibly of some model development .... Braverman/ .... I would put in a million if you come up with a million. Kubby/ Horow/ Karin, thank you very much. Lehman/ .... I would really like to see more folks own their homes ..... It is just a good thing .... Some of these folks cannot save the down payment .... I would really like to look seriously at possibility- Atkins/ ...silent second mortgage .... Council/ (All talking). Nov/ I like land trust .... Pigott/ At least we are identifying a bunch of different programs and ways we can help achieve that. Kubby/ Council/ (All talking). Lehman/ ...Where do we get the money? Council/ (All talking). Pigott/ Community Development Block Grant. Thisrepresents onlyareasonablyaccuratetranscrlptlon ofthelowaCItycouncllmeetingofNovember27,1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 council Work Session Page 13 Lehman/ ...sell some of the residential property that we currently own ..... If we use just the income... could fund a fair amount of down payment assistance. Kubby/ ...I am not interested in getting out of Public Housing .... because the private sector is not providing the housing for our Public Housing folks .... If the private market were doing it the government wouldn't have to get involved ..... Lehman/ Can Section 8 vouchers be used for payments, loan payments? Boothroy/ It has to be for rental only. Lehman/ If we had a low income person buying their own home and they are entitled to a voucher .... Boothroy/ You cannot provide rental assistance to any homeowner Atkins/ Kubby/ And we have the tenant to owner... Section 8 program and family self sufficiency program .... Horow/ Let Doug answer the question .... Boothroy/ The Rental Assistance is on for rental assistance and the money is 100% federal dollars. They determine how to spend those dollars .... Second thing about Public Housing. All the Public Housing units the federal government gave us 100% of the cash to build them but they made us sign an agreement that says that they have a final determination as to how that money is used .... present... only used for replacement. You can't just take the money and run and do other housing ..... At this point it has to be public housing .... could change down the road .- ..... Lehman/ I just think if we could put together a program ..... we might be able to convince HUD to allow us.~.. Boothroy/ ...20 units... are committed by HUD .... Horow/ We are going to bring this up again tomorrow, Assisted Housing .... Kubby/ Part of our goal is that people who are in the Public Th~srepr~sents~n~yareas~n~b~yaccuratetranscr~pt~~n~fthe~~wa~ityc~unci~meeting~fN~vember27~1995~ WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 14 Housing Program .... will become owners of the houses in which they currently live ..... way of providing homeownership .... like a revolving loan. Braverman/ One thing I would like someone to check out is what the City of Omaha does and they have a program in which all the infrastructure for raw land is picked up in some kind of tax unit. They can then turn around, it is sold on a private basis ..... transfer some of those lots at a lower price for affordable housing. I don't know how it works Milkman/ You can do lease purchase programs is what you are getting towards, Ernie, using HOME funds...federal funds... You pay for a certain amount in a certain length of time. The other issue .... that when you were using federal funds... private sector.. .if your carrot is going to be several funds, they have to reveal all their financing ..... A for profit developer does not tell you what profit he is making ..... All you know is the management fees and development fees are high and this is a real sticking point ..... very difficult for us to deal with .... Horow/ ... We do belong to East Central Iowa Council of Governments and each month there is a housing- Ernie represents JCCOG and the city on that board and the housing projects that are going on as well as the infrastructure projects that are going on in the various communities... support people staying where they are rather than have them come looking for housing in Iowa City .... future reports... very encouraging .... Atkins/ (Can't hear). Susan, I read you wanted some sort of- something right in front of you- Kubby/ An important criteria for me is longevity .... some influx of money into it ..... long term viability .... Atkins/ We have assets in the form of the housing that we own. That is a capital investment ..... We could convert those, sell those to low income families and generate cash ..... Horow/ That is something that council'would have to agree on .... Kubby/ Or if it .001% of the General Fund.. some constant input .... Throg/ A diverse array of sources that can be drawn from ..... Council/ (All talking). Thlsrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa Citycouncil meefingofNovember27,1995. WSl12795 November 27, 1995 Council Work Session Page 15 Horow/ Folks, anything else? Nov/ The long term affordability is important .... that has to be part of the proposal. Atkins/ As a matter of policy it would have to be... declare that up front ..... Milkman/ Throg/ I think Mace's proposal that we should challenge the Homebuilders and others is a good one... Question is how? Council/ (All talking). Throg/ Maybe if Mace has some ideas about how we could propose action challenge to the Homebuilders and others. Maybe you can kind of work with Karin. Horow/ Okay, let's close this. 6:30 tomorrow for Assisted Housing. Baker/ Do we need to have that meeting? Pigott/ Yes. Atkins/ I will give you a memo on how to attempt to address issues ..... Do you wish to defer, change, modify, that is your call. I think we have recovered satisfactorily. The question is the Program of Assisted Housing is going to change over time. We just simply need to prepare ourselves. Horow/ Nov/ I would confirm most of what you have here. Kubby/ I have some problems with one part of it. I am not prepared to talk about it tonight. Horow/ 6:30, see you then. Adjourned: 9:00 PM This represents only a raasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of November 27, 1995. WSl12795