City of Lawrence

Affordable Housing Advisory Board

November 12, 2018 minutes

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Rebecca Buford, Ron Gaches, Edith Guffey, Thomas Howe,

Dana Ortiz, Shannon Oury, Monte Soukup, Tim Stultz, Nancy Thellman, Sarah Waters, Erika Zimmerman

 

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Andrew Brown, Susan Cooper

 

STAFF PRESENT:

Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager; Scott McCullough, Director of Planning and Development Services; Danelle Dresslar, Community Development Manager; Jeff Crick, Planner II; Brad Karr, Community Development Programs Analyst; Danielle Buschkoetter, Strategic Projects Manager; Britt Crum-Cano, Economic Development Coordinator

 

Chair Oury called the meeting to order at 11:03 am.

 

1.    Public Comment

There was no public comment.

 

2.    Approve Minutes from October 8, 2018 meeting

Gaches moved to approve the minutes from the October 8, 2018 meeting. Soukup seconded the motion. The motion passed 10-0.

 

3.    Monthly Financial Report

The monthly financial report is available on the City of Lawrence opengov.com website.

 

4.    Review draft Lawrence Housing Toolkit

McCullough presented a draft of the Lawrence Housing Toolkit to the board. McCullough said the toolkit would be a working draft document which was flexible and able to be revised as needed, and could be the primary retreat topic. McCullough said the AHAB could endorse any of the tools they felt were feasible in Lawrence.

 

McCullough said the plan was to use the Housing Market Analysis, stakeholder input, and the Lawrence Housing Toolkit all as input to create an Annual Housing Roadmap. The roadmap would include an allocation plan for funding resources, and also a work plan for pursuing any other policy or code related changes.

 

Gaches asked if staff learned of any new strategies on their trip to Colorado to include in the toolkit. McCullough said there were several, including partnering with faith-based organizations to help them use their under-developed land, sales tax exemptions on construction materials for affordable housing, and Housing Authorities having a development arm to build new units.

 

Howe arrived at the meeting.

 

Oury said the last development done by the LDCHA was for Peterson Acres II, which was built using $200,000 in funds from the first housing trust fund allocation in 2005. Oury said the LDCHA would like to move toward developing units using Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), and would need to create an instrumentality to act as the developer.

 

Gaches asked if the board should finalize their goals before endorsing any of the tool in the toolkit. McCullough said a lot of the action steps would need to be worked on in parallel. Stoddard said it was an ongoing process of refinement; responses to RFPs could change year by year, and some categories of housing might need additional focus.

 

5.    Quick Updates

 

a.    Discuss dates for a retreat and the City Commission invitation for a discussion with AHAB

Stoddard said the City Commission discussed having a dialogue with the board, either at the AHAB retreat or as a City Commission work session agenda item.

 

The board agreed to hold their retreat on January 14, 2019 from 11am to 4pm. Guffey indicated she might not be able to attend the retreat. Stultz indicated he will no longer be on the board after December 31, 2018. Thellman said she was not sure who the county representative would be after December 31, 2018.

 

Stoddard said the City Commission work session agenda item could be on February 12, 2019.

 

Oury asked the board members to review the Housing Market Analysis goals and the Lawrence Housing Toolkit to prepare for the retreat.

 

Stoddard said staff would present a draft agenda for the January retreat at the December AHAB meeting. Oury asked staff to update the chart from the last retreat showing jobs/wages in relation to housing costs.

 

b.    Memo on staff trip to tour/discuss affordable housing in Colorado

McCullough presented a memo to the board describing the staff visit with four cities in Colorado to discuss and tour affordable housing developments.

 

Thellman asked if staff could provide the funding amounts used by each of the four cities for affordable housing. Stoddard said staff would gather the amounts.

 

 

6.    Review Douglas County Community Health Plan section on Safe and Affordable Housing

 

Oury presented the board with the Safe and Affordable Housing section from the Douglas County Community Health Plan. Safe and affordable housing was identified as a community issue, and the plan contains goals, focus areas, strategies, and action steps to address the issues. Because of its ongoing parallel work, the AHAB is listed as the responsible party for several of the action steps for strategy #1.

 

Gaches moved to have the AHAB continue to participate in and support the development of the Safe and Affordable Housing section of the Douglas County Community Health Plan. Howe seconded the motion. The motion passed 11-0.

 

7.    Other New Business

Oury said she was asked to also allow the public to have comment at the end of each meeting. McCullough said it was fairly typical to allow public comment after each agenda item.

 

Oury said the board could celebrate the passing of the sales tax for the county behavioral health campus.

 

Gaches congratulated Lawrence Habitat for Humanity on the building of its 100th home.

 

Soukup asked if the board should reconsider the policy on term limits for the AHAB members; he felt some organizations might not have another qualified staff member to sit on the board. Stoddard said the term limits were established in a board policy ordinance created by the City Commission, but the policy does allow for exceptions if the board were to be interested in pursuing the change.

 

8.    Next Meeting / Future Agenda Items

The next meeting will be on December 10, 2018.

 

Oury asked if the same matrix from the last application would be used to review the RFP responses at the December 10, 2018 meeting. Stoddard said yes, the RFP outlined the criteria, and included the matrix for the board members to use to review the applications.

 

9.    Adjourn

Gaches moved to adjourn the meeting. Stultz seconded the motion. The motion passed 11-0.

 

Future Meeting Dates / Tentative Agenda items

December 10, 2018 - Review RFP responses

 

 

These minutes were approved by the Board: December 10, 2018