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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda_HAB_12.11.2013Notice of Meeting for the Housing Advisory Board of the City of Georgetown December 11, 2013 at 3:30 PM at 103 W. 7th Street, Georgetown, Texas 78626, CVB Conference Room The City of Georgetown is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you require assistance in participating at a public meeting due to a disability, as defined under the ADA, reasonable assistance, adaptations, or accommodations will be provided upon request. Please contact the City at least four (4) days prior to the scheduled meeting date, at (512) 930-3652 or City Hall at 113 East 8th Street for additional information; TTY users route through Relay Texas at 711. Members: Tim Todd; Chair, Clay Woodard; Vice-chair, Brad Curlee; Secretary, Walt Doering, Judy Finnell, Larry Gambone, Harry Nelson, Lalena Parkhurst, Monica Williamson This is a meeting of the Housing Advisory Board. The Board, appointed by the Mayor and the City Council, makes recommendations to the City Council on affordable housing matters. Regular Session - To begin no earlier than 3:30 p.m. Regular Session (This Regular Session may, at any time, be recessed to convene an Executive Session for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551.) A Consideration and possible action to approve minutes from the November 20, 2013 meeting. B Discussion and possible action on the presentation to be made to City Council on November 26, 2013. --Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator 1. Comments and concerns heard from City Council members. 2. Next steps to address comments. 3. Form groups to work on specific issues. C Presentation of basic information about the Home Repair Program to be discussed at the January meeting.--Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator D Reminder of the next regular meeting date of January 15, 2014. --Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator Adjournment Adjournment. CERTIFICATE OF POSTING I, Jessica Brettle, City Secretary for the City of Georgetown, Texas, do hereby certify that this Notice of Meeting was posted at City Hall, 113 E. 8th Street, a place readily accessible to the general public at all times, on the ______ day of __________________, 2013, at __________, and remained so posted for at least 72 continuous hours preceding the scheduled time of said meeting. ____________________________________ Jessica Brettle, City Secretary City of Georgetown, Texas SUBJECT: Consideration and possible action to approve minutes from the November 20, 2013 meeting. ITEM SUMMARY: FINANCIAL IMPACT: SUBMITTED BY: ATTACHMENTS: Description Type Draft November 20, 2013 Minutes Backup Material Housing Advisory Board Minutes, November 20, 2013 1 City of Georgetown Housing Advisory Board Minutes November 20, 2013 at 3:30 p.m. Convention and Visitors Bureau Conference Room 103 W. 7th Street, Georgetown, Texas 78626 Members present: Tim Todd, Brad Curlee, Lalena Parkhurst, Clay Woodard, Walt Doering, Larry Gambone, Harry Nelson, Judy Finnell, Monica Williamson Members absent: Lalena Parkhurst Staff present: Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator; Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Tammy Glanville, Recording Secretary This is a regular meeting of the Housing Advisory Board of the City of Georgetown. The Board, appointed by the Mayor and the City Council, makes recommendations to the City Council on affordable housing matters. Regular Session - To begin no earlier than 3:30 p.m. The meeting was called to order at 3:31 by Todd. Agenda A. Consideration and possible action to approve minutes from the October 16, 2013 meeting. Motion by Nelson to approve the minutes from the October 16, 2013 Housing Advisory Board meeting. Second by Curlee. Approved. 7-0 (Clay Woodard and Lalena Parkhurst were absent at the time of vote). B. Discussion and possible action on the presentation to be made to City Council on November 26, 2013. Woodard and Brewer arrived at 3:35pm Bills presented the updated PowerPoint presentation to the board, which included revisions based on members comments since the last meeting. A few more changes were suggested to clarify the high priority recommendations and make them bolder points in the slide show. C. Discussion and possible action on the role and function of the Housing Advisory Board. Todd introduced the topic by restating the purpose statement as it is state in the Housing Advisory Board Bylaws; “the Board is established for the purpose of advising the City Council on ensuring the City has housing affordable for residents of all income Housing Advisory Board Minutes, November 20, 2013 2 levels.” He also reminded the other members that the board only provides advice to City Council and does not have any decision making authority. Doering stated that he was concerned that the board’s focus might be to narrow and not providing a comprehensive enough approach to housing affordability. He is also concerned that with board members changing, not all members are on the same page regarding the board purpose. Bills provided some background history that the board had tried to have a wider focus in the past, but due to responses to the initial draft of the Housing Element, focus on affordable housing was narrowed in order to adopted the element and get an initial buy in on the topic. Brewer added that the Board has a good start with the seven policy recommendations that were adopted. While the focus has been on the first two steps, she believes that the board can begin to widen the scope of housing affordability by working on the other five policy recommendations. Other members agreed that the board is moving in the right direction with addressing the first recommendations of the element and that the upcoming Council workshop would hopefully provide direction towards expanding the board’s vision. D. Discussion and possible action to create a standard information packet and training for new members. Bills introduced the topic on creating a standard board orientation and packet for new board members. She asked the board members what items they thought would be helpful to include. Board members like the information provided by other staff on how utilities and planning relate to housing development. Gambone suggested that a tour be offered to members once a year to familiarize everyone with the city. E. Discussion and possible action to cancel or move the next regular meeting date of December 18, 2013. Bills suggested that the board members consider cancelling or moving the next meeting due to holiday schedules. Motion by Todd to move the meeting to December 11, 2013 at 3:30 p.m. Second by Doering. Approved 8-0. F. Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m. __________________________________ _______________________________________ Approved, Tim Todd, Chair Attest, Brad Curlee, Secretary City of Georgetown, Texas SUBJECT: Discussion and possible action on the presentation to be made to City Council on November 26, 2013. -- Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator 1. Comments and concerns heard from City Council members. 2. Next steps to address comments. 3. Form groups to work on specific issues. ITEM SUMMARY: On November 26, 2013, the Housing Advisory Board presented before City Council, updating them on the work the board has been doing to implement the recommendations of the Housing Element. City Council members provided discussion and feedback for the board and requested that a plan for implementation be brought back in the spring. Attached are notes from board memebers that were in attendance at the meeting. The board will review and discuss the feedback received and develop a plan to address these issues and finish an workforce housing incentive program to bring back to City Council. FINANCIAL IMPACT: None. SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator ATTACHMENTS: Description Type Clay's Notes from the 11-26 City Council Workshop Backup Material Walt's Notes from the 11-26 City Council Workshop Backup Material Notes from 11/26 City Council Workshop Overall I think the presentation was well received. My impression was that the majority of the council has accepted (or at least ceased fighting) the fact that workforce housing is a necessary component of a diverse community and that we have a shortage moving forward. That is not to say we have full support of our recommendations. We have some work to do, maybe more so with certain council members, but the general outlook of the council seems to be more accepting of the work we are doing. Here are some of my notes on individual council member comments: Janrowe: Overall she supports what we are doing. Outside of some comments on making sure the process doesn’t demean anyone, not much input. Gonzalez: Main concern is that the locations for projects involving work force housing be geographically divested. Hammerlun: Expressed concern that decreased development standards can lead to inferior construction quality. This was a common misconception among more than one council member in response to our trial balloon on options to decrease development costs for single family residential projects. I don’t think we ever intended to decrease safety, or quality of foundational construction standards. He also wanted us to consult with developers to get their take on what would help them consider developing more work force housing projects. Also wanted us to consult with school officials for their take on the locations of work force housing. Fought: In general his background living in rented housing makes him a supporter of our efforts. Wanted us to expand our target so that our proposals were not only applicable to Georgetown but also to the regional area (a possibility for ETJ, but outside that he overestimates our reach). Commented on targeting our approach to the 10% within the median income level and letting the lower income levels use other housing avenues (Housing Authority) for assistance. Hesser: Also was against any lowering of construction standards just like Hammerlun. Brainard: No real comments for or against. Wanted clarification of statistics we used to justify our shortage prediction. Eason: No real objections. Commented that our scope should probably include affordable housing options for retirees as well as the working (talk about doing a good job of changing the vocabulary from affordable to workforce). Garver: Schools, schools, schools I think we have more positives to work with than negatives to overcome. Some of the members, such as Brainard, may have some concerns they did not express but if his platform is more private sector, less government involvement, that is an issue I think we can address pretty successfully. We should probably assign the concerns above to members of the board and be ready to address them in our January meeting. Comments and Concerns of Councilmembers Georgetown, Texas Workshop Presentation Tuesday, November 26, 2013 Jonrowe: --Advocate for low-cost housing. Grew up in low-income family housing. Wants city employees to live here. --Wants us to move with urgency, and speed up process. Asked how can Council speed up the process re: incentives? --Need for representation of persons from low-income housing. Concerned whether we understand their needs. --Looking forward to seeing specific incentives. Hammerlun: --Appreciates diversity of locations. --Concerned about documentation on units. How current is the data? Reality and credibility of the data? --Wants to see staff intimately involved….David Monk --Wants input and involvement of developers. --Concerned we will decrease construction costs at expense of quality. --Criteria? Fought: --Stated he’s empathetic to affordable housing, having lived on base in close quarters. --Confused about targets --$56,000 to zero? What’s our focus? Workers - $40,000 - $56,000. Rent - $1,000 per month. --Minimum wage not in our target. --“Overstating the problem” on need. Stated more than once. Reminded us workers can live outside Georgetown –Saledo, Round Rock. --Incentives???? Consider alternatives other than incentives such as raising pay of city workers so they can live in Georgetown. --Target –10% under the medium. (Not clear about meaning) Page 2 Hesser: --Concerned about subsidies and subsidizing building, cutting down on parking, cutting quality. --Consider outside city limits. --What can local gov’t do? Deal with building codes. Not tax credits. --Concerned about school system. --Opposes creating buildings which become construction problems. Brainard: --Short fall on utilities (?) --Single housing. Not better from when we started. --Diversity standards. --Asked what would you have Council do? (Response was— Support diversified M-F plan. Eason: --Stated problem has gotten worse. Ballooned. --Supports “Live, work, play.” Wants to have workers, who work in local businesses, live in Georgetown. Advantage for city’s tax revenues too. --Supports what Jonrowe and Hammerlun said. --Concerned about building environmentally sound buildings and how buildings impact tenants re: cost of utility bills, maintenance, etc. Concerned about parking. --Suggested we look at housing not just for professionals but retired folks too. --Increasing pay not solution. Cannot control teacher pay. --Living outside Georgetown not solution either. Adverse impact on workers re: cost and maintenance of cars, etc. Gonzalez: --Doesn’t like high-density building. Need mix. --800 units in a block creates problems. --Need to be diverse throughout community. --Workforce – Spread through community. Can be done via incentives. --Define workforce housing, not low-income housing. --Monitor salaries. (?) Page 3 Mayor: --Wants diversity in housing. Spread out proportionately. Otherwise, creates difficulties for school district and teachers. --Index of poverty. For GISD, 50% of kids in GISD are on free lunches. --Average child stays less than 3 years in housing facilities. Teachers need more than 3 years to impact student development positively. --Asked we look at other cities, and schools, as to how they control numbers, {e.g., Round Rock (25%), Leander (25%)}. City of Georgetown, Texas SUBJECT: Presentation of basic information about the Home Repair Program to be discussed at the January meeting.--Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator ITEM SUMMARY: Basic information about the Home Repair Program will be distributed to the board members for review. An item on the Home Repair Program will be considered at the January 15, 2014 meeting. FINANCIAL IMPACT: None. SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator City of Georgetown, Texas SUBJECT: Reminder of the next regular meeting date of January 15, 2014. --Jennifer C. Bills, Housing Coordinator ITEM SUMMARY: FINANCIAL IMPACT: SUBMITTED BY: Jennifer C. Bills, AICP, LEED AP City of Georgetown, Texas SUBJECT: Adjournment. ITEM SUMMARY: FINANCIAL IMPACT: SUBMITTED BY: