Alachua County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Alachua County Office of Planning & Development, Room 6
111 S.W. 1st Street
Gainesville, FL 32601
Meeting Minutes
Members present: Carl Salafrio; Darlene Pifalo; Don Davis; Gail Monahan; Juanita Biles; Robert Stroh; Shaun Wasdo; Tim Flanagan.
Others present: Abu Karim, Growth Management staff liaison to the committee; Mark Ludlow, services provider to the committee; Kali Blount, a member of the public; anonymous member of the public.
The meeting began at 5:10 P M.
Old business & Chair’s Comments
The minutes of the Committee’s meeting on July 16, 2008 were approved. Mark Ludlow spoke briefly to explain that the Committee’s draft by-laws were the basic by-laws used by other advisory committees in the County and had been changed to fit the number of members on the committee.
Shaun Wasdo (Chair) introduced the Committee’s meeting schedule and associated general agenda; Mr. Ludlow explained that Mr. Wasdo and staff thought it important to the Committee’s tasks to have members know the remainder of the calendar year’s schedule.
CDBG Application
Mr. Ludlow answered questions from the previous Committee meeting concerning the City of Gainesville’s CDBG funding allocations. Several questions arose regarding CDBG funding and City Housing Division staff salaries; Mr. Ludlow indicated that he would find out and answer such questions at the next Committee meeting.
Abu Karim gave a presentation on the CDBG application process and on the County’s previous CDBG projects. Partially in response to questions from the previous Committee meeting, Mr. Karim discussed the four categories that applications for grant funding must fall within: housing rehabilitation; neighborhood revitalization; commercial revitalization; and economic development. Committee members asked several questions concerning entitlement and non-entitlement local governments and the differences in projects that can be funded; Mr. Karim discussed the limitations of the non-entitlement CDBG program.
As part of the presentation, Mr. Karim mentioned the County’s previous experience with CDBG projects in the Housing Rehabilitation category. A discussion followed, with Committee members and staff talking about the merits of and potential problems that may be encountered with each project funded under the four types of CDBG application funding categories. Several Committee members were not originally in agreement with staff’s decision to recommend that a CDBG application be developed to pursue Housing Rehabilitation funding. A motion was made and seconded to expend CDBG funding in two years; the motion was voted on and passed. A related motion was made to recommend that a CDBG application be developed to pursue Housing Rehabilitation funding now, but to explore other projects in the future; the motion was voted on and passed.
Eleven Areas for Review
Mr. Ludlow asked the Committee members to briefly discuss what they consider to be the top several issues relating to affordable housing. The issues, both within and outside of the eleven areas for review, which were voiced are:
- Development of an inventory list of locally-owned public lands appropriate for use as affordable housing;
- Modification of street requirements, particularly landscaping requirements;
- Transfer of development rights;
- Proportionate Fair Share and associated costs to housing;
- Lower energy costs, with the possibility of rebates offsetting up-front costs;
- Inclusionary zoning/housing;
- Affordable housing, including individual projects, that are LEED or Florida Green Building Coalition certified;
- Fast-track permitting for projects that are green building certified;
- Limited permit fees for green building, perhaps similar to the City’s permit fee structure;
- Lack of communication and advertising for the County’s affordable housing programs, particularly impact fee rebates;
- The possibility of raising the SHIP Down-Payment Assistance qualifying upper income limit to 140% for essential services personnel;
- Better coordination between the City’s and the County’s SHIP programs;
- The concern that for households assisted through the SHIP Down-Payment Assistance program, any necessary rehabilitation reduces the amount available for down payment.
Committee members recommended that staff look into the City’s First Steps Process to explore the possibility to implementing a similar process for the County. Members also recommended that staff evaluate streamlining the County’s Housing Programs processes, especially the reimbursement of subrecipients for funds expended. Mr. Ludlow noted that he would follow up on the recommendations. He also noted that he would look into the status of the $100,000 SHIP funds set-aside and Pasco County’s income criteria, which were two requests for information from members.
New Business
Members were briefed on the need to have a committee representative at the August 12, 2008 public hearing, on the City of Gainesville’s AHAC desire to have a joint meeting with Alachua County’s AHAC on September 23, 2008, on a possible Evaluation and Appraisal Report input meeting, and on the upcoming Affordable Housing Symposium. Shaun Wasdo (Chair) indicated he would attend the August 12, 2008 public hearing. Members expressed a desire to meet with the City’s AHAC; Mr. Ludlow indicated he would find out the time for the joint AHAC meeting.
The meeting ended at 7:05 P M.