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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-03-09-AHTSC-min RECEIVED zz 25 Mar, a7 a The Affordable Housing Trust Study Committee (ad hoc) Meeting Minutes of March 9, 2022 TOWN CLERK LEXINGTON Affordable Housing Trust Study Committee members present for the public meeting: Kathryn Roy, Chair; Betsey Weiss, Gretchen Reisig, Jeri Foutter, Linda Prosnitz, Carol Marine, Tara Mizrahi. Lexington Staff present for the public meeting: Carol Kowalski, Assistant Town Manager for Development; Kiruthika Ramakrishnan, Administrative Assistant. Non-voting liaison of the Select Board: Mark Sandeen Other Attendees:Thomas Callahan, Milton Affordable Housing Trust Ms. Roy conducted a roll call to ensure that all the members of the Affordable Housing Trust Study Committee (ad hoc) and members of staff present could hear and be heard. Ms. Roy chaired the meeting and called the meeting to order at 4:01 pm. The meeting was recorded by LexMedia for future on-demand viewing. 1. Approval of The Affordable Housing Trust Study Committee Minutes of 02/09/2022 and 02/23/2022 The Affordable Housing Trust Study committee reviewed the draft minutes of the meeting held on 02/09/2022 and 02/23/2022. Ms. Reisig moved that the Affordable Housing Trust Study Committee vote to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 02/09/2022 and 02/23/2022, as presented. Ms. Prosnitz seconded the motion. The Affordable Housing Trust Study Committee voted in favor of the motion 7-0-0 (Roll Call VOTE, MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY) 2. Address by Guest Speaker Thomas Callahan Mr. Callahan gave the details as to how the Affordable Housing Trust was formed in Milton. Mr. Callahan gave an overview of the demographics of Milton including that it is bordered on 3 parts by majority people of color towns—Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde Park. It is reasonably diverse—greater than 15% people of color. The high school is 1/3 people of color. They are well below 10% SHI. He explained that almost all of the 40b affordable housing units in Milton were rental units and most of it is age restricted. Mr. Callahan explained that there were five members in the 1 Trust and they were selected by Select Board and one member was from the Select Board and supported by a staff member from the Planning office. They have a banker, a lawyer (elder law), a developer (POAH), and an affordable housing advocate. Milton has never permitted a 40B approval, though that is changing. Eight 40B projects are on the books now. Two have been permitted and one will start this spring. If they approve all 8, they should be over 10% SHI. The first is over 50 units and most are over 100 units. The second to be approved preserved a historic house and a proportion of gardens through negotiations with neighbors. They developed an AHT before they had approved a CPA (for 1%) in 11/2020. CPA was on the ballot in 2012 and it lost. A Select Board driven effort in reaction to this created the AHT in 2014 or 2015. They have $600k in the AHT that the town had given them (before CPA). The AHT has asked the Select Board to give $2.5M of the $5M they received from Pulte. If they have even $1.2M they expect that low-income property developers Mr. Callahan shared details about the major project the Trust had, which involved 27 acres of land that was deeded to the Town of Milton in 1701 for the poor by the governor. The town sold 23 acres to Pulte Homes for 23 houses in exchange for 2 offsite units and $5M to the town. On the 4 acres that they town retained, the proposal is to build 20—60 affordable houses.The 2 offsite units were minimally updated by Pulte, but the AHT insisted that they do more and give the payment above what they put in to the AHT. In part, this was successful because of a contract term that required action before 75% of the 23 units were sold. Mr. Callahan said that the Select Board looks at the Trust to develop and to write the request for proposal for developing affordable housing. The Trust brought a consultant to do a site analysis before writing the request for proposal and they gave three plans with different densities. Ms. Roy wanted to know if there are any other housing organizations in Milton, which might also receive some of the CPA funds. Mr. Callahan said that Milton also has a housing authority and since they received some ARPA funds, they might not compete with the Affordable Housing Trust for a while. Ms. Roy asked if the 40b units that are about to be constructed, will be rental units or for ownership. Mr. Callahan said it will be mainly rental. Milton is paying$12k/year to a non-profit shared with other towns that will do the monitoring on the projects. They are not planning a HDC/CDC, in part because the planning department is lightly staffed. If they were bigger, they would consider one. Since Mr. Callahan is part of both the Affordable Housing Trust and the CPC, Ms. Mizrahi wanted to know the relationship between the two and the level of authority to make 2 decisions and the approval process by CPC. Mr. Callahan explained how they added a guaranteed slot for a representative of the Trust to be made a member of the CPC. Ms. Weiss wanted to know about the terms of the members of the trust in Milton. Mr. Callahan said that the members have been re-appointed and have stayed for the past six years with the exception of the Select Board. Ms. Marine had a question as to how and when the community was engaged and how were the local needs perceived in order for the trust and the CPC to be responsive to the needs of the community. Mr. Callahan said that they had done a few affordable housing production plans by outside consultants which took some inputs from the community. Mr. Callahan also mentioned the Master Plan, that was being created, had a lot of perspectives from the community. Mr. Sandeen asked Mr. Callahan about the terms and the term limits of the trust members, considering the fact that the housing project are over a period of multiple years and the tradeoff between two year terms and having members for multiple terms. Mr. Callahan said that continuity and longer terms is a very important factor to be considered for housing projects. 3. Committee powers and trustees Ms. Kowalski shared an excerpt of MGL Chapter 44 Section 55C Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Powers and Duties, which outlined the powers and duties of an affordable housing trust committee. Ms. Kowalski explained the powers and duties to the members. Ms. Reisig said that based on her review, she felt all the powers in the statute should be included, and asked for the opinions of the other members of the committee about any limitations that should be placed on the powers of the members of the trust. Ms. Prosnitz agreed saying that it will be helpful in the future to have all the powers enlisted in the statute. Ms. Prosnitz also said that the declaration of the trust from the Cambridge Affordable Housing Trust, has all the powers outlined in the statute, and has a few ones in addition to that. She agreed to share Cambridge's by-law. There was general agreement by the committee to ask for all the powers. Ms. Roy shared a presentation on Affordable Housing Trust which gave a detailed description of affordable housing, Subsidized Housing Inventory, the need for an Affordable housing trust, how it can be created, the powers and the activities it can engage in, and who can be members. Discussion ensued. Adjourn Ms. Marine moved that The Affordable Housing Trust Study Committee adjourn the meeting held on March 9, 2022. Ms. Mizrahi seconded the motion. 3 Meeting adjourned at 5.58 pm. 4