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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-03-01-HPB.min Lexington Housing Partnership Meeting Minutes for March 1, 2007 (The next meeting will be on Thursday, April 26, 2007, 7-9pm in Room G-15 Town Hall.) Attendees: Jeri Foutter, Bob Bicknell, Florence Baturin, Harriet Cohen, Tom Harden, Mary Haskell, Chris Eaton, Aaron Henry, Inky MacDougall, Betsey Weiss. Bob Bicknell chaired the meeting; Harriet Cohen took the minutes. The meeting was called to order at 7:11 pm. 1. Open Meeting The January meeting minutes were approved unanimously. 2. Committee Reports Community Preservation Committee – Betsey Weiss There was a discussion at the CPC meeting on March 1, 2007 as to whether land use ?? proposals ought to be examined for multi-use opportunities, including affordable housing opportunities. Communications Committee – Florence Baturin, Chris Eaton The brochure is almost complete. The content is complete, and some final editing will be ?? finished shortly. One thousand brochures will be printed. The Communications Committee and other ?? volunteers will distribute the brochures throughout Lexington and make the brochures available at Town Meeting. The posters have been printed and are in the process of being distributed. ?? Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw – Bob Bicknell There was an open hearing on the Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw. There were proponents, ?? including members of the Lexington Housing Partnership, and opponents, primarily landowners. At the hearing, Norm Cohen said that he thought that the threshold should be increased to ?? higher than three units. Subsequent conversations indicate that he will offer an amendment to increase the threshold from three to five. The Lexington Housing Partnership will be presenting to the Board of Selectmen on March ?? 12, 2007. Web Site Development – Bob Bicknell The LHP Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw presentation has been posted. ?? Foundation – Jeri Foutter See Appendix A, Report of the Lexington Housing Foundation, Inc. ?? 3. Affordable Housing Summit (Aaron Henry, Senior Planner, Town of Lexington) The remaining affordable housing goal from the Town Comprehensive Plan is to build ?? affordable housing units. We need a comprehensive of view of how funds from CPA, HOME and other funding sources will be spent on affordable housing. Lexington Housing Partnership One approach to building a consensus would be to have an Affordable Housing Summit to ?? educate elected and appointed Town officials on affordable housing issues and programs. The Summit would be held after Town Meeting and before the summer, with a potential follow- on Summit with a broader audience. The Partnership discussed with Mr. Henry some ideas for Partnership participation in ?? affordable housing efforts within Lexington. 4. Chairman’s Report Mr. Bicknell reported that the Lexington Inter-faith Coalition is working to pass the ?? Inclusionary Zoning Bylaw and is launching a telephone campaign to call the Board of Selectman and Town Meeting members. See Appendix B, Report of the Chair, Appendix C, Annual Report to Town Meeting by the ?? Lexington Housing Partnership and Appendix D, Partnership Input to 2006 Lexington Annual Report. 5. Deed Restriction Program Judy Barrett will be addressing the Partnership on April 26 to provide a report of her ?? activities. The meeting was adjourned at 9:21 p.m. Lexington Housing Partnership Appendix A: Report of the Lexington Housing Foundation, Inc. Lexington Housing Partnership Report of the Lexington Housing Foundation, Inc., page 2 of 3 Lexington Housing Partnership Report of the Lexington Housing Foundation, Inc., page 3 of 3 Lexington Housing Partnership Appendix B: Report of the Chair, January 25, 2007 HOME Plans – A meeting of the WestMetro Consortium members was recently held in Newton. I attended (for Iris Wheaton) along with Eve Tapper and the new Assistant Planning Director, Aaron Henry. Each community explained their current HOME programs and it was clear that experience being gained by others will be a valuable resource for Lexington. Our FY2008 plan is being coordinated by Aaron and is attached to this report for review. Note the plan proposed by the Planning Staff to hold a series of housing outreach “summits” during the coming year. We are still waiting for inputs from Supportive Living, Inc. to complete the environmental report which is necessary for HUD to release the funds we have identified for the Douglass House project. Deed Restriction Project – The CPC turned down our proposal to fund a prototype project. The report from Judi Barrett is due by the end of January, but we were advised to request CPA funds once we had the completed report. Therefore we will review the report and redefine the program before submitting a new request for funds to the CPC. A multi-year program to implement the concept we define will give the CPC a better understanding of the long range commitment needed to support the program. I asked the CPC to make a statement that they approve the program concept and that they asked the Partnership to resubmit a request once all the program parameters had been defined. I also plan to include a statement about the program in the Partnership’s Article 2 presentation to this year’s Town Meeting. We should be able to discuss Judi’s report at our February meeting. Avalon at Lexington Hills- A meeting was held to discuss the process of selecting tenants for the 66 affordable units allocated equally to Lexington, Belmont and Waltham. Of the 97 total affordable units, 29 will now be allocated to DMH, 68 units will be available as affordable and 22 will be local preference units for each town. The first units will be available for occupancy in early May 2007. The Open Enrollment period will be March 1 to March 30, 2007. Credit, Income/Asset and Criminal checks will be made for all applicants to determine qualifications for residency. Qualified applicants will be grouped by apartment size and then drawn as units become available. The construction period will last 18 months and the last unit is scheduled for occupancy in August 2008. The advertising campaign is being initiated and information about the affordable units will be circulated to town employees and provided to local businesses. Interfaith Coalition Progress – The Lexington Interfaith Coalition has been meeting to define how the advocacy program for the Inclusionary Housing Bylaw will be conducted. A PowerPoint presentation has been assembled and a plan to circulate a petition among members of the faith community in support of the Bylaw is underway. Each Town Meeting member will be contacted to encourage their support of the Bylaw and spokespersons from among town employees are being sought who would speak to the need for affordable housing at Town Meeting. Affordable Housing Poster Campaign – A series of 4 posters is being printed with support form the Lexington Chamber of Commerce and the Lexington Housing Foundation to illustrate the need for affordable housing. A plan to distribute the posters is underway. They will be provided to churches, businesses and public places throughout the town. Lexington Housing Partnership Appendix C: Annual Report to Town Meeting by the Lexington Housing Partnership During the year the Partnership was active in promoting and supporting affordable housing activities in town. Open meetings were held periodically and many meetings and DHCD and Massachusetts Housing Partnership sponsored seminars were attended to keep abreast of and support housing issues. In summary, the Lexington Housing Partnership: Supported providing funds from the WestMetro HOME Consortium for the Supportive Living, ?? ) Inc. (SLIDouglass Houseproject for survivors of brain injury. Supported efforts to create and adopt an Inclusionary Zoning bylaw to require an Affordable ?? Housing component for all new projects of three or more housing units. Worked with the Planning Department to define procedures for assuring that affordable rental and ?? ownership units retain their affordability over time. Developed a concept for purchasing Deed Restrictions at the sale of smaller homes to make them ?? available to moderate income first time homebuyers. Through the Lexington Housing Foundation acquired consultant services to define the parameters for applying the concept in Lexington. Promoted use of CPA funds to implement the concept in Lexington. Participated in workshops on programs for informing citizens about affordable housing and ?? locating funding sources for affordable housing development including the Soft Second Loan program. Participated in ongoing programs in town to explore permitting affordable residential use in the ?? center. Provided materials to the town explaining the Mass Housing Municipal Mortgage Program which ?? is specifically designed to help town employees purchase a home in the town where they work, with no down payment. Promoted awareness of the need for affordable housing in Lexington through posters, ?? presentations and the print media. Began work on a series of brochures to identify affordable housing programs in town and ?? opportunities for those seeking affordable housing. Continued operation of a website at www.LexingtonHousingPartnership.org. ?? During this 2007 Town Meeting the Housing Partnership plans to provide our position on Article 4, Incluslionary Zoning, which will be a positive step in providing affordable housing in Lexington as part of all future developments of 3 or more units. Bob Bicknell, Chair for the Partnership Lexington Housing Partnership Appendix D: Partnership Input to 2006 Lexington Annual Report ROLE: To promote and support affordable housing activities and to recommend appropriate actions to the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board. No funds come from the Town’s budget. APPOINTED: By the Board of Selectmen for overlapping 3-year terms: Bob Bicknell, Chair; Kenneth Kreutziger, Vice-Chair; Jeri Foutter, William Carlson, Julia Duncan, Caroline Eaton, Florence Baturin, Mary Haskell, Gay Godfrey, Thomas Harden, Arthur Katz, Betsey Weiss, Iris Wheaton, Ingeborg MacDougall, Winifred McGowan, Paul Linton, Secretary, Harriet Cohen (Fair Housing and Human Relations Committee), Martha Wood (LexHAB), Robert Cohen (Lexington Housing Authority), Gregory Zurlo (Planning Board), Selectman Liaison: Norman Cohen, Conservation Commission Liaison: Richard Wolk, Council on Aging Liaison: Paul Lapointe. HIGHLIGHTS: Provided support for an Accessory Apartments bylaw. ?? Supported adoption of the Community Preservation Act (CPA). ?? Supported providing funds from the WestMetro HOME Consortium for the Supportive Living, ?? Inc. (SLI) Douglass House project for survivors of brain injury. Supported efforts to create and adopt an Inclusionary Zoning bylaw to require an Affordable ?? Housing component for all new projects of three or more housing units. Supported the Battle Green Inn conversion, with its three affordable units for sale at 70% of Area ?? Median Income. Developed a concept for purchasing Deed Restrictions at the sale of smaller homes to make them ?? available to moderate income first time homebuyers. Through the Lexington Housing Foundation acquired consultant services to define the parameters for applying the concept in Lexington. Promoted a pilot project with the Community Preservation Committee to test the viability of the Deed Restriction concept. Participated in workshops on educating citizens about affordable housing and funding sources for ?? affordable housing development including the Soft Second Loan program. Participated in the Lexington Center Collaborative on the Land Use sub panel to explore ?? permitting affordable residential use in the center. Provided materials to the town explaining the Mass Housing Municipal Mortgage Program which ?? is specifically designed to help town employees purchase a home in the town where they work, with no down payment. Promoted awareness of the need for affordable housing in Lexington through posters, ?? presentations and the print media. Began operation of a website at www.LexingtonHousingPartnership.org. ??