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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-04-07-AHTBT-min Page 1 of 5 Affordable Housing Trust Meeting minutes of April 7, 2023 9:00 am Affordable Housing Trust Board Members present for the Public Meeting: Mark Sandeen, Linda Prosnitz, Elaine Tung, William Erickson Tiffany Payne was absent for the meeting. Lexington Staff present for the Public Meeting: Carol Kowalski, Assistant Town Manager for Development; Ragi Ramachandran, Administrative Assistant Other attendees: Mina Makarious, Elizabeth Rust, Jill Hai, Kathryn Roy Ms. Kowalski started the meeting at 9:00am. Ms. Kowalski shared that she can help the Board members with sharing the documents and any information, in adherence to the open meeting law and public records law that everyone needs to ab ide by. Ms. Hai mentioned that the Town Clerk’s office is planning to conduct training post the town meeting for all the Board/committee members on the open meeting law. Mr. Erickson asked if the members will receive a town email id. Ms. Kowalski stated that she will check with IT and let everyone know. Mr. Sandeen asked if the committee will receive an email id where the public can reach them, and this will also be checked with the IT department. The committee discussed if they want to proceed with the meeting in the absence of one of the members, Tiffany Payne. They decided to conduct the meeting but postpone ‘the election of officers’ to the next meeting. Mr. Erickson made a motion to nominate Ms. Tung to be the pro tem chair for the meeting. Ms. Prosnitz seconded. The Trustees voted in favor of the motion 4-0-0 (Roll call: Erickson – yes, Prosnitz – yes, Tung – yes, Sandeen – yes). Motion passed. Ms. Tung called the meeting to order at 9:14 am. Ms. Tung stated the first item on the agenda to be the approval of the meeting minutes from 3/15/23. The members didn’t have any updates to the 3/15/23 minutes. Mr. Sandeen moved to approve the meeting minutes from 3/15/23. Ms. Prosnitz seconded. The Trustees voted in favor of the motion 3-0-1 (Roll call: Erickson – yes, Prosnitz – yes, Tung – abstain, Sandeen – yes). Ms. Tung abstained since she didn’t attend the 3/15/23 meeting. Motion passed. Page 2 of 5 Ms. Tung mentioned the next item for discussion to be the signing and recording of the Declaration of Trust. Ms. Kowalski stated that the members can coordinate with Ms. Ramachandran for a time to come in to the town office and sign the Declaration documen t in- person. It will be notarized and submitted to the Town counsel for recording. Ms. Tung had a question for Mr. Makarious. The MAHT document from the DOR mentioned that if the Trust were to use the CPA funds and enter grant agreements, that such powers of the committee be mentioned on the Declaration of trust document. She asked if the Trust document included the language for such ability of the Trust. Mr. Makarious responded yes, the document has the provisions for it. Ms. Tung stated that the next item on the agenda to be the update from the Town Meeting on the AHT funding. Ms. Kowalski stated that there are three articles and one proposed bylaw amendment that relate to housing trust funding. Ms. Kowalski mentioned that the article 10n has passed the Town Meeting vote on 3/27/23. The other articles pending are article 7, article 19f and g. Ms. Kowalski explained the bylaw amendment under article 33. There is a payment in lieu provision and a pending zoning change in article 33. It calls for inclusionary zoning. It has an affordable housing requirement that for developments of 6 units or fewer, the builder will be allowed to make a payment in lieu option and in that case, it will go to the affordable housing trust. There is a Town Meeting member amendment to remove the payment in lieu, that will be reviewed at the Town Meeting on 4/10/23. Ms. Kowalski asked if the committee members had any questions that she can help clarify. Mr. Makarious clarified that the Town Meeting member amendment is to remove the payment in lieu option for developments of 6 units or fewer only, and not the article itself. Ms. Tung asked Mr. Makarious if the Trust needs to enter into the grant agreement now with the CPC, that says ‘we can use these funds, and that we are going to use these funds in accordance with the eligible activities in the CPA statute’. Mr. Makarious answered that it is not required. The CPC and the Trust are both town entities operating out of the same structure. The instances a grant agreement is required is when the Trust is using the CPC funds or their own funds to fund a project by a private non-profit. A grant agreement is not required from the outset. Ms. Rust concurred with Mr. Makarious’s advice that a grant agreement is not required at the moment. It will be required only after the funds are appropriated to the Trust and when the Trust start using the funds. Mr. Sandeen announced that this is an open meeting and it is being recorded. Ms. Prosnitz shared that unless there is a compelling reason, the Trust not get into a grant agreement as it may compromise the powers and decision-making abilities of the newly formed AHT. Page 3 of 5 Mr. Sandeen shared that it could be further reviewed during the action plan/goal setting process. Ms. Hai spoke about the proposed amendment to article 33, and the purpose of the payment in lieu option. Mr. Pressman clarified that the $1.5M that will be appropriated to the Trust by the Town meeting will be available for the purposes under the purview of the Trust and the bylaw. Ms. Arens mentioned that it was her proposal to remove the payment in lieu provision from the article 33. She clarified the reasoning behind the proposal and how she feels it would benefit the community. Ms. Tung stated the next agenda item was to outline the goals and objectives of the AHT committee, piggybacking on the wonderful and terrific work done by the AHT Study committee. She shared that her thoughts were to conduct a ‘housing needs assessment’ and requested everyone’s feedback. Ms. Kowalski updated that the last time a housing production plan(HPP) was done was in 2003. An HPP is different from a housing needs assessment and clarified their purposes. Ms. Rust explained further in detail the process to develop an HPP and that the housing needs assessment is usually a component of the HPP production. She added that the HPP development is a comprehensive, about 9-month long process and costs around $40,000. The report includes the goals and objectives, and is laid out in compliance with the DHCD requirements. A smaller housing needs assessment was conducted as part of the comprehensive plan recently and it looked at current income, basic demographics, current affordability gaps, and current inventory. This assessment was done in Fall 2022. She suggested that the committee could work based off this report or decide to delve deeper. The goals and strategies of the committee would be crucial in deciding how to spend the money appropriated to the Trust. There is cost, time and community engagement involved when such a ssessments are conducted. The AHT committee members and the other attendees weighed in on the use of available information, from past study, documentation, action plan, guidelines, spending procedures, and approach adopted by the neighboring towns. While the other towns aren’t same as Lexington, they felt there is value in understanding the issues that the reports point to and the strategies followed. Community engagement provided crucial inputs to develop an action plan. The committee mutually agreed to review and study the available records and documentation first to begin work as a committee in the essence of time; as community engagement and fresh reports generation could be time consuming. Ms. Kowalski stated that the AHT committee may be expected to show some tangible results within a year and with the recent public engagement on housing for Lexington Next, and the Housing section of the comprehensive plan we have identified Lexington data on needs. She Page 4 of 5 proposed the committee follow a parallel approach taking a short period of time to put together goals and objectives, setting up some targets that can be hit by June 30, 2024, and working towards it. Ms. Rust and Mr. Sandeen suggested reviewing the materials from the Affordable Housing Trust Study Committee and leveraging that information, towards creating an action plan for the AHT. They also suggested gathering information from LexHAB on the present affordable housing units in Lexington. Ms. Tung asked everyone’s feedback on conducting a survey with the current affordable housing residents to understand the present affordable housing needs, things that are working well, and areas of improvements. The members shared their thoughts and this will be discussed further in subsequent meetings. Ms. Kowalski agreed to share the Arlington plans, and other documents that will be beneficial for the AHT committee members to look at. Ms. Tung stated the next agenda item is to discuss the current home-ownership unit for sale. Ms. Rust elaborated the case; it’s a unit on Pine Grove. This unit is part of an older co-op development ending its term of affordability. In 2015 the town invested $2M of CPA funds along with other state funds to preserve the units. There are 16 units, 5 of which are owned by the housing authority and the other 11 are owner occupied. The housing authority units received capital funds to improve them but not the ownership units. One of the units was noticed for sale. The town was the monitoring agent and responsible for finding a buyer. The deed restriction on it was a perpetual deed restriction and required the unit be sold to an income eligible buyer. If no buyer can be found then it can be sold to an ineligible purchaser. The ineligible buyer is someone who makes above the eligible income limit, has more assets, or not a first-time home buyer. This unit however always stays affordable per the deed. When a home inspection was conducted for a potential buyer, they were quite dis appointed because of the number of defects noted and the amount of work that needed to be done. Lexington doesn’t have any funds for the purpose of fixing this unit. This case was brought up as a specific example for the committee’s understanding of the ‘affordable unit preservation issues’ that persists in the town so they can include accommodations as they compile their action plan, on how to support these units. The AHT doesn’t have the right to award any funds to the unit right now. The town won’t lose the deed restriction on this unit but it is possible that it is sold to an income-ineligible buyer. The owner has agreed to make some critical repairs and has reduced the sale price of the unit. Ms. Rust shared the sale price of this particular unit was $281,662 for a 4-bedroom unit. Ms. Rust shared that the opportunity the AHT has pertaining to this case is to determine whether to include a program to support health and safety repairs, and to maintain deed restricted properties, in their action plan. Page 5 of 5 Ms. Tung asked whether or not the Trust will be willing to take a position on the amendment pertaining to article 33. The members commented that it will be hard for them to take a position not knowing the unintended consequences, and also the Trustees not being fully present at the meeting. The Trust decided to not take a position on the amendment since the board was not fully present. Ms. Tung stated that a regular meeting time cannot be set without the full committee being present. They will work with Ms. Kowalski and Ms. Ramachandran to schedule the next meeting. Ms. Tung suggested meeting biweekly for future meetings, and the next meeting to be in the first week of May. The AHT members agreed to come in-person to the Town office building to sign the Declaration of Trust document by 4/14/23. Adjourn Mr. Sandeen made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 10:51 am. Mr. Erickson seconded, and the committee approved by a roll call vote.