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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-01-27-HPB.min Lexington Housing Partnership Meeting Minutes for January 27, 2005 Attendees: Bob Bicknell, Florence Baturin, Jeri Fouter, Inky MacDougall, Tom Harden, Anne Frymer, David Burns, Mary Haskell, Martha Wood, Paul Linton, Harriet Cohen Bob Bicknell chaired the meeting; Mary Haskell and Harriet Cohen took the minutes. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm. 1. Discussion of fund raising and publicity for Lexington Housing Foundation:. Art Katz, Jeri Fouter and Florence Baturin volunteered to work on publicity to attract donors – Jeri passed out brochures used by Arlington and Bedford. We want a good brochure showing the importance of affordable housing to a community; the need for a high quality brochure was stressed as a way for potential donors to know that we are serious about this fund-raising campaign We discussed whether the funds would be raised generally or for specific programs of ours; Bob Bicknell's action plan for the Home Consortium lists specific items for which we can use funds and they can be incorporated into the publicity. We have just been turned down by CHAPA for our application for a grant to pay for Phil Herr to consult further on the inclusionary zoning by- law – this is one specific effort for which we can use the money immediately. The publicity committee will do a solicitation letter targeted to churches and temples and also one targeted to banks and probably one targeted to realtors and developers 2. Hear Reports from Sub-committees. Zoning By-Law Changes (Mary Haskell): The only matter to report is the turndown by CHAPA as noted above. The question is: How do we get Phil Herr back in the picture? We do have $1,300 in the Housing Foundation, mainly from the Hancock Church. It was agreed that Mary will write to Phil asking him to send us a proposal as to the cost of getting started with him and ask him for quarterly proposals with payments over time. We can sign a contract with him. Tom Harden noted that the Planning Board's slot to report comes up the first night of Town Meeting--there will probably be a 5 or 10 minute informational session about inclusionary zoning even though it will not be up for a vote at this spring's town meeting HOME Consortium (David Burns): We will not be getting any money from the HOME Consortium next year. The HUD Regional Director, who retired, did not forward the application for funds to HUD in Washington. As a result, the four new members of the consortium, including Lexington, will not be getting any money. The consortium coordinator has tried to get us some money, but had no success. In any event, HUD is proposing to cut the grants next year by 50%. Lexington Housing Partnership 3. Report from the Chairman (Bob Bicknell): th Meeting with Board of Selectmen scheduled for February 14. a) Smart Growth 40R letter received from DHCD describing the new Regulations and th providing notice of a public hearing on Friday, February 18. at 9:30 at DHCD in Boston. I sent a draft letter to Sarah Young, Deputy Director, as an application for a Letter of Approval for Avalon at Lexington Square as qualifying for Density Bonus Payments. She has agreed to return comments to me so we can proceed with a letter from the Board of Selectmen. I plan to describe the status for the Board and ask that they send a letter to DHCD. b) HOME Funds - As you have heard from Dave Burns a procedural goof resulted in Lexington and the other new members of the WestMetro consortium not being included in the HUD funds distribution for 2005. I plan to outline the problem for the Board and ask that they consider taking political action to see if the funds can be reinstated. I sent an input to the Town Report. I received a Jan 21, 2005 letter from DHCD detailing the Chap 40B Subsidized Housing Inventory. The attached memo was sent to the planning staff and board to show the impact of adding affordable accessory apartments to the inventory. The CPA Warrant Articles are being coordinated. They are scheduled for Town Meeting at thth 8:00PM on March 30. The Board of Selectmen will want an explanation on February 14. This will be coordinated with the Conservation Commission and Historical Commission and possible other entities who will have a role and stake in the CPA process. The draft Motion is th being prepared by Town Council and is due by February 7. The TMMA will also write up the articles for their information booklet. 4. Grandview 40B Mr. Burns, who is the submitter of the Grandview 40B proposal, recused himself on this issue and was not present during the discussion. The sense of the committee was that while we are anxious for affordable housing in town, the scale and density of the proposed 40B was much too great for the neighborhood. Since we did not have a quorum of members present, we could not vote on a committee position, but we did agree to send a letter to the Zoning Board of Appeals, expressing the concerns of those attending and asking the developer to revise his plans and re-submit them with a lesser density and smaller scale units. The meeting adjourned at 9:20 pm. Attachment 1.) Affordable Accessory Apartments Attachment 1. Lexington Housing Partnership January 20, 2005 Memo: Affordable Accessory Apartments Planning Staff and Board In recent discussions about the proposed Accessory Apartments Zoning By-Law a question was raised about the impact of adding accessory apartments to Lexington’s housing inventory. Would these additions adversely affect our 40B status with regard to our 10% goal? The 2005 Subsidized Housing Inventory has just been published by DHCD. The published inventory for Lexington as of January 2005 is: Units Total Subsidized Housing Inventory Percent 11274 887 828 7.3% When the LIP is approved for the 387 Avalon Bay units and the Regulatory Agreement has been established, then the status will be: 11274 1274 1215 10.8% When the census is revised in 2010, the status will become (adding 387 units but no other changes): 11661 1274 1215 10.4% We could add 489 non-affordable units to the inventory (ie. 11661+489=12150) and still be at 10%. This gives us some time to develop a practical process for qualifying and counting accessory apartments so they would count as affordable in our subsidized housing inventory. The LIP regulations define what must be done to enable such units to count. Procedures will need to be developed that can be approved for use in Lexington, but there is time to do that.. Proceeding with the proposed Accessory Apartment Zoning By-Law is desirable. Making the process easier to understand and allowing the larger accessory dwellings will provide owners with opportunities to supplement their income which will make housing in Lexington more affordable for them. The apartments themselves will also add to the affordable housing stock. Bob Bicknell, Chair, Lexington Housing Partnership