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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004 11-16 HCM MIl�TUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE HOUSING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER IN THE COUNTY OF HENNEPIN AND STATE OF MINNESOTA REGULAR SESSION NOVEMBER 16, 2004 COUNCIL COMMISSION ROOM CALL TO ORDER The Brooklyn Center Housing Commission was called to order by Chairperson Yelich at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Chairperson Mark Yelich, Commissioners Kris Lawrence-Anderson, Mary Barrus, David Johnson, and Jean Schuster. Also present were Council Liaison Diane Niesen and Community Development Specialist Tom Bublitz. Commissioners Stan Leino and Judy Thorbus were absent and excused from the meeting. APPROYAL OFAGENDA There was a motion by Commissioner Barrus and seconded by Commissioner Johnson to approve the agenda as submitted. The motion passed. APPROVAL OF MINUTES SEPTEMBER 21, 2004 There was a motion by Commissioner Barrus and seconded by Commissioner Johnson to approve the minutes of the September 21, 2004 Housing Commission meeting. The motion passed. CHAIRPERSONS REPORT Chairperson Yelich noted he had received a notice of Brooklyn Center's 94�' birthday celebration to be conducted at the Earle Brown Heritage Center and encouraged Comxnission members who were interested to attend the celebration. The Chair noted an article in the Sun Post relative to City Council activities regarding a rental property in the city that has gone on notice with regard to a provisional license. Chairperson Yelich next shared with Housing Commission members the draft redevelopment timeline information relative to the city's Opportunity Site. The purpose of this project is to develop a plan for redevelopment of the Opportunity Site area. Chairperson Yelich informed Housing Commission members that the Hennepin County website has information that shows 20 new county probation officers will be located in Brooklyn Center in the office building at 57 and Brooklyn Boulevard. He explained this is apparently an effort to try and get more officers working in neighborhoods. Councilmember Niesen arrived at 7:12 p.m. -1- Chai erson Yelich stated he believes Brookl Center has a higher crime rate because we have rn more criminals living in the city. He shared infortnation with Housing Commission members on the number of single family homes licensed for rental housing and designated in the minutes of the last City Council meeting. COUNCIL LIAISONREPORT Councilmember Niesen discussed the issue of mother-in-law apartments with the Housing Commission and noted that she has a personal experience with this issue relative to her parents. She stated she believes there should be a policy change in how these types of apartments are handled and suggested that the Housing Commission should address this issue as a future agenda item. Chairperson Yelich inquired whether the City Council has addressed the proposed senior housing proj ect along 57�' Avenue North that the Community Development Director discussed at the last meeting. Councilmember Niesen noted that the city had completed a bond sale to address development issues including housing. The Community Development Specialist stated it was his understanding that staff has had discussions with the developer proposing the proj ect but that no formal development agreement had been proposed at this point. SENIOR HOUSING DISCUSSION Chairperson Yelich introduced the senior housing recommendations previously discussed by Commission members and he inquired whether the Commission agreed with the version before the Commission this evening. Commissioner Barrus stated that she disagreed with Item No. 3, which stated that "all new senior development projects should require building facilities that can support an integrated range of senior service levels varying from independent living to congregate care to assisted living to memory care". She stated she does not think any single building or project should be required to provide this due to the distinct requirements of different levels of care. Commissioner Shuster agreed with Commissioner Barrus' statements. Commissioner Barrus emphasized that No. 3 should not be a requirement but would be a fine thing if market could make it work but not as a requirement. Commissioner Shuster agreed suggested that the wording could be changed to encourage this type of facility but not require it. Commissioner Lawrence Anderson suggested that No. 3 contained some good thoughts but perhaps not as a requirement. -2- a Commissioner Johnson suggested that if the chair wants this in the recommendations it could be stated that it would be desirable to have integrated services, but not as a requirement. Commissioner Yelich noted that the individual the Commission talked to at the Copperfield projects spoke of trends and that the trend to have a continuum of care is a trend of the whole industry. Commissioner Barrus commented that the Copperfield project eleeted to provide a continuum of care but this shou�d not be a requirement of all developers. Councilmember Niesen inquired as to the purpose of the recommendations. Chairperson Yelich replied that the idea is to give the City Council guidance in evaluating senior housing proposals. Commissioner Johnson commented that senior housing with the most success appears to have connections to other facilities so people don't have to move to a new facility as their needs change. Councilmember Niesen stated that she believed it would be helpful for the Commission to state that the items of information were gathered from specific developments and that pointing where the information came from and why the Commission believes it is a good model would be helpful in understanding the recommendations. Commissioner Yelich next reviewed Paragraph No. 4 and pointed out that there is a anecdotal information that the city does not have enough owner occupied senior housing such as condominiums or cooperatives. Commissioner Bamis agreed that seniors should have an opportunity to buy as well as rent senior housing. The Commission next discussed Paragraph No. 5, which specified that all new senior development projects should be considered in context of larger city redevelopment plans. The Commission discussed various issues such as streets and pedestrian ways and agreed that in larger redevelopments, areas need to be accessible to seniors. Councilmember Niesen suggested that the area be both walkable and wheelable for those in wheelchairs. The Commission next discussed Paragraph No. 7, which specified that "consider new seniar building projects that take into account safety, long term building durability and property value". Commissioner Barrus stated that she has a difficult time with this section and she pointed out that as long as the building meets the required code, there should not be additional requirements with regard to structure. Chairperson Yelich expla,ined that Brooklyn Center has limited space for new construction and suggested that proj ects could be built up as opposed to out and will get better use out of the space and increase property values by going to additional stories. -3- Commissioner Barrus suggested that many seniors prefer single level structures and added that she is not sure property values will be higher. She pointed out that senior villas is also a trend as well as building up. Commissioner Shuster pointed out that it was her experience that the price of ground level units is actually higher than multi story units. Commissioner Baxrus stated that she does not believe the last statement in Pazagraph No. 6, which states that "single level buildings for seniors are attractive but corisume valuable land azea without adding much property value" is accurate. Commissioner Yelich stated his point is that the constntction quality with a masonry building is superior in terms of long term value. Commissioner Bamis stated she did not agree and that the building code is an issue that the Commission cannot dictate. She stated that the code addresses construction safety and other issues effectively and does not think we can say a single level structure is less valuable. Commissioner Shuster agreed with Commissioner Barrus' comments and that we cannot assume that a single level structure is less valuable from an objective value standpoint. Chairperson Yelich suggested that the last line could be deleted from Paragraph No. 6. Commissioner Barrus suggested that we could strike "property value" in the last line and replace it with "tax base". Councilmember Niesen suggested that the more statistics and facts the Commission has to back up their recommendation, the better they will be received. She suggested that the Commission may want to simply state that they desire to provide housing and at the same time maximize values. She also suggested that perhaps the Commission could list the site visits they made to specific projects. Commissioner Lawrence-Anderson suggested that perhaps the Commission could state that the recommendations are the Commission's opinions and recommendations to be achieved if at all possible Commissioner Barrus suggested making Paragraph No. 4, which recommends the increase of owner occupied senior condominiums or cooperative housing, an even stronger recommendation. The Commission next addressed Paragraph No. 7, which stated that, "require full range of affordability in all new senior housing projects". Commissioner Johnson inquired as to the definition of "wealth" in the paragraph and Chairperson Yelich stated that he wanted to make the point that there should be a variety of units in projects to include various leeels of affordability. Commissioner Lawrence Anderson inquired whether the median income figures used in assessing senior housing affordability levels relate to Brooklyn Center or the large area. The Community Development Specialist stated the median income figures used for deternuning affordability are the Minneapolis/St. Paul area median figures and are not localized to individual cities. -4- Commissioner Barrus suggested that if private developers develop a proj ect on their own, she does not think they should be bound by the requirements of recommendation No. 7 and used the example of the possible desire to build all high end units. Chairperson Yelich explained that recommendation No. 7 serves as a guideline not as an absolute requirement. Commissioner Lawrence Anderson stated she seems to recall that the desire was to get a mix of income and not create an exclusively low income rental proj ect. Comxnissioner Johnson suggested that the Commission layover consideration of the recommendations to the next meeting and introduced a motion to layover the recommendations to the December Housing Commission meeting. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Banus. In discussion of the motion, Chairperson Yelich stated that perhaps the Commission could consider a recommendation on the project proposed along 57�' Avenue and address the larger report separately. Upon a vote being taken on the motion, the motion passed. DISCUSSION OF RESOLUTIONS REGARDING SENIOR HOUSING RECOMMENDATIONS AND 57 SENIOR HOUSING PROPOSAL Chairperson Yelich noted that Commissioner Thorbus, being unable to attend tonight's meeting, had dropped off written information to him to be read at the Housing Commission meeting relative to the senior housing proposal for 57�' Avenue North. The Chairperson proceeded to read the correspondence from Commissioner Thorbus, which expressed opposition to the proposed senior housing project for 57�' Avenue North. Chairperson Yelich passed out a resolution to Housing Commission members that he had prepared relative to the proposed senior housing project for 57�' Avenue North. The resolution stated, "Whereas, the Brooklyn Center Housing Commission has considered the proposed low income senior housing development to be built near the southeast corner of 57�' Avenue and Highway 100, and the proposal fails to address several of the Brooklyn Center senior housing guideline recommendations: Now Be It Resolved; that the Housing Commission recommends the City Council not approve this development proposal": The Commission began its discussion of the resolution and Commissioner Johnson and Commissioner Barrus stated they did not know enough about the proj ect to vote on the resolution. Chairperson Yelich reviewed the information related to the Commission by the Community Development Director at a previous meeting and pointed out that the project will be affordable, independent living and strictly rental. He explained the developer proposing the project has built one in Sha.kopee but that proj ect was a four story building and as a result complied with a different set of code requirements. He added that Mayor Kragness has indicated that she wants input from the Housing Commission on the project and that she was going to talk to the City Manager regarding the Housing Commission's input. Commissioner Johnson again stated that at this point he felt he did not have enough information to -5- make a recommendation on the proj ect one way or the other. Commissioner Shuster stated that based on the information the Commission has right now she likes the idea of a senior project but added that she doesn't know what is going in across the street from the proposed senior project and felt this was also an important part of the project. Commissioner Barrus stated that the proposed senior development is in her neighborhood and may be the first step in a plan for the southeast part of the city. She added this may be a first step in a larger redevelopment. Commissioner Lawrence-Anderson stated that she did not want to take valuable land and put up something we may want now but could be a better project. Chairperson Yelich stated that he thinks that the product proposed along 57�' does not have the quality that the developer put into the Shakopee project. He added he thinks the project would be selling Brooklyn Center short. He stated he thinks the city should be approving projects that have a full range of units and affordability. He added that he believes the city should wait until a larger redevelopment plan is completed and at this point in time he does not think the city should approve the proj ect. He stated the purpose of the vote would be to provide some level of accountability for the Housing Commission. S Commissioner Johnson stated that one of the concerns he has is that if senior proj ects do not work well are they then able to become general occupancy projects. The Community Development Specialist stated that typically the length of time a project is committed to a certain type of tenancy is indicated in the financing documents but that he would try to provide some research to answer Commissioner Johnson's question. Chairperson Yelich introduced a motion to approve the resolution opposing the senior housing development proposal along 57�' Avenue North. The motion died for lack of a second. OTHER BUSINESS There was no other business addressed by the Commission. ADJOURNMENT There was a motion by Commissioner Johnson and seconded by Commissioner Barrus to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed. The Brooklyn Center Housing Commission adjourned at 9:10 p.m. Chairman -6-