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11/28/2017 - Minutes (5) MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28 , 2017 The Board of Directors of the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City, Utah, met in a Special Meeting on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 in Room 326, Committee Room, City County Building, 451 South State. In Attendance: Directors Lisa Adams, Derek Kitchen, James Rogers, Erin Mendenhall, Stan Penfold, Charlie Luke, and Andrew Johnston. Staff in Attendance: Cindy Gust-Jenson, Council Executive Director; Jennifer Bruno, Council Executive Deputy Director; David Litvack, Mayor' s Deputy Chief of Staff; Danny Walz, Redevelopment Agency Chief Operating Officer; Mike Reberg, Community and Neighborhoods Director; Lara Fritts, Economic Development Director; Benjamin Luedtke, Council Policy Analyst; Ed Butterfield, Senior Project Manager; Crayola Berger, Accountant II; Katie Lewis, Senior City Attorney; Mary Beth Thompson, Finance Director; John Vuyk, Budget Director; and Cindi Mansell, City Recorder. Director Adams presided at and conducted the meeting. The meeting was called to order at 2 : 11 p.m. B. REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BUSINESS (RDA) #1 . 2:11:38 PM RDA Budget Amendment No. 3 for Fiscal Year 2017-2018 and Draft RDA Housing Funding Strategy. The Board will discuss the proposal for RDA Budget Amendment No. 3 for Fiscal Year 18, which would transfer $15. 6 million in RDA Housing Funds to the City's Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND) to administer. As a part of this discussion, the Board will also consider discussing the previous proposal for spending these Housing Funds, titled the draft "RDA Housing Funding Strategy. " View Attachments Cindy Gust-Jenson, Jennifer Bruno and Ben Luedtke briefed the Board with attachments (view new discussion handout) . Ms . Bruno said Staff continued to work on verification of technical aspects but there were two housing proposals before the Board which appeared to overlap. She said Staff felt walking through these broader level policy questions might be helpful . Ms . Gust-Jenson said Administration presented two different plans . She said discussions on the HAND plan were evolving based on Council and RDA input; however, having two plans with only one evolving was not adding up to Staff ability to expedite the process . She said when the Council appropriated funding, Staff thought the fundamental goal was to create more housing opportunities in Salt Lake City for any member of the public. She said the majority of HAND funding was recommended for 17 - 1 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28 , 2017 rehabilitation or reconstruction of existing units . She said the end result could have the same size of housing pool but change the income group and people in the community which utilize the pool . She said this realization could also displace people who were at low income, reside in workforce housing, and were above or below the 40 percent Area Median Income (AMI) . She said clarification or policy was needed as to whether the target was 40 percent housing or growing housing opportunities . Director Penfold said historically, the RDA had annually allocated a percentage of revenue to the Housing Trust Fund. Ms . Bruno said funding was not allocated this year; however, it was typically $3 to $3 . 5 million which was split into project area housing administered by the RDA and Citywide housing, which in many cases was transferred to the Housing Trust Fund. Director Penfold said historically, the RDA supported housing across the City and he thought the intent of the $21 million was for expansion of those same resources available to affordability and challenge (hence different plans) . He said there was a need to define that affordability and identify priorities for need of affordability. He said the Board had heard the needs for all levels of income and all demographics and needed to determine whether intent was to grow across the AMI spectrum or try to address a specific AMI . Director Mendenhall said HAND indicated the biggest "bang for the buck" was in renovating existing affordable housing via various methods . She suggested a compromise between the two plans and further discussion on the definition of "more units" . Concern was expressed that it was difficult for the Board to make decisions based on a constantly changing process including conflicting goals . Further discussion followed regarding what it meant to add units (i .e . building new, increasing number available, or improving existing) and potential for unintended consequences (such as shortage or displacement) . The Board discussed significant needs for various areas and limited resources as well as the overall challenge to consider all gaps (where some departments might be focused on specific gaps) . Director Johnson said it was hard not to look at all needs but the Board needed to define the most pressing need now and consider others when possible . Ms . Gust-Jenson said Staff needed to understand the definition of what that "need" was . Director Rogers said his thought was whichever was the most cost effective to provide the biggest bang for the buck should be tackled first. Director Kitchen said clarification was needed to prevent the Board from future discussions (spinning their wheels) . He said his vision was for cost-effective projects and wise methods to spend the $21 million. He said some funding was from tax increment and it was important to see 17 - 2 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28 , 2017 that go towards bricks and mortar in areas already identified as RDA priority. Director Luke said the $21 million was funding the RDA Board set aside for housing. He said HAND could still move forward with their ideas and incentives already commissioned. He said the Board had obligations to both residents and to tax increment partners to ensure the money set aside for housing was spent in a consistent and meaningful manner. He said he personally was not supportive of transferring pots of money anywhere or interested in opening up the $21 million to the RDA. He said he wanted to see the Board review individual projects or proposals coming forward to request funding and felt that would be a fiscally responsible and transparent method to move forward and create successful developments . Director Kitchen expressed concern the two plans were competing for the same pot of money in a manner that was not effective to good management. He said the Board instructed City Council Staff to work with Administrative Staff to come up with a plan and countless hours were spent putting these plans together. He said that was supposed to be a starting point and he felt the need for the Board to shore-up the policy as soon as possible . He suggested straw polling the individual plan proposals versus debating policy statements at this time to try to move in a forward direction. Director Mendenhall said this was a unique situation and emphasized the need for documented policy decisions . The Board discussed the Updated Statements based on the November 21, 2017 City Council discussion and conducted various unanimous Straw Polls with the following results (see original and Updated Policy Statements) : 1 . Adhere to federal-level efforts discouraging the concentration of poverty in individual projects and neighborhoods . 1 . Adhere to federal-level efforts discouraging the concentration of poverty by including a mix of affordable and market rate units in individual projects and neighborhoods. (original statements 1 & 2 were combined) 3 . Uphold an equitable ratio of affordable to market rate units throughout the City so no one neighborhood is overly impacted. Ideally, projects outside areas of high opportunity should have lower ratios of affordable units . 3 . Uphold an equitable ratio of affordable market rate new units throughout the City. Ideally, projects outside areas of high opportunity should have lower ratios of affordable units. 17 - 3 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2017 4 . Place Incentivize affordable housing within areas of high opportunity. DID NOT CHANGE 5 . Award funding through a competitive, accountable, fair and transparent process to give all interested developers, agencies and organizations equal opportunity to submit proposals for consideration. DID NOT CHANGE 6 . Help build mixed incomc projects throughout thc City so that no one neighborhood is overly impacted by a large increase of housing units . BOARD SUPPORTED DELETION 7 . Incentivize the preservation and improvement of existing affordable housing. DID NOT CHANGE - PENDING FINAL APPROVAL 8 . Don' t displace existing affordable housing. (Merged with original 9) 9 . Create a net increase in affordable housing units while : i . Avoiding displacement of existing affordable housing to the extent possible, and ii . Retaining and expanding the diversity of AMI and housing types . PENDING FINAL APPROVAL 10 . Rctain and expand thc diversity of housing types . (Merged with original 9) 11 . Keep publicly-funded housing projects affordable as long as possible . 12 . Add to the diversity of all housing types available in Salt Lakc City. (Merged with original 9) 13 . Create a welcoming environment for people of all backgrounds and incomes . 13 . Create a spectrum of housing options for people of all backgrounds and incomes. Statements 14, 15, and 16 remained unchanged. 17 . Include deeply affordable units and are equipped to enable residents' success through partnerships that provide supportive services . 17 . Enable residents' success to maintain housing through partnerships providing supportive services. PENDING FINAL APPROVAL 18 . Maximize tax increment and neighborhood development goals, when utilizing RDA money for housing development. 18 . Support tax increment and neighborhood development goals, when utilizing RDA money for housing development. PENDING FINAL APPROVAL 19 . Identify opportunities to expedite City funded projects that are already in the process . DID NOT CHANGE - PENDING FINAL APPROVAL The Board then discussed the additional five statements and conducted Straw Polls in approval for all . Statements 1, 3, 4, and 6 remained unchanged and Statements 2 and 5 were modified as follows: 2 . Supports identifying tools to increase and diversify the total housing supply including housing types that the private market does not sufficiently provide such as family housing in the downtown area, missing middle housing and middle-to-low income apartments . 2 . Supports identifying tools to increase and diversify the total 17 - 4 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28 , 2017 housing supply including housing types that the private market does not sufficiently provide such as family housing in the downtown area, innovative housing types, missing middle housing and middle-to-low income apartments. 5 . Supports projects that include quality construction materials, design, and incorporate amenities such as open space . 5 . Supports projects that include quality construction materials, design, and incorporate public or private amenities. Ms . Bruno said the goal was to have these policies guide all investments across the City and not just the RDA. Ms . Gust-Jenson said there were several proposals the City held over the last year and perhaps now there were opportunities to remove barriers from those considerations . Ms . Bruno said the Board could continue review of the remaining policy questions at an upcoming meeting. She said the goal was to be able to conduct a public hearing and render a decision on RDA Budget Amendment No. 3 at the next meeting. The meeting adjourned at 3 : 46 p.m. Redevelopment Agency Chair Secretary This document is not intended to serve as a full transcript as additional discussion may have been held; please refer to the audio or video for entire content. This document along with the digital recording constitute the official minutes of the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency Special meeting held November 28, 2017 . clm 17 - 5