Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/24/2017 - Minutes MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017 The Board of Directors of the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) of Salt Lake City, Utah, met on Tuesday, October 24, 2017 at 2 : 06 p.m. in Room 326, Committee Room, City County Building, 451 South State. In Attendance: Directors Lisa Adams, Derek Kitchen, Erin Mendenhall (via telephonic) , James Rogers, Charlie Luke, Stan Penfold, and Andrew Johnston. Staff in Attendance: Cindy Gust-Jenson, Council Executive Director; Jennifer Bruno, Council Executive Deputy Director; Patrick Leary, Mayor' s Chief of Staff; Katherine Lewis, Senior City Attorney; David Litvack, Mayor' s Deputy Chief of Staff; Lara Fritts, Economic Development Director; Danny Walz, RDA Chief Operating Officer; Melissa Jensen, Housing and Neighborhood Development Director; Benjamin Luedtke, Council Office Policy Analyst; Ed Butterfield, RDA Senior Project Manager; Kort Utley, RDA Senior Project Manager; John Vuyk, Budget Director; Cara Lindsley, RDA Project Coordinator; Jill Wilkerson-Smith, RDA Project Manager, Tammy Hunsaker, RDA Project Manager; Makayla Hardy, Deputy City Recorder; and Cindi Mansell, City Recorder. Others in Attendance: Jim Seaberg, Ivory Commercial & Manufacturing (ICO) President and Chief Executive Officer; Marion Willey, Utah Non-profit Housing Corporation (UNPHC) Executive Director; Ryan Hackett, Western Region Non-profit Housing Corporation (WRNPHC) Development Coordinator. Director Adams presided at and conducted the meeting. 2:06:35 PM The meeting was called to order at 2 : 06 p.m. A. COMMENTS #1 . 2:07:02 PM GENERAL COMMENTS TO THE BOARD. Sean Neves voiced his concerns regarding the City' s need for low- income housing and the pricing discussed for the proposed acquisition of the Overniter Motel . He said surrounding property values would go through the roof. He said the City was stacking affordable housing mainly on the West Side and he wanted to see it spread further east. #2 . 2:09:08 PM BUDGET AMENDMENT NO. 1 FOR FISCAL YEAR (FY) 2017-18 FOR 1500 WEST NORTH TEMPLE STREET. Accept public comment relating to Budget Amendment No. 1 for FY 2017-18 for a loan for an affordable housing project located at 1500 West North Temple Street. View Attachments No public comments were made. 17 - 1 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017 Director Luke moved and Director Rogers seconded to close the public hearing, which motion carried, all Directors voted aye. B. REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BUSINESS #1 . 2:09:41 PM Director Rogers moved and Director Johnston seconded to approve the minutes of the October 10, 2017 RDA meeting, which motion carried, all Directors voted aye. View Minutes #2 . 2:10:08 PM RESOLUTION: BUDGET AMENDMENT NO. 1 FOR FY 2017-18 FOR 1500 WEST NORTH TEMPLE STREET. Discuss and consider approving a budget request for a loan to facilitate the purchase of property for an affordable housing project located at 1500 West North Temple Street. In connection with the budget request, the Board may also discuss the RDA's draft housing funding strategy, which includes reference to the affordable housing project located at 1500 West North Temple. View Attachments Danny Walz , Tammy Hunsaker, Bejamin Luedtke, Melissa Jensen, Jim Seaberg, Marion Willey, Ryan Hackett, and Jennifer Bruno briefed the Board with attachments . Mr. Walz reviewed information regarding the proposed loan request for the purpose of acquiring property on North temple with a budget amendment to allocate those funds . Director Penfold asked if North Temple was a catalytic project area which might kick off investment in the corridor. He asked Mr. Walz if he was familiar with the concept the Board talked about (prior to his tenure) to implement more consideration into identifying and finding catalytic projects as new areas were established. Mr. Walz said he considered this a catalytic project. He said this project could start the ball rolling but it would not be beneficial to look at this particular project as the one and only project for the area. Director Kitchen said he wanted to see this area redeveloped but felt it was being done backwards . He asked why the Blue Ribbon Commission chose to do it this way. Ms . Jensen said this area was chosen because it met multiple objectives in terms of blight and the potential redevelopment of surrounding areas . She said this was a unique partnership opportunity much different than the Housing Trust Fund process . Director Mendenhall expressed her concerns around the lack of clarity. She said the RDA' s need to do this quickly rather than the Board being presented with a proposal aligned with policy goals concerned her. She said there was a great amount of ambiguity around affordable housing 17 - 2 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017 and asked why the RDA was not going to RFP (Request for Proposal) for this project. Mr. Walz said it was not going to RFP because the motel was not City-owned and the developer would use the RDA loan to purchase the Overniter Motel property. Ms . Bruno said the Board did not have a process to govern loan applications but one could be set-up to help guide future requests if desired. Director Mendenhall said the Board would be in a better position if the project went to bid and the Board could gain more clarity from respondents about project specifics . She asked why the RDA did not use the same money and purchase the property so the City assumed less risk. Mr. Walz said they were putting faith in private development . He said this route met goals and objectives for the RDA to leverage funds . Director Penfold said the language being used sounded similar to a failed project on State Street. He said the idea of "trusting it would work" did not give him comfort it would be a good project . He said there was a lot of vagueness and uncertainties in the current proposal . He said he had strong reactions to "the City has no skin in the game" comment he kept hearing. He said the Board set aside $21 million and had been waiting over a year for a recommendation from Administration on what to do with the money. Mr. Walz said the "no skin in the game" comment was not meant as an accusation. He said private developers were willing to come in and develop a partnership but they had asked that the City come forward with money and resources as well . He said he understood the Board' s concerns with the failed State Street project. Ms . Bruno said once funding was authorized there was no opportunity to take the funding back. She said the question in the future would be loan forgiveness; to keep the loan as a loan to be repaid or to forgive the loan. Director Mendenhall expressed her concerns regarding Mr. Walz' s comment about the City having faith in the market. She said the City' s lack of affordable housing was not a lack of faith in the market; she said this was a false rush to try and meet the affordable housing need. She reiterated what private and public sector experts from the Blue Ribbon Commission had said; that the affordable housing need would not be mitigated by 2019 . She said the urgency by the RDA needed to take a backseat to good policy and good affordable housing development. She said the way it was happening now was not transparent. Director Johnston said it felt as though the City believed it would 17 - 3 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017 be acceptable to go above 50 percent affordability here (at the Overniter Motel location) but not anywhere else in the City. He asked if there was a way to avoid the unintentional problem of stacking affordable housing on the West side of the City that the Board was continuously running into. Mr. Seaberg said Clark Ivory asked him/ICO to attend the Blue Ribbon Commission meeting. He said he was not a developer and was only interested in helping developers with construction expertise and resources . He said ICO' s participation was not contingent upon WRNPHC being the applicant. Director Kitchen asked if Mr. Seaberg could speak to the labor shortage in the market and how it affected affordable housing. Mr. Seaberg said from a land standpoint in downtown Salt Lake, the price had escalated in the last two years at a 40 percent rate and would only continue to rise for future land purchases . He said labor costs were up 12-14 percent, and across all trades in construction there were very few entering the construction labor force after the most recent economic downturn. He said commodities were also up similar to the percentages of labor costs . Director Luke expressed his excitement but said there were things which gave him pause. He said he needed more information before he felt comfortable moving in the proposed direction. Director Luke moved and Director Penfold seconded to adopt a resolution approving $4 million from the $21 million Affordable Housing funding set aside for the RDA to purchase the Overniter Motel property, contingent upon the Salt Lake City Housing Authority assigning the purchase contract to the RDA. Director Luke spoke to the motion. He stated the reason he made the motion was because of the work Directors Mendenhall, Rogers, Johnston, and he had done working on the motel issues (and associated problems) . He said he was supportive of purchasing the property to move forward with the intended goal . Director Johnston asked Mr. Walz how this would change things for staff. Mr. Walz said the contract expired on November 3rd making it a quick purchase. He said this direction would make the City the proud owners, managers, and operators of a motel; which was something the City had done before, although it was a liability. He said the motel had residents and the City would take on the obligation and responsibility for relocating those residents . Director Luke restated the motion, Director Penfold seconded to 17 - 4 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017 approve Resolution R-10-2017 amending the final budget of the RDA for Fiscal Year 2017-18 approving $4 million from the $21 million of Affordable Housing funding set aside for the RDA to purchase the Overniter Motel property contingent upon the Salt Lake City Housing Authority assigning the purchase contract to the RDA, which motion carried, all directors voted aye. A follow-up motion was made by Director Penfold and seconded by Director Luke to adopt a resolution directing RDA Staff (in the process of issuing a Request For Proposals with the intention of receiving response by the end of the calendar year) that the RFP would indicate no greater than 60 percent of total units as affordable and that other policies and goals identified in the transit area zoning specific to this property were referenced and evaluated in the RFP as important to the scoring. Director Rogers made a friendly amendment to the motion. He asked the Council to consider no more than the majority (50 percent and below) of total units as affordable. Director Penfold stated he would accept the friendly amendment. Director Luke stated he would also accept the friendly amendment however he explained he still supported 60 percent to be spread across all projects tapping into the $21 million. Director Luke moved and Director Penfold seconded to adopt Resolution R-11-2017 for disposition requirements for real property located at 1500 West North Temple and to direct RDA Staff in the process of issuing a Request For Proposals with the intention of receiving response by the end of the calendar year that the RFP would indicate no more than the majority (50 percent) of total units as affordable and that other policies goals identified in the transit area zoning specific to this property are referenced and evaluated in the RFP as important to the scoring. Director Kitchen left the meeting at 3 : 54 PM. Director Johnston asked the Board to set a policy regarding percentage of units to be compatible across the City before considering any new developments . He said the City unintentionally kept running into the same problem of high proportions of affordable housing development west of Interstate 15 . Director Penfold said there would be expenses with the proposed new purchase (the relocation of current residents) and he asked RDA Staff to return with recommendations regarding the costs . 17 - 5 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2017 Director Mendenhall asked the staff to return with recommendations on ways to mitigate the displacement of residents during construction and the time period the motel would not be operating. She suggested gathering demographic information of the people who used the Overniter Motel as a long-term residence . She said she wanted to know more about whom this project was displacing. Director Adams called for a roll call vote, which motion carried, all directors voted aye except Director Kitchen, who was absent for the vote. Directors requested the following items from Staff: • Forward the fair-market value appraisal to the Board; • Have RDA Staff return with recommendations regarding the costs (even if it was only preliminary numbers) of the proposed purchase of the Overniter Motel; • Provide any recommendations on ways to mitigate the displacement of residents currently using the Overniter Motel on a long-term basis . #3. REPORT AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. Report of the Executive Director, including a review information items, announcements, and scheduling items. The Board of Directors may give feedback or policy input. Item not held. #4 . REPORT AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM STAFF. The Board may review Board information and announcements. The Board may give feedback on any item related to City business, including but not limited to scheduling items. Item not held. #5. REPORT OF THE CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR. The Chair may review the minutes of a previous Board meeting. Item not held. C. WRITTEN BRIEFING None . D. CONSENT None . 17 - 6 MINUTES OF THE REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY OF SALT LAKE CITY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 , 2017 E. TENTATIVE CLOSED SESSION None. The meeting adjourned at 4 : 02 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 meeting held October 24, 2017 . mh 17 - 7