Amesbury Housing Trust

By City Clerk at 12:29 pm, Nov 14, 2022 AMESBURY CITY HALL 62 Friend Street Amesbury, MA 01913 Amesbury Affordable Housing Trust MEETING AGENDA September 14, 2022 @ 4:30pm City Hall Auditorium Minutes Members present: Margaret Hoffman, Kathy Troiano, Kerry Hamel-Pope, Mayor Kassandra Gove, Nancy Frick, Drew LeFleur, Steve Stanganelli, Katelynn Lemieux Staff: Angela Cleveland, Adam Krans 1. Call to Order. Margaret welcomed the newest Housing Trust member, Katelynn Lemieux 2. Minutes from August 10, 2022. Councilor Stanganelli asked if we can call out the votes better or separately in the minutes. They are difficult to find. Katelynn asked that we change the spelling of her name on page 3. Councilor Stanganelli also said we should update the minutes to read Amesbury Affordable Housing Trust (instead of Amesbury Housing Trust). Kathy moved to accept the minutes. Nancy seconded. 7 yeses, 1 abstention (Katelynn). 3. Public Comment from Sharon McAfee from 33 Unicorn Circle. The email is included as an at- tachment to the minutes. 4. Communications • Housing Trust Account update • Trust members are encouraged to sign up for CHAPA’s webinar series. It’s $25 for non- members. Margaret asked if the City will reimburse members for attending the conference. Angela responded that the City does not specifically have a line item in the budget for the Trust but that we could use Trust funds. The training can be found at CHAPA’s Tools and Strategies for Increasing Housing Production Virtual Conference. 2. Existing Business • Prioritization Exercise – Drew LeFleur reviewed the prioritization exercise that he conducted to help the Trust accomplish the items they identified. Katelynn mentioned that she liked the coordination Creating a Better Life Program in Gloucester and in Fitchburg. Another program is a HUD Program. Unfortunately, Amesbury might not have access to these programs. Katelynn suggested that we investigate through Pettengill House for self-sufficiency programs. Margaret asked if the Housing Authority had the funding to hire someone. Katelynn is said they have to write a grant for those funds. The Mayor said this would be something we could actively start trying to learn more about to see if we should/can bring these programs to Amesbury. Drew said his recommendation would be to create workstreams to manage implementation. Margaret asked if we want to use this to keep track of new  projects that come on our list? For example, the Rental Assistance Program. Are there other projects that we want to include? The Mayor said some of the actions under High Impact/Low Effort may not “go away” as they will be a work in progress. She went through the list. Even on the right-hand side there are things that we are working on. Katelynn suggested that we set up a meeting with the Housing Authority Board of Directors. Margaret asked Angela to connect her to the Housing Authority Chair and she will discuss with them how best to meet and talk through our goals and how we can work together. Nancy asked if we could collaborate on a draft agenda together via email. Margaret said that could be a violation of Open Meeting Law. Councilor Stanganelli suggested that we create a subcommittee. Margaret said she would like to talk with the Housing Authority first and then we can go from there. Members hope that we will act quickly through either scheduling a meeting or inviting them to our meeting. Margaret said she will let everyone know via email re: dates/times. Kathy asked to follow up on the idea of adding things to the list, specifically the ADU. The Mayor commented that an RFP has been released to find a consultant to write an ADU Ordinance for the City. • Housing Campaign Exercise Update. The City has met with the consultants that were hired twice to help the City strategize on and prioritize housing initiatives. Rick Taintor (Independent consultant) and Daphne Politis (Community Circle) have been secured. Staff (the Mayor, Angela Cleveland, and Nipun Jain) met with the consultants to list out the projects, level of effort, and timeline for 13 initiatives that the City is working on now or that will be coming in the future. A third meeting will be held October 12th. • Update on Bill # 2022-087. Mayor Gove gave an update on the status of this bill. After sending this through several Boards/Committees, there are conflicting opinions about this bill. The Planning Board took a vote of no position. The Open Space, Natural Resources, and Trails Committee voted not to recommend disposition. The Council subcommittees (Budget and Finance: Tuesday, September 20th and Planning and Development: Wednesday, September 21st). The second reading is scheduled for Tuesday, September 27th. There is also a free petition in front of the Council to preserve the parcels as permanent open space. The Mayor said there have been discussions about compromise: one parcel instead of two, 1 duplex instead of multiple. Margaret asked about Article 97. Councilor Stanganelli explained that this is how communities protect parcels for permanent open space. For example, Town Forest. Woodsom Farm. Article 97 can be controversial. It takes land out of the development cycle and off the tax rolls. Margaret asked if they voted to refer the petition to two subcommittees (Ordinance and Administration and Budget and Finance) for informational purposes only. The final vote will be on September 27th. Councilor Stanganelli suggested they attend the Budget and Finance and Planning and Development Committees next week. Margaret asked if the members can see the slide show that has been created, including that the two parcels would generate about $3,000 in taxes at their current assessed value.  It was clearcut as recently as 1998. And at one point it almost had foundations in the 1990s. And the City actually took it twice. Kathy asked if there were any engineering plans completed? The Mayor responded that it was before any of our times. Katelynn commented that it is likely that a lot has changed since then as well. Councilor Stanganelli asked if the Trust had any control over the RFP process, which we don’t. He threw out an idea of making it a pocket park. Nancy asked if the Trust needs to do more at this point. The Mayor clarified that everyone was asked the introduce themselves at the public hearings and their relationship to the bill. The Mayor asked who wrote the recommendation to the Council. Councilor Stanganelli stipulated that usually the staff person writes the memo. Angela submitted something to the City Clerk with the minutes. Should we send something to the subcommittees. Members agreed yes. Angela said she will and send it again. Nancy asked if we could decide who would be at the meetings. Drew can commit to attending September 20th. Margaret can commit to attending September 21st. Councilor Stanganelli said that presumably there will be answers as to whether those parcels actually do have endangered species, heat island issues, etc. Angela said if this moves to the next step, the Disposition Committee process would invite subject matter experts in to present any environmental issues with the properties. Margaret recognized George Koehler from Habitat for Humanity. Margaret asked for clarification on their role. They have expressed interest in the parcel and have walked the site. Margaret asked if George had anything to add. He didn’t want to provide comment. Councilor Stanganelli asked what the updated number of units Amesbury currently have? Angela responded that we currently have 9.76% and 687 units. WE are currently 16 units shy of the 10% or 704 units. 3. New Business • Process for Creating Affordable Units – Angela provided an overview of the attached process for creating affordable units. These are units that are not created under the Comprehensive Permit/40B Process. This will help ensure that future units created through site plan process meet Fair Housing standards. The Planning Board reviewed and agreed on this process. See attached to these minutes for the process. • Proposed Affordable Housing Project for 276-280 Main Street. Angela provided an overview of the proposed project at 276-280 Main Street. The property is owned by Housing Support Inc. The property currently has 14 units, and they are proposing an additional 10 units. They hope to have a formal application into the Zoning Board of Appeals in December. The ZBA is holding a formal training on 40B/Comprehensive Permit developments on September 22nd at 6pm. The Housing Trust members are welcome to attend in person or virtually on ACTV. 4. Other Business • Councilor Stanganelli asked how else we could work with Habitat. He asked if there were deed restrictions on them. Kerry clarified that Institution for Savings gave the land for the Salisbury project and there is a deed restriction on those units. The members discussed various processes other communities use. 5. Next Meeting Date – October 12th. 6. Adjourn. Motion to adjourn by Katelynn, Kerry seconded. Unanimous vote.