TAD Advisory Committee - Mall Area

MINUTES MALL AREA REDEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING Friday, September 9, 2022 – 3:00-4:30PM 301B City Hall, 301 College Ave., Athens GA 30601 The meetings for the Mall Area Redevelopment Committee will be available to watch live on YouTube at the link available on the calendar entry on the ACCGov homepage or this particular meeting can be viewed at the link provided here: https://youtu.be/Bb1xcMaSU24 Members Present: Mayor Kelly Girtz, Commissioner Jesse Houle, Commissioner Mike Hamby BOE Member Dr. Mumbi Anderson, BOE Member Linda Davis (Arrived at 3:30pm) Members Absent: None ACCGov Staff Present: Ilka McConnell, Caitlin Dye, Blaine Williams, Sherrie Hines, Solomon Smothers, Andrew Saunders Public Present: Michael Pruett (BOE Attorney), Denise Ricks (Mall TAD Advisory Committee Member), James Ricks (Citizen), Jon Williams (CEO, W&A Engineering) A. Call to Order as a Regular Called Meeting: Caitlin Dye 1. Meeting began at 3:09PM B. Approval of Agenda 1. Motion to approve: Mayor Girtz Second: Commissioner Houle Unanimous vote to approve agenda C. Approval of August 12th Minutes: 1. Motion to approve with corrections: Commissioner Houle Second: Mayor Girtz Unanimous vote to approve minutes with corrections D. New Business: 1. Affordable Housing in Athens Solomon Smothers, Housing Coordinator, ACCGov Housing and Community Development Department (HCD)  CDBG and HOME money can be rolled over to an extent; HOME money is disbursed knowing it will take longer to use. CDBG money should be spent every year, however, the agencies that HCD administers the money to can ask for a 15% rollover of what was awarded that year.  Athens-Clarke County’s MSA Area Median Income is $82,300. This number is calculated from the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development and includes Clarke County, Madison County, Oconee County and Oglethorpe County. The annual median income for just Clarke County is $39,000.   In the inclusionary zoning policy, the more affordable units are, meaning the lesser % AMI, the less number of units a developer has to provide that is deemed affordable. Also by providing affordable units, they are granted a higher density of beds per acre. This density is determined on the zoning district they are building in.  Per state law, we cannot require developers to incorporate affordable housing units into their overall development and can only limit the developers to offer units at an affordable rate when incentivized voluntarily to 20 years.  The inclusionary zoning policy uses the HUD AMI definition when calculating the affordable unit costs. 2. Conflict of Interest Sherrie Hines, ACC Chief Assistant Attorney  Having a conflict of interest isn’t a bad thing. It just means that you need to disclose it to the committee and the mayor and commission and potentially recuse yourself.  A fiduciary duty is that you have the obligation to put the interest of the TAD when serving in that role before anything else.  Robert’s Rules of Order says that you should abstain from voting if you have a “direct personal interest”, however it doesn’t define what a “direct personal interest” is. It is suggested though that if you benefit directly, your family or friends benefit directly from the vote, you should recuse yourself from the vote.  Only you can make the judgement call on if you have a direct personal interest in a vote/situation or not.  Once you disclose your conflict of interest to the committee, it is suggested that you leave the room so that you cannot be accused of influencing the decision thru non-verbal communication. E. Committee Discussion and Questions 1. The MARC would like a school impact analysis to be conducted in addition to the financial impact analysis for each application that comes in for this TAD. F. Adjourn 1. Motion: Mayor Girtz Second: Commissioner Houle Unanimous vote to adjourn 2. Meeting was adjourned at 4:45PM