Housing Commission

1/28/2020 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Robert Millar, Chris Melnyk, “Deac” Decarreau, Leslie Black-Plumeau City Staff Present: Heather Carrington Guests Present: Councilor Jim Duncan Call to Order by: Robert Millar Minutes Recorded by: Heather Carrington II. Public Comment None III. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Meeting Minutes from the 11/25/19 meeting were approved. IV. Department and City Updates Housing Trust Fund Progress Work to operationalize the HTF program continues. At our last Housing Commission meeting we discussed City issuance of an RFP to select the financial institution to provide loan servicing for the HTF. Shortly after that meeting a new CEO was hired for Opportunities Credit Union. City staff will be meeting with the new CEO this week to discuss partnership. Our hope is that we will not need to go out to RFP for our existing loan programs. Staying with OCU could save months of time in getting the HTF ready to start lending. Recommendations to Planning Commission on Required Parking Minimums At the last two meetings the Housing Commission discussed the impacts of required parking minimums on housing affordability in Winooski. The Commission’s recommendations were provided to the Planning Commission in a memo data December 6, 2019. Housing Commission liaison staff attended the Planning Commission meeting on January 9, 2020 to answer questions about the recommendations. As a result of the meeting, the Planning Commission voted to hold a public hearing on February 13th to consider an amendment to include a process for obtaining a parking waiver to reduce the number of required parking spaces associated with a project. The process as currently written would require the potential developer to provide a professional developed parking analysis/parking study to be presented to the Development Review Board for consideration of a waiver. The remaining recommendations will continue to be discussed by the Planning Commission in the coming months. V. Draft Gentrification Monitoring Report Since 2017, the City has been monitoring potential gentrification indicators on an annual basis. The report is presented to City Council in conjunction with the first housing goal update of each year. The draft report was included in Commission meeting materials for review prior to the meeting. Staff presented an overview of the methodology used in the report, criteria for defining gentrification, and a high level discussion of the results. A robust discussion of the indicator results followed. Overall, the report indicates that Winooski does not qualify as gentrifying. The Commission recommended further analysis of several data sets including: primary home sales, permits for home improvement, change in Winooski household income distribution between 2013 and 2018, housing cost burden, and FireHouse data on substandard housing. The Commission also discussed the importance of new development as a key approach to avoiding gentrification in Winooski. VI. Discussion of City Council Housing Update: March 2020 The Housing Commission will once again play a role in presenting the Housing Update to City Council in March 2020. The gentrification report will be included as part of that presentation. The Commission will discuss the draft update at the next meeting. VII. Adjourn Adjourn: 7:30 pm Next Meeting: February 24th, 2020