HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-10-17 Public Comment - A. Lewendal - Ordinance 1954, Affordable HousingFrom:alewendal@gmail.com
To:Agenda
Subject:Ordinance 1954
Date:Monday, July 10, 2017 1:21:44 PM
Mr. Mayor and Commissioners:
As a member of CAHAB, a builder, and a constituent, I am interested in seeing the results of
your (staff) analysis of homes built and sold that would meet the requirements of yourordinance 1954, Section 1, i.
If 14 single household detached dwellings or townhomes were built and sold meeting the
ordinances AMI price points, I understand the ordinance 1922 will not take effect.
Since your staff has a list of all homes receiving certificates of occupancy during theordinances time frame, confirming the sales prices is a simple matter of contacting the owners
of those homes.
I believe there are sufficient homes sold meeting your requirements. I am aware of more thana dozen detached condos sold meeting the AMI targets. Mr. Matsen suggested that only nine
homes were submitted asking for incentives. There is no requirement that builders or anyoneelse use those incentives. The requirement is to build and sell 14 homes meeting your price
targets.
The Realtor who sold those detached condos meeting your price targets received no offersfrom HRDC clients and confirmed they would gladly have accepted those full price offers.
The question is: Why did the city not ask its agent, HRDC, to have a staff Realtor make thoseoffers? An administrative error does not make the building community responsible to those
low income clients losing out on affordable homes in Bozeman.
Since detached condos meet the 1954 "single household detached dwelling" requirement andsell "fee simple", a closing sales price and an owner occupant is all that is necessary to
comply.
I trust you agree that builders cannot discriminate against people who provide full pricecontracts when selling homes that meet your price points. If HRDC has over 100 qualified
applicants, could you please confirm how many of those applicants submitted full price offersto the builders of qualifying homes? I am confident you are not asking your community
members to solicit and or qualify low income buyers when offering homes for sale. All of thedetached condos under discussion were offered on MLS and available to HRDC clients.
The intent and letter of your ordinance 1954 requires the construction and sale of detached
single household dwellings or townhomes meeting AMI price points.
Please provide documentation showing how many homes built met the requirements ofordinance 1954.
Anders Lewendal618 N. Black Ave.
Bozeman, MT 59715406-580-5804
Anders Lewendal Construction, Inc.
www.buildingbozemanhomes.com