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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-12-12 Community Affordable Housing Advisory Board Minutes City of Bozeman Community Affordable Housing Advisory Board (CAHAB) January 12, 2012 12:00 pm— 1:00 pm City Commission Room, City Hall Attending: Brian LaMeres (City of Bozeman Finance Department), Kris Keller—via telephone (Community Representative), Mary Martin(Community Representative), Tim Dean (Community Representative) Absent: Carson Taylor (City Commission), Jan Bergman (Community Representative), Dave Magistrelli (Community Representative), Melvin Howe (Community Representative) Staff: Tracy Menuez (HRDC), Doug Riley (City Planning Department), Brian Krueger (City Planning Department) Public: Dab Dabney, Farmhouse Partners; Scott Keiper, Summit Housing The meeting was called to order at 12:05 pm by Chair Brian LaMeres. No public comment was submitted. Action Items: 1) Approval of minutes from December 1, 2011 The minutes from December 1, 2011 were reviewed, with an amendment made to the original minutes to reflect the time Kris Keller was on the conference call. Mary Martin moved to approve the minutes, Kris Keller provided the second. Motion was approved unanimously. 2) Request for letter of support for Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Project by Farmhouse Partners Doug Riley (City Planning Department) presented information regarding the proposed project's location, near the Haggerty Lane Cottages property. Dab Dabney, the developer presented information regarding the market study. Their properties are currently self- managed by Alliance Properties. They have over 500 affordable rentals; at this time they have no vacancies. They noticed that rents started to increase in April/May 2011 due to a tightening market. Dab also added that the insurance rates for his properties have increased substantially. Brian asked how the project would be staffed. Dab responded that he will split managers between this property and Comstock, which is nearby. Dab discussed the challenges of an 11-unit project, with fewer units to spread costs over. He determined his hard costs to be approximately $110/square foot. Brian asked about square footage; Dab responded that the 1 bedrooms would be approximately 500 square feet, the 2 bedrooms 768 square feet. Kris commented that she has viewed a number of Alliance's properties and has found them to be clean, modern, and well cared for. Mary asked if the market study indicated a LIHTC capacity for Bozeman, given that there are two applications in front of the board today. Dab responded that there is a lot of demand in Bozeman, and if he had been doing tax credit development recently he would have felt confident adding 45-50 units, however; since it had been some time since he had worked in that capacity he wanted to restart with a smaller project. Kris mentioned that she would like to see more 1 bedroom units and outdoor protected storage. Tim asked what type of exterior would be used; Dab responded that he would be using prepainted hardiplank, which Tim felt was a good choice. Brian asked if the project would go forward without the tax credits; Dab replied it would not. Tim Dean made the motion to provide a letter of support; motion was seconded by Kris Keller and carried unanimously. 3) Request for letter of support for Low-Income Housing Tar Credit Project by Summit Housing Group Brian Krueger (City Planning Department) and Scott Keiper (Summit Housing Group) presented information regarding a proposed LIHTC by Summit Housing Group. The project is similar to the proposal presented to CAHAB last year and the location of the project remains the same. One building has been scaled down to 2 stories instead of last year's 3, and rents have been reduced. The project will consist of 40 (20-2BR units and 20-3BR units) in 2 buildings and a mix of 40, 50, and 60%AMI units. The market study conducted by Property Dynamics indicated a capture rate of 7% for the new units. Scott provided a handout from a similar project in another community and discussed the project amenities and a project timeline. Tim asked about energy efficiency; Scott replied that energy efficiency is required in Montana's LIHTC application scoring. He added that they also do outdoor storage. Mary asked about competing applications; Scott responded that due to project size they are applying for credits in the open category while the Farmhouse project will be in the small project category. Tim asked if the project had the support of the planning department; Brian replied that yes, the planning department was eager to complete the affordable housing requirements in the West Winds subdivision. Kris asked if pets would be allowed; Scott responded that no pets are allowed, with the exception of service animals, to keep maintenance costs down. Kris commented that she would like to see these projects earlier in the process to provide for more input. Mary commented that the rents were improved over last year and commended the developer for being open to the CAHAB's comments in the previous year. Mary Martin made the motion to provide a letter of support; motion was seconded by Tim Dean and carried unanimously. FYI Tracy updated the board regarding the affordable housing needs assessment process. A draft needs assessment will be available to the public on January 13, 2011. Peter and Daniel Werwath will visit Bozeman from January 19th through the 24th. The public meeting will be held on January 201h from 9 am to 12 pm at City Hall, and work session between the CAHAB and Commission is scheduled for January 23rd at 6 pm. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 pm by Chair LaMeres.