Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-10-17 Personnel and Finance �. O U d W PF14CE � a l a a 1865 OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK KAREEMAH FOWLER,CITY CLERK PERSONNEL &FINANCE JULY 10, 2017 4:47 P.M. Committee Members Present: Karen White, Gavin Ferlic, Regina Williams-Preston, John Voorde Committee Members Absent: None Other Council Present: Dr. David Varner, Randy Kelly, Tim Scott (late), Oliver Davis (late) Other Council Absent: Jo M. Broden Others Present: Kareemah Fowler, Graham Sparks, Aladean DeRose Presenters: James Mueller, Pam Meyer Agenda: Neighborhood Development Briefing-James Mueller, Executive Director of DCI Committee Chair Karen White called to order the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at 4:47 p.m. She encouraged Councilmembers to submit personal questions to Executive Director James Mueller and proceeded to give the floor to the presenters. Neighborhood Development Briefing-James Mueller,Executive Director of DCI James Mueller, Executive Director of Community Investment with offices on the 14`h floor of the County-City Building, stated, After the appropriations two (2) weeks ago, I thought it would be good to take a step back and figure out where we've been, where we think we might go and how we can tackle all the issues that both the Council and Administration want to get at. Starting with the comprehensive City Plan(referencing a PowerPoint presentation that is available in the City Clerk's Office)that involved a lot of public feedback,particularly in the housing section, the goal of that process was to achieve a thriving South Bend housing market that offers appealing neighborhoods with diverse housing choices. There is an emphasis on the fact that we need more diverse housing types like condos,townhouses,villas and apartment buildings, in addition to new and rehabilitated single-family detached houses. Mr. Mueller had data depicted on the presentation that represented the age of the South Bend housing stock. 455 County-City Building•227 W.Jefferson Boulevard•South Bend,Indiana 46601 Phone 574-235-9221 •Fax 574-235-9173•TDD 574-235-5567•www.SouthBendrN.gov JENNIFER M.COFFMAN ALKEYNA M.ALDRIDGE JOSEPH MOLNAR CHIEF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF DEPUTY/DIRECTOR OF POLICY ORDINANCE VIOLATION CLERK OPERATIONS Mr. Mueller continued, The City plan was done in 2006 so it was relying partly on the 2000 Census data. The 2010 Census data presents us a more accurate median value of owner-occupied units in South Bend, and that is $81,500. The median gross rent rate in 2010 was seven hundred and three dollars ($703). Going back to 2012/2013 when the City Administration had just come into office,they set up the Vacant and Abandoned Task Force which ended up becoming the one thousand(1,000) homes in one thousand (1,000) days initiative. Mr. Mueller then showed the map on the presentation depicting the result of that program. He went on, At the end of the initiative the Administration had addressed one thousand one hundred and twenty-two (1,122) houses because during the timeframe, we added an additional three hundred and thirty-three (333) vacant and abandoned houses. We were left with only two hundred and forty-six (246) vacant and abandoned houses. Four hundred and thirty-three (433) of them were torn down, repaired or put back into use but we were left with roughly six hundred and eighty-nine (689) new vacant lots. There were vacant lots around the City before this but now this initiative had generated six hundred and eighty-nine (689)new lots. Mr. Mueller continued, Since the end of the initiative, which was roughly the end of 2015, we have added an additional thirty-three(33) lots from the vacant and abandoned houses initiative. Of the seven hundred and twenty-two (722) vacant lots in the City, only one hundred and twenty-six (126) are owned by the City with the remaining being privately owned. There are other vacant lots out there that are not associated with the initiative and, as a whole,the City owns roughly two hundred and forty-seven (247) vacant lots. Of the two hundred and forty- seven(247)vacant lots that the City owns, they are all going toward the programs we are familiar with such as the Westside/Main Street Corridor Plan,the Lincoln Park Plan, the South- East Neighborhood Master Plan Implementation,the City Cemetery Planning and the Housing and Community Development Plan Implementation which is the strategic plan submitted to the Federal Government for CDBG programs. Of the sixty-one (6 1) blight elimination program properties there are nine (9) potential sidewalks to convey next year. Mr. Mueller than explained the tax-sale process while referencing a graph on the presentation. Mr. Mueller went on, The City is partnering with the Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem in terms of mapping the vacant lots in the south-east neighborhood. Our innovation team is actually getting an award from the Esri Group this week for this initiative that allows the team and residents to go on and add information into the database.Not all are owned by the City, of course, and it is also just preliminary analysis of which properties are most suitable for different uses. This is an emerging collaboration with the Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem. Committee Chair White asked, Do you know how many vacant lots there are on the map picture depicted? Mr. Mueller replied, I believe there are about one hundred(100). He then showed a chart from the presentation that depicted the breakdown of the current Housing Community Development Plan that goes through 2019. It showed the different rents and the number of households. Mr. Mueller continued, Also involved in the Strategic Plan, it was required to submit different target areas for action. He showed the target areas on the presentation and explained, The main finding is that thirty-three percent(33%) of households or roughly 13,000 people, spend more 2 than the guideline of thirty percent (30%) of their income on housing costs, including the utility cost. He showed another slide that depicted the diversity of housing type in the South Bend housing stock. He explained, In this area, we have predominantly single-family detached homes that accounts for seventy-six percent(76%) of the housing stock. What we do see,though, is a strong multi-family/rental demand. The proposed housing market study has a purpose to encourage development at market rates by having the information of what the market actually is. We hope that if developers have confidence in it, they will be encouraged to go build in these neighborhoods knowing that there will be buyers at the end of it all. We are also hoping the study looks at what different interventions the City can execute to increase the level of investment and the types of housing that would be built in different areas. The study will look for the demand of different housing units of all types but will not include large high-rise apartments. It will also span across all income ranges. The general timeline based off the current scope is roughly four(4)months and the cost is roughly $50,000. The appropriation that is pending approval for next meeting is for roughly $70,000. Due to the holiday we hadn't gotten back the changes of the scope that we had taken back and had not heard back from them in time before submission, but we expect it to be roughly $50,000. The scope would be to do data collection, meet with clients, evaluate the study areas, conduct neighborhood meetings, meet with developers and conduct their own market analysis that would project the demand. It is not a static model, rather, it would be very dynamic. They would then come and present the findings to the community. We are also, as an Administration, working on relative assessments. So our Diversity and Inclusion Officer is working to do a study with ProperityNow, which was formally C-FED out of Washington, D.C. Of the many different areas they are looking at, relevant to this, they will be looking for like-profile by census-tract neighborhoods on the availability of rental property,the owner-occupied mobility rates, and displacement risk rates in the neighborhood. The other relative assessment is Repurpose for Results. South Bend was selected as a pilot city for this program. The program is a subpart of Results for America. They want to figure out how to funnel limited public dollars to get the maximum results as well as figuring out how to get the most out of our housing expenditures. Mr. Mueller went on,As part of that,they asked us to break down the different funding streams that go into our housing programs. He referenced a graph displayed in the presentation that showed the funding by source. He explained, The total spent on housing is roughly $5.7 million. $3.7 million is Federal funds we receive and there are a lot of requirements for spending those funds. There are also local matching funds that include State grants, as well as COIT, EDIT, and TIF expenditures. One (1) of the challenges is the expansion of the expenditures into groups that are not eligible under the Federal programs. Higher income ranges require us to start competing for dollars in COIT, EDIT and other funds which already have priorities assigned to them. Also as a note,this is taken directly from the funding source. Mr. Mueller showed a pie graph of expenditures from 2016. He explained, We are looking at potential solutions to attacking the problem. We think getting this housing market study that people have confidence in will help us be able to market the neighborhoods and push development in the neighborhoods that can be sustained at the market rates. We also know that the construction costs are often times higher than the value, so, we are also looking to figure out how to leverage limited dollars available for this to unlock new financing for new construction and rehabilitation. We are also really trying to make an effort to figure out how to synthesize the existing efforts in housing to get the greatest impact. Often times we want to control what is going on in our neighborhoods but sometimes we 3 get too prescriptive and end up destroying the market. Not because the market couldn't be there, but because we got too prescriptive. So we are going to evaluate zoning as a potential barrier to development in the neighborhoods. Also, an important segment of the population are households with children and a big determining factor of where they move and live is the quality of the school district, so we can't ignore that as a big driver of who is moving into the neighborhoods and who is staying. We are also exploring the possibility of a residential tax abatement, knowing we have limited funds from direct grant type programs. We might be able to find ways to abate taxes like we do for other types of development. We are also looking to contruct three (3) year processes for the vacant lots to figure out how to get these properties and put them back into productive use. Committee Chair White opened the floor to questions from Committee and Councilmembers. Committeemember Regina Williams-Preston asked, Could you describe the partnership with Bowman Creek?Are we providing dollars for that research? Mr. Mueller replied, That is one (1) component of the partnership with Notre Dame on the metro-lab collaboration. So the Innovation and Technology group is working on the wireless grant with NFS. That is one (1) component of this collaboration. The Smart Sewers is another piece that sparked an interest in this coalition. The Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem is another part of the partnership. Committeemember Williams-Preston followed up, My understanding is that you are mapping the vacant lots out there and who is specifically doing that? Are they out in the neighborhood, and are we providing dollars for that? Mr. Mueller replied, I would have to check with our Innovation and Technology group. I don't think there are substantial dollars, it is a lot of volunteer work. There may be man hours generated. Commiteemember Williams-Preston replied, Ok, I would like to know how much money is being paid so you can get that to us. Do you know how long those two (2) Census Tracts have been the focus of receiving those dollars? Mr. Mueller deferred his answer to Pam Meyer. Ms. Meyer replied, I would have to guess twenty (20) or thirty(30) years. When we target an area,that doesn't mean it is the only area that receives attention, though. Committeemember Williams-Preston asked, Can you explain the $1.7 million expended in the `Housing Activities' line item? Mr. Mueller replied, This is straight out of the NaviLine system and sometimes they get classified as different groups. Ms. Meyer stated, That is a combination of our South Bend Home Repair Program and money we provide to REAL Services for the same types of rehabilitation. It is a combination of Federal 4 and COIT/EDIT. We had some money in the Vacant and Abandoned for a grant program also. There have been three (3) of those grants. Commiteemember Williams-Preston followed up, You said you are wanting to get a market study that people have confidence in. I'm curious to know what people you are specifically talking about and how are you engaging the people that will be the most affected. How are you proposing to engage those folks? Mr. Mueller replied, The engagement has an unspecified number at this point but there will be multiple meetings with stakeholders,residents and other impacted folks. Really the thing we want to make sure of is that the developers have confidence in it because we want them to start building. This is for just purely market, not necessarily for a program where the City intervenes and helps facilitate. We want to start getting investment flowing on its own. We have limited dollars and we can't impact everywhere. Our impact is limited by our resources. Commiteemember Williams-Preston stated, When you talk about the multiple needs for engagement, traditionally the City hasn't done a good job with engagement. What I would like for us to consider is how we can engage the traditionally marginalized voices and those traditionally underserved by government. If we continue doing the same thing we've already done we will get the same results. I would really like for us to step back and think about who we are hiring and see how we are capturing the people that will be most affected as we move into our neighborhoods. Committeemember John Voorde asked, Could you explain the 109,000 units number on one of the slides in the presentation? Mr. Mueller replied, This shows (referencing the slide in the presentation) the entire area of the County including Mishawaka and South Bend. It was part of the initial study. Councilmember Oliver Davis asked, What can we hope the Repurpose for Results brings to us that we don't already have? Mr. Mueller replied, We can get you the credentials of those individuals, as well as the credentials for their father program. This is a free engagement for us and they are wanting to use us as a pilot to demonstrate the value of our program and go to other cities. This is their first engagement with cities. They are known for their involvement at the Federal level, and this is the first time they are trying to come down to the Municipal level. Councilmember Davis followed up, Was that $201,560 for the homeless what we expended on the homeless last year? Mr. Mueller replied, Yes. Ms. Meyer interjected, It is also grant money that is then distributed to the different agencies that serve the homeless. 5 Councilmember Dr. David Varner stated, It seems you've pretty arbitrarily dropped the study area at Ewing Avenue and I can tell you for a fact that the south side of Ewing and the north side of Ewing have the same problems. I think you have to go farther south. Committee Chair White stated, It will be interesting to see how this plan fits in to the total. It'll be important to look at what we have, then look at the grants, and then look at the other initiatives and what role they play as we begin to look at the whole study. Then, we have to be as we clear of the expectations begin to look at the study, what the outcomes will be and the � p g timeframe will be. Councilmember Davis requested the list of the stakeholders as considered by the Administration. With no other discussion, Committee Chair White adjourned the Personnel and Finance Committee meeting at 5:23 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, va UA Karen White, Committee Chair 6