The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutAWHC 2023-12-13Dryden Affordable and Workforce Housing Committee Minutes for Dec. 13, 2023, Meeting Via Zoom Attendance: Leonardo Vargas-Mendez, Martha Robertson; Mike Murphy; Dillon Shults, and Chuck Geisler. Miles McCarty; Craig Anderson; and Ray Burger couldn’t attend. Agenda: 1. Approve Nov. minutes with committee corrections 2. Update on CDBG funding for mobile homes 3. How should the town zone (or not-zone) MHs and MHPs and a process for making these decisions. ITEM: Approval of Nov. minutes. Done. ITEM: Update on CDBG funding for mobile homes: • Dillon investigated and found homes in MHPs aren’t eligible for CDBG replacement funds, North for MHs in FEMA flood plains. • Chuck believes Compass recently replaced seven MHs at Compass; perhaps this was not CDBG funding. • Current cost of new MH replacement? A recent applicant for a zoning permit to install a 1300 sq. foot mobile home paid $186,000, not including land. • Most CDBG grants for town are kept at $1 million which would cover 6 to 8 homes. Could CDBG funds be used for partial replacement, topped off with other monies? This would stretch CDBG funds beyond 6-8 MHs. • Asked Dillon to contact Eliot Benman about CDBG and other funding and their deadlines. • 2023 grants from T.C. signed in January for spending this year; new round coming up in 2024. • Thoma might do grant prep, including finding roughly 15 MH owners outside parks that would be eligible. • Hanshaw Village will apply next year for sewer funding. Will that compete with a MH replacement grant initiative? • We can’t use the $10,000 from the town to pay Thoma since this was used for the wetland delineation behind Townhall.1 Completed and circulated with a revised map on Friday, December 15. • We should apply for Tompkins County housing grant to pay Thoma to do CDBG research to support MH replacement, once these homes are identified and honor consent given. ITEM: How should the town zone (or not-zone) MHs and MHPs and a process for making these decisions (Chuck posed 3 options in email prior to meeting which Dillon shared) 1 The Delinea�on was completed on Friday and circulated with a revised map on Friday, December 15 • Density issue; repealing Sec. 183 would prevent MH densities currently allowed in mobile home parks (8 units/acres). • The only other district that would permit equal density is mixed use commercial and neighborhood residential (1 house/lot). • Dillon reviewed density for other zones. • T-burg has only one . Town of Dryden has more options with more parks. • Does zoning encourage new mobile home park development? Unclear. • Chart 270-5.2 requires public water and sewer which makes it hard to develop new MHPs since you were areas have water and sewer at present. • T.C. Health department needs to approve new parks water & sewer. • Many existing homes have “public” water (5 homes or more), but not municipal W&S. • Current zoning code doesn’t really want to encourage more MHP where there is no W&S because it depart from preferred nodal development. • Question to Dillon: is it harder for? MHP owner to maintain well water or sewer? He think it might be harder to do a water system well, compared to septic. The ladder must have adequate space, including long-term replacement of leach fields. Both W&S have their challenges for owners. • If W&S is extended to Henshaw Village, that could support more MHP and other development nearby. • W&S already exist in the NYSEG vicinity (discussion of development options there) and Thursday a small mobile home park off Pinckney Road. • Reviewing the zoning law for possible by a second MHPs and MHs also means reviewing the Warne community development plan, which may have a single family home bias. • Do we have the expertise to really advise zoning code changes and what’s the timeframe for doing this? • How’s the town received responses for its zoning RFP? This was issued a second time with a January 16 deadline. Received only one response to the first RFP. • Alternative approach: committee could focus on goals for rezoning instead of going into the details of the code. Could articulate what we want zoning to accomplish and feed that to the new consultants and planning board. Need to use the new comprehensive plan as a basis for our comments. • That this RFP is phase 1, that is a proposal for a consultant to make amendment recommendations based on reading the current code. Phase 2 will involve public outreach, drafting, and enactment of a revised land use code. • Our first step might be to review what the comp plan says about affordable housing, and then come up with goals identifying ways, the existing code could be altered improved to achieve greater affordable housing stock. • Many municipalities have good goals that are aspirational, but their comp plans have zoning codes that present obstacles. We need to anticipate pushback – – local residence, testifying about preserving neighborhood, character, and opposing MHPs. . Discussion followed on the debates that happened around densification in Warne recent years. Committee agreed that our role is to come up with goals/principles that rezoning should accomplish. • What are we looking for? Up-zoning? Smaller lots? Nodes with denser housing even where W&S don’t exist? Jan. Meeting: • Can we meet on January 17? Dylan will check with Ray. Focus then will be on zoning goals extracted from the comprehensive plan. Dylan will send us relevant sections of the town law – – use chart mentioned earlier and density table 6.6: how many units per acre and area and bulk table with minimum lot sizes and setbacks. • Ask T. C. Health department what our options are for private systems? Can they be used on parcels? < 1 acre? How can we get higher density with no public W&S? Are there ways to do shared septic systems and wells that are used for non-MH’s? Next meeting may be in person. Leonardo will ask if people want to do this in January when he returns from Chile. Chuck volunteered to collect the goal proposals from the committee and inform Craig and Miles what we are doing. Meeting adjourned at 3:30. Minutes by Chuck using notes from Martha; corrections requested. From Dillon a�er mee�ng as follow-up: Link to Comp Plan - DRYDEN2045_Comp-plan-update-adopted-20220721.pdf Link to Zoning Code - https://ecode360.com/34362296 Link to Zoning Map – Zoning-Map_3_18_14_darklabels.pdf (dryden.ny.us)