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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAWHC 2024-01-17 1 Dryden Affordable and Workforce Housing Committee Minutes for Jan. 17, 2024 Meeting Via Zoom Making Dryden hospitable & affordable for working families Attendance: Leonardo Vargas-Mendez; Martha Robertson; Ray Burger; Mike Murphy; Miles McCarty; Craig Anderson; Dillon Shults, and Chuck Geisler; new member Chris�na Dravis could not atend. Note: agreement to shift our meetings back to first Wed. of month for 2024. (Feb. 7, 2 pm) Agenda: 1. Approval December revised minutes 2. Discussion on T.C. funding to hire Thoma to find funding to fix/replace older MHs 3. Zoning goals to pass on to Town Board and zoning consultants 4. Briefing on County's Mobile Home Taskforce 5. Wetlands delineation follow-up discussion 6. Prepare 2023 committee report for TB. Approval December revised minutes. Done Discussion on T.C. funding to hire Thoma to find funding to fix/replace older MHs • Dillon confirmed with Eliot Benman that County funding will be renewed. Can be used to hire consultant to find funds for replacing or retrofitting mobile homes. County Guidelines are not out yet. Specificity advised! • Eliot B. is leaving county position. Replacement is Hailley Delisle hdelisle@tompkins-co.org County has not yet published its grant guidelines; To. Co. application probably similar to that of 2023. First-come-first-served (rolling applications) until money runs out. (Dillon will check with H.D. for more details). • NYS HOME replacement program through NYS Homes and Community Renewal subsidizes costs of replacing dilapidated MHs up to $100,000/unit, including: o Demolition, removal, disposal of the dilapidated units; o Purchase and site prep for new unit; o Temporary relocation assistance o Permitting, environmental review and testing • Chuck not sure if NYS HOME’s replacement focus is our best affordable housing option. It faces ever-rising MH costs and will only help 3 or 4 MHs if we got, say, a $500,000 HOME grant. A very small affordability dent. Need broader impact. 2 • Martha: we shouldn't assume MH owners couldn't afford replacement if they got $100- 150,000 in assistance. Likey that some could replace their old MH with this help. HOME $ can be used for MHs outside of MHPs and would go further. • Chuck offers an alternative that would reach more households. Sustainable Finger Lakes (SFLX) Energy Efficiency pilot program (via heat pumps and panel upgrades) ends in 2024. (They start with an energy audit and use NYSERDA Empower funds if insulation is needed first). Insulation and then heat pumps reduce utility bills, a major cost to mobile home residents and source of unaffordability. SFLX hopes to reach 50 MHs, and are working with several Dryden to date. We could seek funding to expand the pilot in Dryden, either in collaboration with SFLX or on our own when their grant ends. At $10,000 per MH, a new $500,000 grant would lower the utility bills and increase the affordability of 50 homes as opposed to 3 or 4. • Martha believes SFLX had $1 million or $1.5 million to work with. But they failed to get second D.O.E. grant in 2023 that would have accomplished this and extended to MHP renters. • If Dryden sought funding now and could launch this program early in 2025, perhaps we could hire a person like Holly Hutchinson to be our MH Energy navigator for an expanded MH outreach approach in Dryden. • SFLX has installed heat pumps in nine MHs to date, with two in the pipeline and more to come this year. Many lessons learned from which a “Phase II” in Dryden could benefit: 1) Poor condition of some homes makes them bad candidates for heat pumps (that become a wasted investment); 2) Many MHs wedded to propane and natural gas heating and reluctant to switch); 3) Service upgrades may be necessary and scare away MHP owners; 4) Disagreement over 100 versus 200 amp service for air-source heat pumps; and 5) Current SFLX funding doesn’t extend to renters (their D.O.E. proposal did but wasn’t funded). General discussion about MHs as affordable housing strategy: ** unfortunate that HOME per unit replacement ($140K) doesn’t cover full replacement cost. Today MH owners may not have savings or loan access to fill the gap; ** Many banks don't offer mortgages to MH owners and charge higher interest for substitute personal property loans; ** “Heat pumps are a waste of money in homes that aren't insulated first”; ** May be wise to hire contractor to do multi-unit foam spray to weatherize many MHs at once before installing heat pumps; ** How much planning office staff time is needed to achieve any of these approaches; **Thoma housing survey (2019) included only 73 MHs and omitted the nearly 800 MHs in the town’s MNPs. It was not a full survey of interiors or heating systems—a first step but more data is needed; ** Zoning rewrite won’t kick in until 2025, whereas these energy fixes would have quicker impact on affordability. Funding possibilities: CDBG; NYS HOME; Smart Energy Choices of So. Tier Energy Hub (Chuck will check); Sen. Schumer affordable housing fund (under discussion); NYSERDA $ for MH energy upgrades; foundation support; Community Housing Development Fund; and other sources listed in Discussion Paper Chuck circulated to Housing Committee on Jan. 11. • Need to figure out how to shape our specific “ask” to the County. • Agreed to invite Holly Hutchinson to our Feb. meeting to report on what she's accomplished, how much funding she has to work with, barriers she's encountered, and 3 opportunities to work with SFLX now or later. Does SFLX start with energy audits? Leonardo will invite her. List of zoning goals for Town Board and zoning consultants when hired: • Consultant not yet hired. RFP just closed. Hope to hire in February. • All should review/add to list of zoning goals Leonardo circulated (see appendix). Discuss further in Feb. Please link goals to Zoning law or Comp. Plan sections. Briefing on County's Mobile Home Taskforce (Chuck): • Our committee has discussed different approaches to housing affordability, but not the major one used by INHS--separating the cost of land from improvements (“equity-sharing”) which, among other things, keeps resales prices low. Chuck was asked by MH Task Force to sketch such an equity-sharing plan on Cornell land in Dryden. He did this and sent it to both the Dryden Housing Committee and the MH Task Force on January 11. Craig and Martha provided comments. Eliott Benman encouraged it, though he is leaving the county. Ben Carver from INHS has offered to consult with us further on this approach. • Similar frameworks (but not tied to MHs) have been discussed by Jim Skaley, Martha, and Leonardo. • Why is a model MH park in Varna in Cornell’s interest? The University has >18,000 employees, many of whom commute long distances for affordable housing and consume fuel while commuting)—both are lacunae for Cornell’s 2035 Carbon Neutrality and sustainability goals. • How to initiate further discussion? Wetlands delineation and follow up: • TB voted last week to have Dryden Recreation and Youth Committee (DRYC) be lead group in bringing consultant in for master planning of town lands. DRYC’s goal is to “provide a high quality of life for all town residents by assis�ng in facilita�ng opportuni�es to par�cipate in healthy and sa�sfying recrea�on and leisure ac�vi�es…” • Their current charge includes housing; we urge that there be a housing liaison from our committee (Leonardo, who is already a DRYC alternate). • With 100-foot setbacks, not much land left for recreation and housing. What are the options? o Brad Will has sent out to-scale options (2) with ballfields and housing. Craig will send these to our committee. Town board wants multiple ball fields. o Sell land to developer and put ball fields and housing on alternative sites. Could be better field overall, allow more housing, and less cost to town. Ezra Village Update (Mike): Slow but progressing. Lucente forced to start development on south end because sewer and water easier there. He hopes to start this year. Village should seek grant to extend water south-to-north. Could maybe get 50% grant and ask Rocco to pay the rest. At north end near Mott road, Rocco would have to build a loop to bus garage, but doesn't have a plan for that yet. Village meeting with his engineers planned January 29. New York State DOT hasn't approved North Street intersection; won't OK any new apartments without traffic plan and study of traffic impacts. Whole 4 project held up in meantime. Rick Young and Jeff Smith trying to organize meeting with regional DOT on this. DOT sold its 10.5 acres to housing developer who has done affordable as well as market rate housing. Mike is against subsidized housing because it doesn't pay sufficient taxes. Village has highest taxes of any community in To. Co., esp. due to school district taxes. Freeville (Miles): Freeville sewer has more capacity than previously thought (water is plentiful). Could support 30 to 50 additional houses. Land bordering village could be annexed to connect to Freeville sewer. INHS has been contemplating a Freeville development and might be interested in this annexation for the Housing Trust (Martha will pass this along). Prepare 2023 Housing Committee Report for TB Chuck offered to do this. No rush. Shoot for March submission. Action items: ** Contact Hailley D. about County grants forms and dates (Dillon) ** Invite Holly Hutchinson to Feb. meeting (Leonardo) ** Smart Energy Choices of So. Tier Energy Hub as funding source (Chuck) ** Inform INHS of Freeville’s newly calculated sewer capacity (Martha) ** Notify DRYC that Leonardo would like to serve as housing liaison (Leonardo) ** Decide funding source we want Thoma to target for affordable MH funding (all) ** Expand list of goals for zoning consultant (all) ** Prepare 2023 Housing Committee summary for TB (Chuck) Meeting adjourned at 3:40. Minutes by Chuck using notes by Martha. Appendix: Suggested goals for zoning consultant from Affordable and Working Family Housing Commitee: From Dillon: I took some goals from the 2045 Comprehensive Plan and made them more specific. The bold is the recommendation number in the Comp Plan. 1.1.5 - Review zoning districts to encourage commercial growth within the Dryden School District to balance the tax assessment between commercial and residential properties. 5 Assess Use Table (270-5.2) to determine if some business uses are overregulated - requiring special use permits when not necessary. 3.1.2 - Streamline the review & approval process for residential land uses in the town zoning Law. • Density requirements in Rural Residential and Rural Agricultural districts section 270-6.7 Currently, two to four single or two-family dwellings require site plan review. Is there is potential to ease back this requirement – Perhaps we allow for two single or two-family dwellings without site plan review and anything more requires site plan review. Maybe this is allowable with extra standards such as shared driveway etc. In this case there would still be some administrative plan review – to ensure zoning requirements are met and residential guidelines are considered. • Varna dwellings review requirements- Currently, two-family dwellings require site plan review in all Varna districts. Currently, upper-floor apartments require site plan review in all Varna districts. Currently, all accessory dwelling units require site plan review in all Varna Districts. Assess whether site plan review is appropriate – Can these uses be approved with only a zoning permit? 3.1.3 - Expand areas within the town’s zoning that are designated for nodal development.* Assess the zoning immediately surrounding Varna (much of which is zoned conservation or rural agriculture) to determine if other zoning districts, that could promote denser residential/nodal development, are appropriate. 3.1.4 - Review and update existing zoning laws that support mixed-use development to remove barriers and facilitate adoption. Assess the zoning surrounding Dryden Road (much of which is zoned conservation, rural agriculture and rural residential) for areas where existing mixed-use commercial zoning district may be expanded as appropriate. From Chuck: General goal: encourage affordable housing to achieve greater social and economic diversity in the town’s popula�on. • Densify: encourage more rather than less housing across the town. • Cluster densifica�on so as to protect farmland, open spaces, and ecologically-sensi�ve habitats such as wetlands and riparian zones. • Diversifica�on: encourage housing diversity that includes but doesn’t privilege single-family homes over other dwelling types • Inclusion: Integrate and connect similar land uses and avoid zoning agendas that balkanize neighborhoods (dismantle exclusionary zoning in all districts). • Expand permanent housing affordability stock: Zone to abate cost-burdening in housing. 6 • NYS Law compa�bility. Where manufactured homes and parks exist or are proposed, make Title 2 of Article 21-B of New York State Executive Law (in Chapter 425 of the Laws of 2015) fully transparent. • Form-based zoning. Pursue ways that FBA principles (or its hybrids) can apply to rural towns, especially to hamlets and new hubs, with resident input. • Adap�ve management: regularly review density augmenta�on tools (height and bulk requirements, floor-area ra�os, lot-size guidelines, mul�-family home restric�ons, etc.) and other poten�al barriers to permanent housing affordability. • Impact data: gather data at 10-year intervals that monitors progress on permanently affordable housing (e.g., replicate of 2019 Thoma Housing Quality Study with full inclusion of manufactured homes).