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Home My WebLink AboutAWHC 2024-05-01Dryden Affordable and Workforce Housing Committee Approved Minutes for May 1, 2024 Meeting Via Zoom Making Dryden hospitable & affordable for working families Attendance: Martha Robertson; Ray Burger; Craig Anderson; Christina Dravis; Chuck Geisler; and Miles McCarty; Mike Murphy could not attend. Agenda Items: 1. Approval of April minutes 2. Impromptu: DRYC reply to Leonardo’s request 3. Committee recommendations for the consultant’s study of Zoning regulations. 4. Update re CCE funding 5. NYS funding opportunities 1. Approval of April minutes Martha offered several corrections; minutes unanimously approved and sent to Cassie. 2. Impromptu item: DRYC reply to Leonardo as represent Housing representative No response received to Leonardo’s request and our committees revised version of Town Lands RFP. Leonardo will reach out again to Leslie Debo. Neither Leonardo nor Ray could attend. At last week’s Planning Board meeting, Dan Lamb mentioned how pleased he was that we might be able to fit both housing and rec uses on the land. Leonardo will ask Leslie for an update and see whether DRYC revised the RFP in accordance with our suggestions. Again, our committee should be involved as peers in the full RFP process. Ray has not talked further to Marty Conger. DRYC meets on fourth Wednesday of the month. 3. Committee recommendations for the consultant’s study of zoning regulations. Town has hired Nan Stolzenburg to perform a two-stage review. In stage one she is meeting with town committees for input along with her own inspection of our law; once done, there will be open hearings on possible zoning changes. We reviewed suggestions Dillon compiled in January. Chuck sent these and his own thoughts on how to insure our zoning doesn’t undermine affordable housing. Craig had already participated in the Planning Board’s session with Nan and points out that there is current mention of affordability in the context of diversifying our population. Greater emphasis needed on multi-family housing (versus single-family, the traditional zoning preference). Multi-family housing requires more water and sewer infrastructure but also more frequent water testing. Our current zoning law has been effect for 12 years and is likely to be revised again in another 10 years. Zoning cannot specify ownership vs. rental tenure, but incentive zoning, if used, invites more affordable units from builder/developers. Martha and Chuck will be on call to meet with Nan and represent Housing. We should review p. 34 of the comp plan (“Goals and Objectives”). Nan has problems with using “nodal” despite its repeated appearance in DRYDEN2045. Regardless of terminology, cluster development in the town will depend on available S&W, a prerequisite to density. The NYSEG area is a foremost example. Need to incorporate results of County’s S&W 2010 study which showed that S&W were sufficient to meet housing needs. Other key factors in location and type of housing are neighborhood preferences/push-back and school district boundaries. Varna: by the end of 2024 most of the sewer and water upgrades will be completed. The new system can handle around 500 additional beds. The border will be Freeze Road for this upgrade but there’s unused capacity all the way out to NYSEG along Dryden Road. Given this capacity (and the T.C. report), we should be proactive with developers so they know there is already sewer and water capacity for expansion. Section 183; earlier this year we said we wanted the zoning review to include this current mobile home law. We invited Trumansburg officials to discuss their strategy – – no special mobile home zoning because of superseding state law as of 2015. Unclear what’s best in Dryden, but simplification seems desirable. Section 183 is rarely if ever used and largely ignored. 4. Update on CCE Weatherization Pilot Chuck and Ray have spoken with Karim Beers (Southern Tier HUB located at CCE) and Ben Carver (Director of Mobile Homes, INHS) and encouraged them to speak directly about INHS administering the MH weatherization pilot and being remunerated for this service: Background: • Early this year, Karim expressed much interest in a Dryden MH weatherization pilot project for ~50 MHs with a soft commitment oof $50,000 (NYSERDA funds). • NYSERDA's EmPower+ program is currently available to MH owners in Dryden and CCE provides applicant review and help, and overall program administration. It will tailer-make an Empower+ flier aimed at Dryden MH residents for our pilot. • Though CCE is the local liaison to NYSERDA programs, it needs help reaching out to MH owners and renters in Dryden (weatherization assistance awareness and promotion, contractor trouble-shooting, follow-through, and record-keeping). a. INHS/Ben has offered to assist in compiling MH mailings in Dryden likely to include lists from Tompkins County Assessment. • Dryden can undertake pilot promotion through newsletter, website, and perhaps piggyback on outreach activities by Dryden Fiber. • In April Karim confirmed that the $50,000 in question can be used for personnel (part or full- time project manager), keeping in mind that payment is on a “Milestone” basis spread over the pilot’s 2-year lifespan. Foreground: Following consultation with Ray, Chuck asked Ben to consider adding staff at INHS to provide the pilot’s program management or to top off the CDBG position provided by the $500,000 funding arrangement that now exists between INHS and our town. (The CDBG funds will go to rehabilitating seven housing units in Dryden, of which $65,000 is set aside for additional HIS staffing.) Ben needs to confer with Delia Yarrow INHS, the point person on the CDBG contract with us. Chuck and Ray are waiting to hear back from Ben. 5. NYS Housing Funding Opportunities: a. Pro-Housing Community status. Dillon S. began this NYS documentation before leaving the planning department. Lots of work, but the data he compiled, which Ray distributed following today’s meeting, are a valuable retrospective of housing growth in recent years. NYS requires one percent and we achieved that. NYS also asks for ~ 40 health indicators; Dillon completed 10. As with the village of Dryden, the committee agreed that the town board should pass a Pro-Housing resolution instead of completing Dillon’s work. Ray will reword the model resolution and take it to the town board for a vote. b. State budget has $150 million to create the New York Housing for the Future Program, a new program to provide affordable homeownership and rental opportunities, and allows the program to utilize state- or municipal-owned sites to develop housing (Appendix A shows portion of April 29 newsletter from Anna Kelles on this matter). May be of assistance in putting affordable housing on our town land? Get more information. 6. Additional items: TC3 Dorm Conversion: Next meeting of conversion task force is May 17. TC3 president Kremeneck told Martha that she’s discussing next steps with the TC3 Foundation. New INHS Director connection: Martha met with Kate de la Garza and shared potential development sites ideas. De la Garza showed much interest in the NYSEG building, the Leonardo and Atkins parcels, and the town land opportunities. Freeville Sewer capacity: Miles notes that Freeville may be looking to add additional sewer capacity; he will know more next month. NYSHCR: Martha will check with Lenny Skrill to see if he’s coming to Ithaca for the Asteri ribbon- cutting. If so, she will see if he has time to visit possible sites in Dryden. Next meeting June 5, 1:30. Minutes by Martha Robertson, transcribed by Chuck Geisler. Appendix A: While many housing budget actions were focused on New York City, Upstate and statewide highlights include: • $150 million to create the New York Housing for the Future Program, a new statewide program to provide affordable homeownership and rental opportunities for low and middle income families, and allows the program to utilize state- or municipal-owned sites to develop housing • A municipal opt-in program for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) that will provide up to 5 years of real property tax exemptions for one to two ADUs on an existing residential property • Reinstated $40 million for the Homeowner Protection Program (HOPP) that was removed in the initial executive proposal, continuing the same level of funding from last year, a restoration from the executive proposed budget