Agenda - 01-22-2015 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 I Mayor Kleinschmidt said the funding would be proportional to where the homes are, so Chapel Hill would pay more. Alderman Chaney said Carrboro has an affordable housing strategy, and there was a meeting about the inter -local agreement. She said it would be nice to see in the agreement the proportion of funds that CHT is raising itself. Alderman Chaney said Robert Dowling is part of the Orange County affordable housing coalition, which is a group of about a dozen providers with some sort of role in affordable housing in Orange County. She said this coalition would be very interested in the question of the County's combined goals. She suggested that everyone think about being better listeners to that coalition. Mayor Kleinschmidt said he hopes that everyone will state their commitments strongly on the night when votes are taken to adopt these recommendations. He worries that future board members approving homes for the CHT will become concerned with the increased percentage of operational expenses that they are being required to pay, and this will be a disincentive. He hopes that each of the individual boards can employ whatever processes they might have to diminish that possibility. b. Transit - Related Affordable Housing Opportunities David Bonk said this is an update on efforts being made to try and incorporate issues of affordable housing into the planning related to the light rail corridor between Durham and Chapel Hill. He said there is a strong correlation between affordable housing, the cost of transportation, and the ability of public transit to offset a major portion of that cost. He said staff members in Chapel Hill have been in contact with Triangle Transit (TTA) and with counterparts in Durham to coordinate efforts related to station area planning. He said the stations that have been proposed in Chapel Hill are best characterized as a combination of UNC owned and /or greenfield sites. He said Durham has an even mix of greenfield station locations and inner city urban station areas, which carry a host of issues. David Bonk said the federal government recently announced a grant program that would be made available to support the development of station area plans around stations for projects that have reached a certain level of maturity in the federal process. He said Chapel Hill submitted a grant application and should hear back about this in March. He said this grant would fund $2.3 million worth of efforts to support station area planning on both sides of the corridor, and it will be a coordinated effort between Chapel Hill and Durham. He said one lesson that has been learned is that it is important to start planning early; however, this is an evolving situation, and the grant that has been submitted has several key work tasks. He said one of these is a market survey at each of the proposed stations to determine the usage. He said there is another work task that flows from this that would focus specifically on developing strategies and plans for affordable housing that is consistent with the overall goals of both Durham and Chapel Hill. David Bonk said staff is very hopeful about the possibility of getting this funding, which has $20 million available nationally to fund at least 10 projects. He said staff from various agencies in Orange County have also been in discussion with the non - profit, The Enterprise Community Partnership, about becoming involved in this process. David Bonk said there is a need for the NC Housing Finance Agency to adapt some of their rules regarding low income housing assistance to better reflect the benefits of being