Agenda - 02-07-2017 - 7-a - Proposed Release of Request for Proposals for Use of County Bond Funds and Designated Surplus Land for Affordable Housing

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2 bring an option to the Board for consideration. The amended project scoring criteria (Attachment 2) includes criteria to address a local residency requirement for consideration. The Board also authorized staff to proceed with preparing Request for Proposals for surplus parcels identified by staff. A total of ten parcels, all having access to water and sewer service, were identified for potential affordable housing development. Eight (8) parcels are owned by the County, and two (2) owned by the Orange County Housing Authority (OCHA) (Attachments 3a and 3b). On May 4, 1992 the Board of Commissioners conveyed two (2) parcels to the Orange County Housing Authority to provide housing for persons with low income as indicated in the meeting minutes (Attachment 4). On January 18, 2017, the Housing Authority approved including these two parcels in the RFP process. Attachment 5 is a resolution for Board consideration regarding the eight (8) vacant parcels owned by the County. The resolution authorizes the County Manager to: (1) Sell the properties by negotiated sale to either a public or private entity for the purpose of developing affordable housing for persons of low to moderate income (the property could be offered for below market rates to serve as a subsidy for the affordable housing project); (2) Lease the property to a public or private entity for the purpose of developing affordable housing for persons of low to moderate income (the lease rate could also be negotiated below market rate to serve as a subsidy for the affordable housing project); and (3) In the event that there are no developers interested in option (1) or (2), sell the property on the private market with the proceeds of the sale dedicated to other affordable housing projects. The Resolution would also authorize the County Manager to place terms, conditions and standards on the sale that would ensure that the properties are safe, convenient and remain affordable. If the Board approves the resolution, the contents of the resolution must be summarized and published once after its adoption. No sale can take place until 10 days after publication. The recommended schedule for the RFP release, evaluation, and award of the bond funds and designated surplus land is outlined in Attachment 6. The Community Relations Director has developed a communication plan for the RFP process (Attachment 7) that is attached for your information. The communication plan will be shared with the Affordable Housing Coalition at their meeting on February 9, 2017. The BOCC also requested that the affordable housing providers provided input on revisions to the Affordability Policy. These comments and staff recommendations will be presented at the BOCC work session on February 16, 2017. FINANCIAL IMPACT: A County referendum was approved on November 8, 2016 for $5 million for affordable housing. The initial amount of bond funds for release of Request for Proposals for will be up to $2.5 million. Eight parcels of County owned land and two parcels owned by the Housing Authority have been identified for affordable housing development. The 2016 total assessed value of the County owned property is estimated at $204,445 while the 2016 assessed value of the property owned by the Housing Authority is estimated at $71,734.