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Approved 8/3/2016 8 affordable housing units but then the folks that live in them can’t afford to maintain them. And it’s really become a 378 huge issue. 379 380 Audrey Spencer-Horsley- Well again, it’s not a simple answer but if I got a choice between me and my family living 381 out here on the street I’m going to live in a cruddy house. And I would encourage anybody that dares to go to one of 382 those mobile home parks, you can see.. I said to me when I first moved here and everyday it killed me to ride up and 383 down 85 and look over into the mobile home park and look into the conditions. I said, “ How can people just pretend 384 that this doesn’t exist?” and I was just looking at it from the outside in but I talked to some of the people there and 385 one of the things that they talked about is not having sanitary sewer and they were saying how the smell in the 386 summer is nauseating. And sometimes they have to leave because you can’t even bear the smell, and the owners 387 are taking advantage of the fact those people have nowhere to go. That’s the part that sickens me the most because 388 those people, they’ve shown me some of the documentation. They’re getting letters like you own $4,000 for water 389 and we’ll set up a monthly payment plan for you. They brought me some of their documents. 390 391 Tony Blake: More than that, I was a volunteer firefighter and first responder in the rural county and I can tell you that 392 a lot of these trailers are old, they’ve passed the number of duty cycles they should have and they’re fire traps. 393 There’s something call the burn belt in North Carolina and it is primarily focused on trailers that are older than a 394 certain vintage and they have old aluminum wiring and they catch fire very easily. It’s something else that’s got to be 395 done. It’s a public safety problem. 396 397 Lydia Wegman: So let me ask you one more thing Audrey… Is there anything that the Planning Board can provide to 398 you? Should we have a continuing dialogue? What…? 399 400 Audrey Spencer-Horsley- Absolutely, a continuing dialogue. One of the things that the staff here provided was some 401 of the existing standards that are allowed that I know in other communities I’ve worked for have been very 402 controversially so it’s amazing to me that some of the things are… Which I think is great. Then, I’m wondering… Do 403 people really know, and so how well, and do you all have a problem letting people know that there is the opportunity 404 to do some… Like the accessory unit, and other types of housing. And so how comfortable are you, I would assume 405 that if it’s here that it’s something that you would want people to take advantage of? 406 407 Craig Benedict: There are some things that are ongoing. We’ve made some changes already with allowing more 408 people related by blood living in one house, co-housing opportunities, allow people to have a little more affordable 409 option. We’re going to take a look at what Michael’s working on. Kind of like a tiny home. We have existing density 410 bonuses now for affordable housing, but people haven’t used them. We’re going to analyze it to see why doesn’t the 411 private sector think it’s feasible. In the past we haven’t had the water and sewer within our planning jurisdiction make 412 work but now we do. Most likely, I think the mind set a lot for affordable housing over my 10 year here has been 413 single family. And I think it has to move to a multi-family, whether it’s multi-family ownership or multi-family rental, to 414 get those densities to where they can be. 415 416 Lydia Wegman: So based on what Audrey’s saying it sounds as though it will be helpful if we could make some effort 417 to inform people about these additional uses and some of the additional uses that you were thinking about. 418 419 Craig Benedict: And I think what we’ll set up is, in maybe 2 or 3 months from now, a little review committee that will 420 just have a little work session for us to talk about… 421 422 423 AGENDA ITEM 11: ADJOURNMENT 424 425 Motion to adjourn made by Patricia Roberts. 426 ___________________________________________ Lydia N. Wegman, Chair