Agenda - 09-05-2023; 8-a - Minutes

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20 1 there are ways to adapt the criteria to prioritize those issues. She said that she is not sure her 2 colleagues agree with her prioritization. 3 Bonnie Hammersley said changing the priorities would change the timeline for this 4 because scoring criteria would need to go out with the RFP. 5 Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked if there is a deadline. 6 Bonnie Hammersley said they are trying to get this moving because it takes time. She said 7 that by November, they would not see any development for 2-3 years. She said starting the front 8 end as soon as possible is better. 9 Commissioner Richards said she would not be in favor of increasing point values. She 10 said that she has issue with leveraging the presupposed bigger organizations with sources of 11 funds. She asked if that pre-stacks the deck to the larger organizations. 12 Commissioner Greene said she agrees with Commissioner Richards. 13 Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked how likely it would be for the developer to request the 14 land and nothing else. 15 Corey Root said there was one request for land and the process took around 8 months or 16 so because appraisals had to be done. 17 John Roberts said that if it were to be free, something would have to be given in lieu of 18 cash. He said that building public housing or low income/affordable housing would be a condition. 19 Commissioner Hamilton said she is really torn because of the timing and the need but that 20 she feels uneasy with the scoring rubric that this Board has not had a chance to look at and 21 change the priorities. She said she does not want to move forward too fast and not make the 22 impact they wanted to make. 23 Commissioner Fowler said the whole RFP has to target affordable housing folks less than 24 80%. She asked if people could apply for mixed use. 25 Corey Root said only the units that are affordable housing are scored. 26 Commissioner Fowler said she still has a concern about special needs. 27 Vice-Chair McKee said he is unaware of any issues that the scoring brought before. He 28 said that he has no concern with scoring rubric as previously approved. He said that the developer 29 will not build until they own the land. He said that given all the steps, this needs to go out and he 30 does not want to push this back. He said that they can make any adjustments in the next 31 configuration. 32 Commissioner Greene said she agrees. She said that she has a strong feeling to get 33 money out as soon as possible. She said that some parcels have access issues, and some are 34 very small so almost a one-off project. She said for this particular set of properties, the criteria are 35 fine, and she is happy to work with the criteria. 36 Chair Bedford said she agrees with Commissioner Greene on these particular properties, 37 but there was a conflict and legal question, when the final $2.5 million came in, that the Board 38 overrode the criteria and gave more money to one organization over another that scored higher. 39 She asked how much leeway they have to change funding recommendations and what is the 40 legal claim there. 41 John Roberts said there is no legal claim. He said this Board is not bound by a prior 42 Board's policy decision. He said if there are exceptions, then there are exceptions. 43 Commissioner Fowler asked what percentage of units went to folks with special needs in 44 last funding. 45 Corey Root said it could be one unit in many. 46 Commissioner Hamilton asked about the resolution and what is the definition of low or 47 moderate income. 48 Corey Root said moderate is defined at 50%. 49 Commissioner Greene said those are HUD definitions. 50 Commissioner Hamilton asked if it is clear they are using the HUD definitions.