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HRAM 06/04/2015 CITY OF FRIDLEY HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY COMMISSION June 4, 2015 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Commers called the HRA Meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: MEMBERS PRESENT: Larry Commers William Holm Pat Gabel Gordon Backlund Stephen Eggert OTHERS PRESENT: Paul Bolin, HRA Assistant Executive Director Scott Hickok, Community Development Director Gretchen Nicholls Barbara Raye ACTION ITEMS: 1.Approval of Expenditures MOTION by Commissioner Holm to approve the expenditures. Seconded by Commissioner Eggert. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON COMMERS DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY 2.Approval of May 7, 2015 Meeting Minutes MOTION by Commissioner Gabel. Seconded by Commissioner Backlund. March 5, 2015 Commissioner Gabel noted a correction on page one item 2 should be Meeting Minutes. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON COMMERS DECLARED THE MINUTES APPROVED AS AMENDED 3.Approval of HRA Lot Sale – 581 Ironton Street MOTION by Commissioner Backlund to open the public hearing. Seconded by Commissioner Gabel. City of Fridley Housing and Redevelopment Meeting of June 4, 2015 2 UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON COMMERS DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE PUBLIC HEARING OPENED AT 7:05 P.M. Paul Bolin, , HRA Assistant Executive Directorstated that Ryan Berner, of Prestige Custom homes, has submitted a lot reservation agreement to build a new home on the lot located at 581 Ironton Street. The home on the lot was demolished just this past week. Due to timing, the builder has not yet started designing the home. The Authority’s lot reservation agreement provides the builder up to 60 days to find a buyer and submit home plans meeting the program’s guidelines. Based on Mr. Berner’s recent history with constructing the home adjacent to this one, Staff is confident that Mr. Berner will design the home and find a buyer over the next 60 days. Mr. Bolin said that Staff recommends approval of the resolution, authorizing the sale of the lot to Prestige Custom Homes for $34,000 upon submittal of home plans meeting criteria of the Authority’s Housing Replacement Program. Commissioner Gabel asked if there was a building plan in place. Mr. Bolin replied that once the sale is approved they have 60 days to present a plan to staff. The building plan would be received before the closing on the lot takes place. Commissioner Holm asked if the price of the lot needed to be included in the resolution. Mr. Bolin replied that the sale price usually isn’t included in the resolution. Commissioner Eggert recalled at the last meeting the estimated sale price was $40,000; today it is listed at $34,000; he asked what happened. Mr. Bolin replied that the assessed value before last meeting was misread and the actual assessed value was at $34,600. MOTION by Commissioner Holm to close the public hearing. Seconded by Commissioner Backlund. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON COMMERS DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED AND THE PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED AT 7:09 P.M. MOTION by Commissioner Gabel to approve the lot sale at 581 Ironton Street. Seconded by Commissioner Eggert. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON COMMERS DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY Informational Items City of Fridley Housing and Redevelopment Meeting of June 4, 2015 3 1.Columbia Arena Planning Workshops – Final Report Update Scott Hickok , Community Development Director, introduced Gretchen Nicholls, Program Officer with Twin Cities LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corp.). Gretchen was the Corridor Development Initiative CDI Facilitator and has been involved with numerous CDI successes including the Cielo Development Site in Fridley. Also Barbara Raye, Executive Director/ Founder of the Center for Policy, Planning and Performance was involved with the Corridor Development Initiative CDI as a facilitator. The report from the planning workshops has been completed and will be available to the HRA this evening. On June 8, 2015 the City Council will receive the report and the report will be placed on the City’s web page and made available for public consumption. This document will serve as a recommendation for future decisions regarding the Columbia Arena Development. Gretchen Nicholls stated that the planning meetings were a community engagement process supported by technical consultants to help support the community conversation. The City of Fridley partnered with LISC to facilitate a series of community works to engage the community and strengthen participation. Outreach to residents was done through post cards and flyers, the city website, emails and child care and translation were also provided upon request. The workshops identified core values of what people wanted, tested out ideas in development scenarios, and had a developer panel to discuss how they would address the site and frame recommendations. Ms. Nicholls stated that the first workshop highlighted values and one concern is the change that is coming. This group talked about amenities on the site and opportunities there, like housing options. This area is a highlight of the city and the use of the location can make a statement to attract younger families. The next workshop was the block exercise and three different scales were created; the Columbia site as site A; site B was the Columbia site plus the park land; and site C was the Columbia site, the park, plus the public works area. The block exercise allowed people to imagine the different types of scale and what can be done on that land. A financial spreadsheet was used to test out each scenario. There was a strong support for public use on the site but this would really impact taxes. Ms. Nicholls shared that the developer panel interacted with the people and recommended a mix of housing options and a smaller amount of commercial and office. The key is to find the right balance between public and private investments. Natural amenities in this area will be a strong draw for residential uses. To achieve the level of amenities that the community desired, the city would need to work closely with private developers to optimize the site, and that public subsidies would likely be needed. Ms. Nicholls noted that there was strong support for the medium and large site as the smaller site didn’t really capitalize enough. Taking the park was a good option because so many different things could be done. Staff and developers will have to work to recover as much of the public investment as possible. Three goals were developed through this process: 1.Preserve and enhance the amenities of the area through greater connectivity 2.Create an area that is unique and special, that serves to provide new elements that aren’t currently available in the community City of Fridley Housing and Redevelopment Meeting of June 4, 2015 4 3.Make public use work, advance a public/private partnership that benefits the community Ms. Nicholls stated that this report can be used as a marketing tool to recruit development interest and provide ongoing communication about redevelopment options for the Columbia arena with the public and developers. Barbara Raye stated that evaluation forms were used but only a small percentage of attendees filled them out. These meetings were extremely well attended and the evaluation feedback was positive. There is strong support for the final recommendations using options B or C and to incorporate public use in some way. Commissioner Gabel asked how they determined what good attendance was for a community as she had hoped more people would have attended the meetings. Ms. Nicholls replied that these meetings were the highest attending workshops that they have ever experienced. This was a very good response from the community and people really care and want to be part of the discussion. Wally Wysopal, City Manager, agreed that the meetings were well attended and it wasn’t just people from the immediate area; people from throughout the city attended. Commissioner Eggert stated that at the last session it was difficult to vote for options a, b, or c but it was exciting to see the bigger project opportunities. There was a discussion to preserve the 11 acre park and some people were vocal about. That is an amenity that is part of a project in the future. Ms. Raye noted that this is an example of people who chose to live in a certain area because of the access to the green space and park. That area was important to them and was the primary influence for them to move to that location. This development can still have a nice park and those types of amenities for families. Commissioner Eggert liked the discussion about the bridge to the ballfields and agreed that the ballfields need to be upgraded. Commissioner Holm knew going in that this is an important and desirable site. It is adjacent to Locke Park and the open space is a great area for housing. Trying to do the block exercise it seemed whatever we did created a negative financial situation. He is looking forward to what we can come up with to encourage developers to help us in this process. Mr. Hickok stated that the City council will receive this report on Monday night. The next step will be to visualize this into a planning process and fit things into a planning format. He thanked the citizens for coming out and giving their time for this process and it will help us create a clear vision to get the development we want. City of Fridley Housing and Redevelopment Meeting of June 4, 2015 5 MOTION by Commissioner Gabel to receivethe final report from the Columbia Arena Planning Workshops. Seconded by Commissioner Backlund. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON COMMERS DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY Commissioner Eggert noted that the demolition of building was pushed back; he is anxious to see this building go down. Paul Bolin, , HRA Assistant Executive Director replied that there is a new Assistant City Engineer, Jon Lennander, and he wanted an opportunity to work on this. Staff will have demolition contract information on the July 16 agenda. Commissioner Backlund asked about Freon clean up. Mr. Bolin replied that Braun will be onsite during the cleanup so it will be monitored; Braun is doing the monitoring. Chairperson Commers asked what guideline needed to be made; if the state doesn’t have any what do we need to do? There needs to be some kind of goal. Mr. Bolin has met with MPCA and they have approved the City’s RAP (clean up plan). Mr. Hickok added that Braun and MPCA are working very closely together on this. Commissioner Backlund didn’t want the city to spend a lot of money if it wasn’t needed. Mr. Hickok replied that staff doing what is necessary. Chairperson Commers is surprised that there isn’t anywhere in Minnesota that has experienced Freon remediation before. Commissioner Eggert asked if there were possible grants to cover any expenses for this environmental work. Mr. Bolin replied that the city could be eligible for different sources of funding available for cleanup. 2.Housing Loan Program Update Paul Bolin, HRA Assistant Executive Director, reported that in May the first two loans of the year were issued making a total of two year to date. Remodeling advisor visits were one, making two year to date. The home energy squad visits were two, making a total of 38 year to date. City of Fridley Housing and Redevelopment Meeting of June 4, 2015 6 nd Mr. Bolin stated that in lieu of the July 2 meeting there will be a workshop with the regular meeting at 7pm on July 16. Adjournment MOTION by Commissioner Backlund to adjourn. Seconded by Commissioner Gabel. UPON A VOICE VOTE, ALL VOTING AYE, CHAIRPERSON COMMERS DECLARED THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY AND THE MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:17 P.M. Respectfully Submitted, Krista Peterson, Recording Secretary