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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/13/2002 AGENDA MAPLEWOOD HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2002 7:00 P.M. CITY HALL MAPLEWOOD ROOM 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call 3. Approval of Minutes a. May 14. 2002 4. Approval of Agenda 5. Communications a. City Board Appreciation Event - Thursday, September 5, 2002 6. Unfinished Business None 7. New Business a. Manufactured Home Park Closing Ordinance Amendment b. Hillcrest Village Redevelopment Concept Plan 8. Date of Next Meeting 9. Adjournment c:memoIHRAAGEND.MEM MINUTES OF THE MAPLEWOOD HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT AU HORITY 1830 COUNTY ROAD BEAST, MAPLEWOOD, MINNESOTA TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2002 7:00 P.M. CITY HALL MAPLEWOOD ROOM I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Fischer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Commissioner Tom Connelly Commissioner Lorraine Fischer Commissioner Joe O'Brien Commissioner Gary Pearson Commissioner Beth Ulrich Absent Present Present Present Absent Staff Present: Tom Ekstrand, Assistant Community Developmen Director Ken Roberts, Associate Planner Lisa Kroll, Recording Secretary (present at 7:50 p. .) III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approval of the HRA minutes for May 14, 2002. Commissioner Pearson moved to approve the minutes. Commissioner O'Brien seconded. Ayes - Fischer, O'Brien, Pearson The motion carried. IV. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chairperson Fischer suggested moving the Manufactured Home Park Closing rdinance from New Business to Unfinished Business. Commissioner Pearson moved to approve the agenda as amended. Commissioner O'Brien seconded. Ayes - Fischer, O'Brien, Pearson The motion carried. V. COMMUNICATIONS a. City Board Appreciation Event - Thursday, September 5, 2002. Mr. Roberts said invitations should be arriving in the mail for the city board appr ciation dinner to be held at the Battle Creek Regional Park at 5:30 p.m. Housing and Redevelopment Authority -2- Minutes of 08-13-02 VI. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Manufactured Home Park Closing Ordinance Amendment Commissioner Pearson said he is abstaining from discussing or voting on th manufactured home park closing ordinance amendment. Chairperson Fischer said because of Mr. Pearson's abstention there is a lack of quorum to vote on this issue but staff would still like to have comments from the HRA member for the record. Commissioner O'Brien said he wouldn't want to treat a resident living in a man factured home any different than a resident in a single-family home. He would not want the ordi ance to provide financial assistance if that would be by value. The resident is there because th yare unable to afford a larger unit, and they like the neighborhood and location. To relocat someone in a manufactured home park, the income potential of a manufactured home park r sident may not be where the income potential is of a single-family home resident. It would prob bly be easier to find equal housing for someone moving to a single family home rather than for e ual housing for a manufactured home park resident. He would not like to provide a stipend of oney and have the resident look for a place to live and they find there is nothing they can affo d to live in. Chairperson Fischer said the first step should be to maintain the community. If they cannot maintain the community then there should be some sort of ordinance that may ssist those who are going to be displaced. She said the first order of business is not relocati n costs, it is to preserve the community that is there. Commissioner O'Brien said there is a great possibility that any developed land w II be reoccupied possibly by a different use. He said if a developer does come in and do this h wants to make sure the developer is made aware the developer must provide adequate c mpensation or relocation for the residents so they don't become victims of a developer's whi . Mr. Roberts asked Mr. Pearson if he was aware if there was a closing noti ication and the residents decided to form a co-op and buy it out instead of it being redeve oped, does the industry have literature on how to form a coop and follow through the proc ss or are park residents on their own. Commissioner Pearson said the industry would recommend them to a comp ny called North Country, you have to have 51 % of the people in the community agreeing t purchase and appoint a board for their co-op. These organizations would help the residents ith information and how to proceed to get the funding. The residents only have to meet the sa e offer that the developer made. Mr. Roberts said it sounds like there is help out there for manufactured hom park residents between APAC and company's like North Country to help manufactured hom park residents form a co-op if they chose to purchase their park instead of having the develo er take it over. Chairperson Fischer said it should be brought to the city council's attention tha there is a need there for this information and it appears that there are providers of this inform tion. Housing and Redevelopment Authority -3- Minutes of 08-13-02 Part of the process, if the city is outlining one, notification should go to those ompany's that provide this help so it becomes a part of what the residents of a possibl closing of a manufactured home park can get in their hands as soon as possible. This way th y don't have to wait six or more months down the line for it. Commissioner Pearson said an example of a co-op is the Landfall Terrace in Oa dale. An article was in the newspaper on Monday, August 12, 2002, regarding the L ndfall Terrace manufactured home park. Chairperson Fischer asked Mr. O'Brien if he felt the consensus was that the cit council should pursue the possibility of a manufactured home park closing ordinance in the eve t that there is a park closing and the residents do not purchase the manufactured home park. Commissioner O'Brien said he feels manufactured home park residents should ave protection from being forced to leave their homes as a single-family homeowner has. Chairperson Fischer said the HRA wants the city council to be aware that in the vent that there is a manufactured park closing that the HRA feels it is very important that the re idents become aware how they could purchase the park in a co-op if they wanted to beco e owners and managers of their park and how to make it come about. She asked if truth in ho sing should be extended to manufactured homes as it is in single-family homes. Commissioner O'Brien asked if the city is discriminating against manufacture homes if they don't include them in the truth in housing. Mr. Roberts said the city has to make a choice. They can't do everything for e erybody. With limited resources, budget and personnel, if the city council thinks it is very mportant to be included, then they find a way to make it work. The city council would be lookin from the HRA, is how important is having truth in housing, is it a big problem, and if so, wh t would it solve having the truth in housing for manufactured homes. Chairperson Fischer said she is not saying the manufactured homes should not ecessarily have to meet the same standards as stick built homes but they should meet the trade requirements of what is livable and healthy. Mr. Roberts asked Mr. Pearson if there are services for buyers of manufactur d home's to get their own inspection. Commissioner Pearson said most of the manufactured housing service nd installation companies that deal with codes can do an end-to-end inspection. They charge oughly $200 for the full inspection. The service is available for the consumer. In his park they r quire people to have a safety feature code disclosure form filled out by a home owner or an ins ection company prior to a new owner being approved to go into the park. Everything in the ma ufactured home should meet code and safety standards. It is a state law and a park rule as well s a requirement from the lenders doing the financing to have the form signed prior to the loan eing signed off. Housing and Redevelopment Authority -4- Minutes of 08-13-02 VII. NEW BUSINESS a. Hillcrest Village Redevelopment Concept Plan Mr. Ekstrand gave his report on the Hillcrest Village Redevelopment Concept PI n. Staff is requesting that the planning commission, community design review board nd housing and redevelopment authority forward a recommendation on the Hillcrest Village Redev lopment Plan to the city council. The city council needs to decide whether the city should adopt the redevelopment plan for Hillcrest Village, some variation of it, or not adopt it at all. Chairperson Fischer said she has some reservations on the plan. Commissioner O'Brien said he has some reservations on the plan as well. Anyt ing that may be done will make a large traffic impact. Some of the housing will triple the occu ancy and it will increase cars driving on that stretch of White Bear Avenue. He thinks some of th housing is very valuable in that area and replacing the housing will take away affordable housing nd replace the homes with townhomes and apartments. He would also like to know what they w uld do with the snow removal. He asked what is the profile of commercial property the met cou cil is thinking of with 36,000 square feet of space. He asked what kind of tenant would that be or such a large area. Mr. Roberts said at one time a grocery store was discussed. Mr. Ekstrand said if a developer came in they would do a market study to see wha would work well in the area. Commissioner Pearson said he sees this as a good plan. He said if you are going to displace long time company's that have been good for the area then he does not think that is a ood thing to do to those of businesses. Mr. Ekstrand said the Metropolitan Council designed a booklet for the City of St. aul and City of Maplewood that he has available. He said the neighbors may show up as hey did for the neighborhood meeting and disapprove of this plan and the city council may say I t's leave things as they are. Mr. Roberts asked if the HRA likes the pedestrian friendly, mixed commercial, r sidential, office, use on the Maplewood and the St. Paul side. Commissioner O'Brien said he would like to see that the commission does not ig be more preemptive and try to factor in long-term affordable housing units, vi businesses. Chairperson Fischer asked if the footprint on Van Dyke Street and Larpenteur Av nue on the east corner indicates that the current use is acceptable or isn't it. Does that mean the laza Theatre is going to have to move. Mr. Roberts said he understood that footprint is out in front of the Plaza Theatr Housing and Redevelopment Authority -5- Minutes of 08-13-02 Chairperson Fischer said if the city puts something else on the site of the Plaz Theatre that it would not meet the parking requirements for the City of Maplewood. She said the Woodland Hills Church takes up all the parking in the surrounding area on Sunday's already. She said the church would love to have the theatre site so they could have expanded parking. Commissioner O'Brien said even having the mixed use on this plan people will sti I drive and park and then walk to where they want to get. He said it isn't feasible that the people ill walk blocks when they can drive it faster. He said that is what people do in the Grand Avenue rea, they drive, park and walk a bit and then drive, park, and walk again. Commissioner O'Brien asked if there was an age group that would be proposed f r the sale of the housing in this plan. Mr. Ekstrand said it is proposed people would live there for a life cycle and they w uld not have to maintain the exterior of the home. Mr. Roberts asked HRA members if they were ready to make a recommendation t the city council. Commission members said they would like to have more information before recommending anything to the city council. Chairperson Fischer said the commission members are not ready to give a recom endation yet to the city council but they have offered some feedback and have asked some quest ons they had in regards to the plans. In summary. their comments were: 1. How would snow be removed with a lot of street-side parking? 2. Traffic would be noticeably increased. 3. Is there a market for the proposed housing? They have reservations bout this. 4. It may be a disservice removing existing viable housing for new housi g. 5. The future building on the Plaza Theatre site does not seem feasible. 6. The plan should include, at least show, the Jr. Achievement block. 7. Can the existing infrastructure handle these changes? 8. How would the Metropolitan Council's description of commercial and esidential differ from the City of Maplewood's description. Specifically, what would be t e differences in the various classifications. 9. How would existing viable businesses be treated. Would they be g andfathered in should the businesses choose to expand. 10. What is the desirability of putting residential in that would be surr unded by non residential by three sides. VIII. DATE OF NEXT MEETING Tuesday, October 8, 2002, will be the tentative date of the next meeting. IX. ADJOURNMENT Chairperson Fischer adjourned the meeting at 9:49 p.m.