MINUTES

Neighborhood Revitalization Board

St. Etienne Conference Room – Armory Building

July 2, 2003

Present: Bob King, Betty Volm, Nadine Hogate, Joann Muldoon, Kimberly Hansen, Martha Walden, Mike Kinter, Mike Gibson, Jean Minahan, Carol Bower

Absent: Willa Mae Allen, Dolph Pulliam, Paul Sadler

Staff: Kathy Kahoun (CD), Mindy Miller (CD), Jay Leipzig (CD), Bob Schulte (HSD), Jackie Nickolaus (OED), Lyle Schwery (HSD)

Guests: Bernie Van Til, Pam Carmichael, Dennis Hansen

The meeting convened at 5:03. Chairman King welcomed new members Mike Kinter and Mike Gibson. Kahoun said the election of officers had been inadvertently left off the agenda. Muldoon moved that it be postponed to August; seconded by Hogate; carried by unanimous vote. Hogate moved to approve the agenda, carried by unanimous vote. Regarding the minutes of June 4, Volm asked that the sentence reading, " Volm said this told her two things - first, this kind of investment level doesn't happen with professional planning staff involved, and secondly, the neighborhood needed to increase its density so the tax base would repay that kind of investment," be amended to read, "…without professional planning staff involved…" Muldoon said she had made a statement praising the work the planners have done with neighborhood plans and she wanted that included as well.

Muldoon also questioned the sentence reading," The neighborhood is an urban renewal area so the powers of eminent domain apply," saying she thought an urban renewal area was just proposed, not in place. Kahoun said parts of King Irving were included in an urban renewal area established some time ago, and that designation runs for 50 years. Bower asked that it be amended to read, "…a portion of the neighborhood is an urban renewal area." Bower moved to approve the minutes of the June 4 meeting as corrected; seconded by Muldoon, carried by unanimous vote.

OFFICER'S REPORT/CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. Kahoun reported on recent City Council actions, including approving a certification of consistency for COPC, amending the 28E agreement for the Human Services Planning Alliance, approving the two new NRB members, and approving the SHP application. Muldoon asked for more information on the COPC item. Kahoun said she would give the Board copies of the Council letters.

HAWTHORN HILL. Jay Leipzig, Bernie Van Til, and Dennis Hansen presented a plan to rehab the Hawthorn Hill facility at 921 Pleasant into 45 low income apartments. Kahoun said this project came before the NRB for approval because it was more than 11 units. Hansen, the architect, said the building would stay substantially the same on the outside except for removal of the institutional kitchen, which will be replaced by a courtyard. Historical features will be preserved where possible. The facility will be managed by a national company which has not yet been chosen.

Muldoon asked what the income guidelines for the tenants would be. Hogate asked if there was enough parking. Van Til outlined the sources for financing the project, which include application for an Enterprise Zone. He said rents would be at the 40-50% range with a one bedroom going for $446/month and a two bedroom renting at $536/month. Van Til said he had been unable to make the project feasible to appraisers as a market-rate building. Hogate requested a listing of the Mission Hills board members. Bower asked if this was faith-based, and whether it would pay taxes. Van Til said it was going to be faith-based owned, but would be paying taxes after the abatement period. Volm said she was happy to see something happening for this historic building after so many years.

Hogate said this was an expensive project and she had concerns that the financial structure wasn't completely in place. She asked Leipzig if he had examined the finances, and he said he had, but no one knew at this point where the additional $146,000 was going to come from, since NCS has already committed all of their available funding. Nickolaus said approving this project would compromise other projects. Bower said state historic preservation funds were frozen at this time. Van Til said he would use Federal money.

Kinter, an experienced remodeling contractor, said he felt the estimate of $146,000 for windows and the roof was too low. Van Til said that was in addition to what they already had in the budget. Kinter asked whether Hansen was the contractor or whether it would be going out for bid. Van Til said they won the bid and the numbers were firm and final. Kinter asked about the cost per unit and said it would cost considerably less to provide the same number of units through new construction. Van Til said the bids were competitive although the heating and cooling costs would be more because of the age of the building; however, it was worth it to preserve the historic building.

Muldoon asked where there was room for children to play. Van Til said there was a daycare across the street and they didn't expect many children. Muldoon moved to recommend support for the project; seconded by Hogate. Nickolaus said this project would not be brought to Council until Van Til has satisfied requirements on another project.

Allen	out	Kinter	p
Bower	p	Minahan	y
Gibson	p	Muldoon	y
Hansen	y	Pulliam	out
Hogate	y	Sadler	out
King	y	Volm	y
		Walden	y
Result:	7/0	w/3 passes

EAST WALNUT REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT. Kahoun, Carmichael and Leipzig gave the Board an update on the East Walnut Redevelopment Project and showed sketches of the proposed designs for the ten single family homes. Kahoun said a lot of redevelopment groundwork had been done in the neighborhood over the last ten years to finally bring it to the point where this project could now be done. This project will be located directly south of the Capitol View Elementary School. Home Inc. is the developer, and Linda Allison is the architect. Some of the units share a common wall in the garage. Others are free-standing four-squares which are compatible with the surrounding neighborhood structures.

Carmichael said the units will sell for $100,000-110,000 and range from 1,274 to 1,300 square feet. Bower said she commended Carmichael on the project and suggested a restrictive covenant to keep people from turning their garages into family rooms, which would impact already limited street parking. Carmichael said they would consider it. Leipzig said they were discussing "good neighbor agreements" for paint. Kinter said people could put extra bedrooms in the basements if egress windows were installed. Carmichael said they were considering stubbing in plumbing in case the owners want to install a bathroom in the basement.

Volm asked how the units could be considered single family if they were attached. Carmichael said they were called "zero lot line" units. Kahoun and Carmichael said the shape of the site and depth of the lots dictated some of the design criteria - the garages could not be detached and separating the units would cut the density. Pulliam said he was glad to hear about the covenants; otherwise people would fill the garages with junk and parking would be a problem. He asked if the sale price included all the costs. Carmichael said the prices include everything but taxes and were intended to meet the standard of 28% of a family's income for housing.

Bower asked if HOME Inc considered townhouses instead of these designs. Hogate said the neighborhood was very firm about not having any more townhouses. Gibson said forming an association would be better than covenants. Muldoon asked about the cost per unit. Carmichael said they cost $144,000 to build. Kinter said that was typical. Muldoon said the costs to clear the land were prohibitive. Kahoun said part of the cost was relocation six single family structures. This includes purchasing another home, moving costs, demolition and legal work. Also a commercial property (DJ's Tap) was acquired and demolished. Kahoun said it is expensive to do removal of blighted properties that hurt the overall value and image of the neighborhood.

HOMELESS FUNDING UPDATE. Schwery updated the Board on the Continuum of Care application that went to Council on June 23. The City is applying for $3.1 million and will allocate funding to two Shelter Plus Care projects and five SHP projects.

Schwery also distributed a chart showing funding homeless agencies receive, including the state ESG projects that the City administers. The Homeless Helpline will no longer be operated by Primary Health Care but will transfer to First Call for Help. Hogate said the amount of funding the City spends on the homeless has increased from $20,000 to $3 million and she found that discouraging. Schwery said the numbers of homeless have increased threefold, largely as a result of the Stewart McKinney Act. Muldoon asked where the projects were located. Schwery said the two Shelter Plus Care projects were at scattered sites; the Lighthouse project was across the street from St. John's Basilica; the Iowa Homeless Youth project was on Buchanan Street near East High School; Primary Health Care was at Oakridge; Iowa Institute was at United Way; and First Call for Help was at Red Cross on Grand.

NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION. Kahoun presented the guidelines developed at the Board's request for the Neighborhood Development Corporation. These guidelines define expectations for the way the Corporation will make financial decisions, select projects, and offer neighborhoods the opportunity for input on its projects and how the communication will be handled.

Muldoon asked if the NDC owned the properties that they develop; Kahoun said sometimes they do. Hogate asked how the NDC goes about interesting developers to act as their partners; Kahoun said it was project-by-project, citing the Forest Avenue project as an example of how different groups get involved. Hogate said often only the neighborhood people are aware who's doing an NDC project, and she felt they needed more visibility. Kahoun said she would ask Bower to discuss that at the next meeting.

NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT. Kahoun said the Board had been receiving the Public Housing Board minutes in their packets, and asked if they wished to continue receiving them. The Board decided to quit getting them. Kahoun said the Highland Park Streetscape project was being delayed; it has to be re-bid and other sources of funding put in place. Kahoun said a SSMID (voluntary taxing) has been agreed on, and that will cover the maintenance costs.

Kahoun distributed an article from a national magazine about the Neighborhood Finance Corporation receiving their Neighborhood Works charter.

COMMITTEE/REPRESENTATIVE REPORTS. None

OTHER BUSINESS. Volm said she was happy to see Beaverdale was getting a Medicap pharmacy. Muldoon said she had received a report of large numbers of kids hanging out around the Grubb Y at night; Kahoun advised her to discuss it with the NBSD police officer. Muldoon said she had, and felt they were unresponsive. Hogate said she felt that the NBSD wasn't communicating enough with her neighborhood either. Kahoun said they should contact Mike Matthes who coordinates the NBSD program for the City Manager's Office.

The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m.

Betty Volm, Secretary