[0:04] [Music] [1:11] the meeting of uh the Port Authority for um October 15th to order hi first item on the agenda is the [1:19] approval of the Port Authority minutes [1:25] from September 12th any discussion [1:31] I thank you second we have a motion on a [1:36] second all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed AB that's right [1:48] okay all all good okay next item on the agenda is study item on the South Loop [1:56] District Plan update is your microphone [2:02] is okay thank you thank you apologize by interrupting can I just [2:08] ask one quick question would there be any benefit of holding this over until the mayor could [2:15] also be with us um given the role he has and the vision he has and the importance [2:22] that this area has to the entire Community I don't want to take away from [2:27] it and I appreciate everyone being prepared for this but um and exactly [2:33] that was the next comment so yeah no he's he's not going to be here yeah [2:39] neither neither he or the president are here and so for that reason I I just thought it might make sense um if there [2:45] isn't like a timing issue to what we're doing here that we had to get something done and which I don't believe there is [2:52] would it be possible to just hold this until we had them because they they [2:57] obviously I think their input and opinion on this is [3:04] important commissioner hunt may I may I acting presid I forget the titles uh [3:10] appropriately here I think acting president maybe but uh I was going to say I had a I think Tom and I Tom ramler [3:16] Olsson uh planner Nick Johnson planning supervisor uh probably had a good solution for the mayor but maybe not [3:21] president Ericson and that will also be uh connecting with the city council uh on this item obviously wearing different [3:28] hat um but uh yeah I mean we welcome your guidance as how to do it the one [3:34] thing about the schedule was that we hope to get guidance and feedback from all the advisory boards and commissions [3:39] prior to uh the city council uh discussion uh so that sequencing probably would have to uh move around a [3:46] little bit in terms of when we presented it to the city council um if we kept the same uh schedule or goals uh in place [3:54] well perhaps our our board authority um administrator could weigh in on this and [4:00] ask and speak to the possibility of giving um some feedback by way of email [4:07] if that's you know permit it or not but I I agree with my [4:13] fellow um commissioner commissioner that's the word uh and and you know [4:19] because Bob Ericson has the roots deepest in history I have always found his uh input [4:29] and ins sight to be of particular importance we we all have different tenders here but but um I the that's my [4:38] two sents on the subject um Madame acting president commissioner Peterson [4:44] um the uh I guess on this sort of item um given that if it was two people [4:53] I'd be kind of in the bucket that you were um but given that it's just one [4:58] person and that we have a video that could be watched and we have another means for feedback for Bob to give [5:04] feedback I'd be okay with going ahead here and and having the conversation tonight yeah I'd be okay my assumption [5:11] he's probably also in contact with reviewing this beforehand too yeah well the mayor will be at the [5:18] city council meeting exactly exactly okay we'll hearing that all in favor [5:25] then of proceeding okay yeah taken away [5:58] terrific uhoh don't want to give it [6:05] away thank you for accommodating uh this presentation really appreciate really [6:10] looking forward to presenting what we've done so far with this project and getting your feedback uh we think that's [6:17] really valuable as we understand there's a lot of knowledge on this board that could really uh benefit the update so [6:25] let's get to it oh my Lord wa [6:35] down kidding [6:41] me there is ah [6:53] no okay I think it's working sorry about this technical difficulties Okay so this [6:59] is an update to a 12-year-old plan adopted in 2012 it's part of the 2024 [7:05] Planning Commission work plan um it is a project that's looking to um in uh [7:13] Institute priority updates to the 2012 document I'm highlighting and [7:18] underlining priority updates that will be discussed later but we want to bring the document up to date we want to make [7:24] it current with conditions on the ground and uh adopted City policies since 2012 [7:29] um with the work we want to evaluate the implementation plan that's at the end of the document we want to give that a [7:35] thorough vetting um identify and propose new projects if possible um for hopes [7:41] that they could be um uh maybe considered for a future Capital Improvement plan so that's um that's [7:50] part of the the impetus for this project is to bring those projects or to bring those um proposals [7:57] forward okay uh but it might be helpful starting from a pretty basic Foundation [8:02] uh this is U this uh this plan is at one geography [8:09] that the you know the city operates at there's also the Citywide uh comprehensive plan that's um that covers [8:17] everything and a lot more topics than just the specific District plan although that a district plan can be pretty [8:23] thorough but nonetheless it is subservient to the comprehensive plan so it needs to comply with that [8:28] comprehensive plan plan uh the benefit of a district plan is it gets into more detail it can actually address G um [8:35] certain challenges and opportunities uh specific to a geography so it has that benefit and below that are small area [8:42] plans and site plans those just get into further detail um with building form and [8:48] um other sorts of details that District plans and comp plans wouldn't bother I [8:54] have a quick question on that yeah certainly um so paying attention to what you just said MH at this being [9:00] subservient to the original um so what's the differ put an [9:06] update in a change or an amendment is the way I would think of it as an lawyer [9:11] oh okay um uh uh president Hunt is it president hunt I'm sorry I'm still not [9:17] acting president acting president hunt and uh commissioner commissioner Keller uh the well so this is when I say [9:25] subservient I mean to the comprehensive plan it's still going to uh and then I'm going to get into the [9:31] scope of work you know we're we're talking about uh updates not a full rewrite um [9:39] we don't um I'll be discussing that in other slides but that's the um that's [9:45] the scope of this project is just to Institute um rewrites to bring the plan [9:50] current does that answer your question I'm sorry if if I didn't answer okay U could you rephrase or restate your [9:56] question well how about we do this when as you're going through it m and you get [10:01] to a point where it's an adjustment okay but it let [10:08] us know where it conf where it might conflict with the original document and [10:13] how this relates to it because if it was subordinate to the original document [10:19] then the the revision change or we want to describe it adjustment then wouldn't [10:27] have any consequence if they in Conflict right uh commissioner uh we're going to [10:33] try to avoid those like there's a there's going to be a vision and goals that we're going to be maintaining that are in the original document again as [10:39] this slide says it's subservient to the comp plan that's those are district plans okay this is in a an update that [10:46] will be um taking uh that will uh taking precedence over the original document [10:52] okay in specific parts we plan on structuring the update so that it's in [10:57] um uh this is our our draft approach is to construct an addendum that will refer [11:04] to text and pages that are proposing to be revised okay so the way I think that [11:10] so this is a draft of for the sake of discussion M of [11:17] where of of something we might Implement in a more formal way as an actual change [11:22] to the plan uh commissioner correct yes this is just a study session to you know [11:28] introduce the project and also get your feedback on the research that we've done so far great but we plan on uh between [11:34] now and I'll get into this even fur or later when we're talking about the schedule because this is the first round of study sessions we'll have a second [11:40] round at the end of this year and then we'll uh uh move into public hearings [11:46] next year to have you know to get to that adoption so we're studying what we might do to make an you know honest G [11:54] I'm sorry what's second we're studying with the goal of making the UN G change yes all sorry that drag off topic if [12:01] that's what I commissioner yes yeah um before we start the underlayment of all [12:08] this is the district vision and I pulled up the existing one offline is the district Vision [12:14] changed from the old one to the new one I didn't see it in materials here I hope I didn't miss it but oh acting president [12:21] hunt and uh commissioner luns the uh the vision has not changed this is we are [12:27] operating from that 202 12 document where they adopted the vision and goals at that time nothing has changed since [12:35] then and we have no intention of changing that vision and goals that would this is an uh because we've uh [12:43] constrained ourselves to an update as opposed to a full rewrite we don't want to go through the um necessary work but [12:51] still resource intensive work to construct a new vision and new goals [12:57] that follow from that Vision so we are maintaining those two based on the resources we have for for this [13:04] update yeah no problem okay um yeah continuing [13:10] on um so I've kind of already addressed some of these points but I'll just restate them uh this update is important [13:17] because it's a 12-year-old document there's been a lot of changes in the area not only with uh the on the ground [13:23] conditions but the people living there the demographics have changed household numbers jobs uh [13:30] um a a lot of shifts that we need to account for especially shifts in the real estate market um it's no secret [13:36] that office is struggling with this post-pandemic reality and so how do we [13:43] accommodate this this change in in in that market and all the other markets [13:49] that are filling that void so we're going to want to take account of that there's been a lot of new development in [13:54] the South hoop area so uh we want to account for that and how is that align Ed with the original in uh intentions of [14:02] the of the plan adopted in 2012 do those follow through that's going to be a good discussion I I think um at the end of [14:09] this presentation but nonetheless we want to uh account for that new development we know there's been [14:14] significant public Investments that's really important to account for we have new staff and resources since 2012 we we [14:21] have sustainability staff we have creative placemaking staff those are important additions to the city's uh to [14:28] uh the city's Personnel to bring forth that expertise and have that [14:34] directly um accounted for in this update they didn't have that back then but nonetheless they they made efforts to [14:41] have you know to talk to creative placemaking and sustainability but now we have that expertise and staff [14:47] available to facilitate this update and since 2012 we've had we've had a bunch [14:52] of new plans adopted and we're going to have to account for those and how do we incorporate the bigger points from those [14:59] plans into this update they don't they don't they're not all specific to the South Loop some of them [15:05] are Citywide but nonetheless how do we how do we tailor them to the South Loop update or South Loop uh District Plan [15:14] update and why not a rewrite we just um as I mentioned before the resources we have are more suited for an update and [15:20] not for a full a fuller uh rewrite would be much bigger process plus we're trying [15:26] to accommodate the timing of other plans that are coming up we have the 2050 comp plan that's kicking off next year an [15:33] economic development plan uh in the making uh creative Place making has her own strategic Plan and there's uh other [15:39] plans that we want uh that are going to be adopted after this plan or this update will be completed and so we don't [15:47] want to go too uh full force with an update while knowing that these other [15:53] documents are um being prepared and adopted after us so um a fuller rewrite [15:59] would be more prudent after those those other documents have been adopted and um [16:05] staff is still or I mean I I I I think the entire Market is still wondering how [16:11] office is going to play out in this post pandemic world is it going to recover is it going to take a different form we [16:17] just want a a fuller accounting of how it's going to shift with um with New [16:23] Market realities in real estate [16:29] um the original South Loop District uh plan that was meant to be a guide um for [16:36] development and Capital Improvements up until 2050 so several decades and it [16:42] arranged it structured itself around four um signature elements that were identified in the plan those were land [16:48] down Lane 24th Avenue 34th in American and the bluff area so it IT addresses [16:55] each signature element and um discusses them uh through the framework [17:01] of land use Transportation Parks um Economic Development all of those are [17:07] kind of analyzed through those different [17:12] lenses and uh U I know you uh you you have a copy of the the vision and the [17:18] goals U they're here before you on this slide um something that worth [17:23] highlighting and uh might generate additional discussion toward the end is [17:29] this plan was intended to transform the South Loop from a dispersed suburban area into an urban area so a lot of the [17:36] policies are trying to facilitate that transformation and um we're we're going [17:42] to be evaluating those that's going to be part of this and seeing how successful uh some of those U uh those [17:49] strategies or policies have have been since [17:56] 2012 the schedule um uh before you shows that it kicked off this project kicked [18:01] off in July hopes to wrap up in April of next year and um I include a little bit [18:08] at the uh right end of that schedule showing that you know we're hoping to get ideas for projects that can make it [18:16] into the plan and then they'll be more supported when uh the city um develops [18:22] its capital Improvement program some of those plans could actually make it into that um into that uh effort so we want [18:29] to make sure that those plans are identified or those projects are identified in this [18:37] update uh the the team that uh composes that for this project um each member of [18:45] that team did their own review through the lens of their expertise and um Port the members of the [18:52] Port Authority looked at the plan and they identified some issues that the uh that the 2012 plan uh has to deal [19:01] with uh office Market trajectory is clearly a big issue that we'll have to [19:06] have sorted and um we'll have to take another look at Linda Lan because it's [19:13] it's developed a little bit um differently than what was intended uh as [19:18] shown in the 2012 plan so that's something that's going to have to be examined as well and um they noted that [19:25] uh the a business improvement district was something that was was proposed back then but I oops sorry I don't believe [19:32] it's or um I haven't found any evidence that it was actually studied that was one of the projects to come out of the [19:38] 2012 plan but um otherwise yeah I wasn't able to find any evidence of that study [19:44] yes commissioner yeah if if you go back a page to the uh SLP vision and goal that [19:52] that is the vision I had missed that going through because it's been retitled someone someone it used to be District [19:57] Vision but I see is a new one I mean the it it's been it's been restructured it's [20:04] basically the same but five create a sustainable District that appears to be an [20:09] addition so by sustainable that's that's coded word for environmentally sensitive [20:16] I'm guessing is that correct uh acting president hunt commissioner l [20:23] i I don't know about coded um I think [20:28] that was a a topic that was talked about uh pretty extensively in the or not [20:34] extensively but it was addressed in the plan they have an entire section dedicated to sustainability not only [20:39] that but all the signature elements that I identified before are examined through [20:46] a lot of um principles of sustainability land use water resources utilities um [20:54] so I think it's it's it's accounting for not only just sustainable development uh [21:01] well I guess there was other initiatives proposed that spoke to sustainability like uh certain areawide District energy [21:08] so um but I think uh some of that stuff needs to be reexamined and [21:13] reconsidered um with this update that's what we plan on doing but um I I didn't [21:19] mean to slow you down it's it's it's primarily the same as been paraphrased and restructured slightly okay but [21:24] number five I've got the old one in front of me the one that's on the website now that I don't see a mention [21:30] of that so anyhow sorry go ahead oh no problem [21:42] commissioner okay so uh as part of the review of the [21:48] document there is that implementation section at the end of the plan that shows um a list of projects that was [21:56] proposed back in 2012 team members were tasked with examining that list and looking at individual projects and [22:03] giving a status update um there were numerous uh projects that were um that [22:11] that uh are relevant to the Port Authority that were found to be complete um numerous that weren't started and [22:17] others that were just removed from consideration so um we did look at that [22:22] uh we um uh we will be again evaluating those projects especially those that um have [22:29] not started to see is it are they worth pursuing um still if they haven't if [22:36] they haven't even begun so and then introducing other projects probably to take their place that's something worth [22:42] examining through this process [22:49] okay and uh from all these analyses of not only the document but the [22:55] implementation plan uh staff with the within the scope of the work has tried [23:01] to narrow the focus of the updates to a list of priority areas that staff has [23:07] developed and we're happy to get feedback on it um that's certainly one of the questions I I post to you all is [23:13] if this list is adequate should something be added or removed granted [23:18] adding something um you should be aware that does um mean more staff resources [23:26] dedicated to updating that and we're trying to manage this project uh adequately within the within the [23:33] resources that we have available so uh we have five different priority areas [23:38] identified dealing with parks in open space uh Transportation uh development land use Street Scapes plazas Open [23:46] Spaces like that and uh sustainability updates again sustainability wasn't uh [23:52] expertise that we had necessarily in the city at the time of the development or at the time of this adoption the [23:58] adoption of this plan but now that we do we want that um that uh priority area [24:04] accounted for in this [24:09] update and now we can move on to uh questions to you all that we uh that uh [24:15] me and uh Port Authority staff have drafted that you know facilitate a [24:20] discussion getting to the first one um like I mentioned before we have that [24:26] list of priority areas I can go back to that slide but um in your judgment is [24:32] there anything you would like to add have seen added or removed or how would [24:37] you um revise this list of priority areas in a way that speaks to the concerns of the Port Authority [24:45] commissioner nson thank you acting president um two [24:50] quick items on there for potential consideration are Public Safety I know um there have been concerns about that [24:57] in the area with the transportation Network in particular um I know that this city has uh done great work on that [25:04] to make sure it is but I think it's an area to take a look at and if it's something we need to plan and how do we [25:10] design how do we approve things with regards to that um and then I don't [25:16] think this really fits in there but just throw a grocery store that can that can [25:23] survive so uh but th those would be the things that I said [25:31] commissioner uh thank you one um one area and you talked about it a [25:38] little bit in the introduction is something that you kind of holding back on because it's unclear where it's headed but I think the kind of the [25:43] trajectory on on office based utilization is something that if it's [25:49] not something that could be addressed in the update needs to be on the list of things that we need to and and and I [25:54] suspect we're doing it on a Citywide basis but um in this area in particular given the amount of office space in this [25:59] area something to consider in the area to make sure that we if if there's things that we should be doing to either [26:04] make that be more viable or make successor uses um kind of more viable you know I'd [26:11] be curious to hear about that uh acting president hunt commissioner Peterson if I may uh [26:17] so um that I was I'm glad that you picked that out from the presentation [26:22] that is a a topic that we do want to have addressed so we're not going to be pushing that off [26:28] um to uh to a later date or to a a later update I suppose I mean again we have to [26:35] be cognizant of the of the resources we have available in the time that we're hoping to accomplish the adoption of [26:41] this of this update but nonetheless we think the um addressing the office uh [26:47] office Market might be wrapped up in the third bullet point um development goals [26:53] and guidance by area we want to make sure that we're addressing the office Market within that priority area and um [27:01] to also uh update you uh staff planning staff will we're uh this hasn't started [27:07] yet but we do intend to look at uh rules and regulations about office to [27:14] non-office conversions um I mean the the alternative to office has primarily been [27:21] residential and so we're going to be examining that to see how we can adjust any of the the code that we can't uh [27:29] that's that's that that we're able to to see if we can help ease any sort of [27:35] burdens or stress with converting Office to residential oh that was an additional [27:42] comment that our concern that I had is just just because the office Market is what it is right now that we don't [27:49] discount that entirely but still keep that as maybe something how we can pursue other space coming in there and [27:55] so forth other um um business owners and so forth would be still to keep an open [28:00] mind on that and just not say oh the Market's bad therefore let's switch switch gears so yeah glad to hear that [28:10] commissioner yeah and to extend that um one of the things I think about when we [28:16] talk about an area and how we will or will not have goals that are very [28:25] specific um and clearly you know the vibe here is about what's going on [28:31] in our office space but if we make a move one way or the other the question I have in my mind is are there other parts [28:39] of the city where adjustments can be made to accommodate for example to put a [28:44] p point on it we look at at at offices going down and make an adjustment in the [28:50] relationship between residential office in South Loop such that less office and [28:57] knowing that office as a Citywide thing has always been and always will be a goal um if we slice out a chunk of the [29:05] office we had planned for are there other places where we could promote [29:11] office to accommodate an upswing in that [29:16] market uh acting president uh hunt and uh commissioner Keller uh that comment [29:23] is almost reflective of some of the feedback we got at the Planning Commission meeting on uh October 10th last Thursday where some of the goals [29:31] that are specific to the South Loop do they see them being applicable to other areas if [29:38] they're if they're not emphasized so much in this update so I think office [29:43] certainly Falls within that sort of examination is where does office if it's [29:50] if it's not thriving in the South Loop where else could it possibly go um and [29:56] uh and I I I think that's something we we can examine I we'll [30:02] probably um we'll probably Reserve all the bulk of that s sort of analysis to [30:07] the um to the comp plan update I think that'll be more thoroughly examined by then but we're certainly going to be [30:14] addressing office as it um as it's seen as or its viability within the South [30:20] Loop within this update we're I see this as [30:25] a how people look at Bloom now we promote this city as a whole and we're putting an emphasis on South Loop so if [30:32] it I have no idea the reality of people's thinking out there but but if [30:37] we start backing away from from Office Space does it make people interested in office [30:44] space decide that the city as a whole not so interested so we just I the [30:50] concern again find point it is that do we have other places we can that are [30:57] susceptible that kind of development so that the city can as a city continue [31:03] that message without it seeming to be deemphasized because of one area of the [31:08] city does that make sense yes [31:15] yes any other comments okay uh we can move on to the [31:21] next question um so with your experience [31:29] uh examining the South Loop being in the South Loop your history with the South Loop are there any recent developments [31:35] that occurred there where you feel like it was inconsistent with the plan as it [31:40] was written in 2012 um and do you and can you offer a [31:46] reason for why you feel Why You observe that [31:53] inconsistency commissioner Nelson excuse Keller [32:00] and I can't believe I'm actually weighing in as as him but but the last one kind of struck me when I was [32:07] prepping for this meeting and and two things about it one is I don't know what the metric is for [32:13] successful and the other is um that's a [32:19] perception of people outside this room I mean you everybody in this room could [32:25] just say I love it I'm moving there in the next minutes but I'm not sure that's the audience we're looking for so who [32:33] who is is it that we're trying to succeed with and how is it we Define what success [32:44] is oh commissioner Peterson thank you Madame acting president [32:52] um so on your second question there um I [32:58] felt that the in the sick development the the the warehouse component of the [33:04] sick development um and I understand it kind of came as a bundle and and and they wanted to have a single location [33:10] but if um if you had built the office and then built the warehouse separately as two separate developments it would I [33:17] would have more of an internal conflict over that particular kind of use in there because the warehouse component isn't a super intense use and doesn't [33:24] make doesn't make as strong of use of the infrastructure we put in there as and from an occupancy perspective as the [33:31] um as the office uses are in there um you know on your third point you know [33:38] I tend to be pretty patient about this sort of thing and be willing to wait um to wait for stuff to happen um you know [33:47] if you look at um kind of what we've been trying to make happen in that area um it it took [33:54] you know with the folding of control data in the 1980s and the process that that parcel kind of went through it took [34:01] a long time for that to kind of get in a position where there was a developer you know and a Marketplace that kind of got [34:06] together and kind of created what what they've been able to create over there and make that work um and we were patient and allowed that to happen [34:13] um and so I think uh I think sticking sticking with something [34:20] and um and saying this is what we'd like in the long run is what I would like to do um personally you know and I compare [34:26] it um um you know when the um and I I think it's called Market point it's the [34:34] um shopping center that has like Trader Joe's and Total Wine and that shopping [34:40] center and that that parcel was originally part of the office tower next [34:46] to it and the developer and their representative came and said we want to do this this power center is kind of a [34:52] holding use until the office Market kind of comes along and and makes a spot and um I can measure when that happened [34:59] because I was on the planet commission at that point and that would have been between 1996 and yeah you know and that [35:04] was Circuit City wasn't it yeah and Circuit City and that sort of thing and so and and I think I think [35:11] um you know you could you could go back and look and say is would there is that is there a different use that would have [35:17] been a better long-term use on that site than that particular that particular kind of use [35:22] um maybe maybe not you know at that point you had the pressure of um you [35:27] know more office being developed it might have just moved that office building that that I think of as being [35:33] it's just to the west of um it's just to the west of uh um of uh [35:40] Trader Joe's that has the CB the CBR building I might have just moved that building kind of one parcel down on the [35:46] in the rank of buildings but um I think being patient for those those sorts of [35:51] developments to come along and saying this is what we'd like um at the same time having stuff stand for 40 or 50 years and not you know having a having a [35:58] use is that really the right thing to do either um and I think the other thing in [36:04] that third bullet that's um that's something that needs to be [36:10] thought about is um you know we have in in different developments that the port [36:16] have been along been involved in we have different developers with different Financial ability to kind of execute currently you know some of them are in a [36:22] pretty good position to be able to finance projects and make them happen other ones um I guess we we'd say [36:28] struggle you know kind of with their ability to bring Equity to projects and kind of make a deal come together and so [36:34] part of I think what we have to look at is you know what who are we partnering with on particular projects and what's [36:41] what what um and or in developments where there's going to be a series of projects and you know do they have the [36:47] financial capability to perform in the future so um and on the final bullet I think I [36:53] think we're making progress on making it be a branded place um I think [36:58] the investment in public art has been a good thing I think the we have the the neighborhood by the BCS train station [37:06] that I think is largely becoming a place like that and you know with the completion of the square and so on um I [37:12] think is working the you know lindane I think to your point is a little bit less [37:17] you know it's it's a little bit less a place at this point as opposed to a road that's got some hotels along it um um [37:25] but will that will that change is is there's a little bit more development along there probably um so there's one [37:33] person's feedback on that I'll pick it back on your comment about the the where the Trader Joe was and that was a to be [37:41] a temporary yeah right that is youall yeah office and and that that that complex [37:47] and and again that that you know that lindel lane hasn't developed like we'd like to see I mean we have a whole lot [37:54] of as you drive through there you're thinking I am am I in South Loop am I in Bloomington when you go through all [38:00] those apartments and on 34th and every time I go I've got clients over there and I look and it's like there's another [38:05] building that's come up and and I think we've got a lot there so if we can get more and I I know I know we're focusing [38:12] on that and what we can do and that that yeah grocery store that just doesn't ever come back can I can I just follow [38:19] up a little bit more on that I think sure I think one of the things that that I take away from the the relative [38:25] success of the BCS parcel versus the Parcels closer to the mall is I think [38:30] the the I think the BCS parcel is it's a little bit more of a neighborhood you [38:35] know it's it's kind of a place you can get to the river bottom you have the had some Development Across The Street the two [38:41] the the uh Health Partners Tower and the um Reflections towers and the seran [38:48] headquarters across the street um it has much more of the vibe of a of like a [38:53] complete thing and the um they're there by the mall there's still like a patchwork of vacant Parcels you you know [39:00] that you have to face the giant six-story parking garage across the street you know which is a kind of a [39:05] brutalist kind of structure if you you know if you like that um you mean [39:11] brutalism architecture a brutalist you know like like like the well like the tower there's Towers in Minneapolis down [39:17] by the university that are that way the Ric Center and the you know is is a great example of one but um you know [39:23] that that area I think you know from a kind of an arrangement of uses and and making a place we've just been much like [39:30] successful over there at making a place and maybe maybe the the key thing to that is to take that away and so okay we [39:35] need to redouble our efforts to make that into a place um and uh um and and [39:42] figure out what needs to be done in order to make that occur um because that's I think what made what's made it work on the the East End is it's a [39:49] combination of having a developer that's that's been consistent about it and a u [39:54] and it and making a place commissioner lens yeah um I'm a little [40:02] bit couple little questions here I printed out some of these sheets earlier in the day and on this on this one here [40:10] that which was online earlier today there were six bullet points we're down to four now in this presentation and [40:16] there were a couple things in there I thought were good in the SI in in the six and one of those what is your [40:23] patience for implementing the plan as written which Steve addressed then and then I didn't understand this question [40:29] what if the market demands something else like sick and I believe you addressed that too having a warehouse component that really isn't an urban use [40:37] per se but that's such a great development employ employment employment income wise and everything else I I took [40:45] that that was like the the the vegetables you had to take to get the other part yeah right that's a win-win [40:51] but the other bullet point taken out was was should the city be willing to move away from walkability I don't know how [40:57] you have an urban neighborhood without walkability I mean I just think that's contradictory in a statement you've got [41:02] a narrower streets closer buildings height density and height you've got to [41:08] to make make it walkable so you know and and this other one got taken out too [41:14] what is the preferred zoning code framework for the South Loop form based or uses I don't know what that means so [41:21] I'd need a little more definition on that uh and are there any concerns about mixed use I don't any concerns about [41:28] mixed juice but I mean there must have been some reason this got Whitted down to four and and readapted and it must [41:35] have been fairly late well I'll I'll take the blame on the second to the last one because I said that the the zoning [41:41] framework is a wonky planner thing and that the Port Authority Commissioners aren't into wonky planner stuff wonk [41:48] wonky yeah so I don't know if I insulting the planners I I enjoyed being a Wy planning commissioner and I think [41:55] commissioner hun enjoyed it too but it's not that not this group is about so [42:00] commissioner Keller did you have a comment uh yeah I wanted [42:05] to support commissioner LS about the walkability and strangely enough that [42:13] has some relationship in my mind to the whole grocery store thing um I don't [42:19] know how many people have spent you know an Extended Stay in a rental apartment [42:25] or what have you and you've done it near a highway and you have to uh either take [42:32] your life in your hands or a cab just to get there and it's not worth it then [42:37] then you get to the delivery thing and da and that kills the grocery store so I I just don't see how we can avoid that [42:45] and and I this is maybe a ludicrous analogy but there used to be incredible [42:50] street cars in this region and once you lose that right away that is gone and I [42:57] think you do have to even if you don't put a sidewalk in right away you got to make the space and the other thing that [43:02] I have said in a couple of different context before is if if we are going to have a sense of plac making can we at [43:09] least have some residences that aren't square with square balconies that are supported by iron bars because otherwise [43:16] it starts to look like a military headquarters because everything's the same and I just I I don't know I thought [43:22] they was they were all very cool when I first started seeing them and now that's the only thing I can see and it makes [43:29] you want to move to St Paul I mean you know it's just the truth of it there's there's a lot the coolness goes [43:37] away after you get to a certain point and and [43:43] and it's not the school of of barbarism um so that yes that's yes bulk [43:51] it has a certain uh bulk by kind of did did we get a good deal on the same building [43:57] it's a nice opue to the uh pause with that a lot of lenders have on apartment [44:03] lending that uh we don't have these same properties going up block by Block City [44:09] by city and they've metastized everywhere in the Twin Cities the newest stuff on yeah it's not just Bloomington [44:15] Shane Shane rley God bless him always referred to the Hilton at France in 494 [44:20] as the Moscow Hilton so and that's one of the nicer ones and [44:26] anybody who's traveled East Germany in the 70s will uh recognize that yeah [44:32] commissioner Nelson thank you um I remember that [44:37] Circuit City I was in high school so just throwing that out Sean you're not old enough I [44:44] remember when it was the France Avenue Drive-In and before that I think it was a massive dump landfill I'm impressed [44:51] you remember okay moving on um but I do have a couple comments on this I that wasn't my only comment um in [44:58] terms of um inconsistencies I I think one of the challenges that I see in the [45:04] area is there are at least three different things going on you have the [45:10] entertainment uh with particularly driven by the Mall of America there's some other Concepts that have come [45:16] forward that maybe haven't really moved forward you have a actually really great [45:22] strong high-tech manufacturing capacity with the semiconductors with s [45:27] you know great jobs um and then you have the BCS and some of the stuff going on [45:33] around it with more um mixed use residential type stuff and they seem a [45:38] little bit segregated and how do you pull those together uh in a way that makes sense because you have great jobs [45:47] residential very near each other and so I think there's a good opportunity there but um you know sometimes when I drive [45:54] through particularly in some of the manufacturing stuff like I wish it was more vertical I wish we were using you [46:00] know more of this land for more stuff but these are great manufacturing jobs great things and I think you know the [46:08] the community has a great opportunity with um you know uh some of this [46:13] high-tech manufacturing Medtech things of that nature I think the clear [46:19] challenge is how do you integrate it how do you make it walkable so you can walk or bike over to your job there and and [46:26] live there how do you have enough residential to support some retail obviously got the Mall of America with [46:32] retail but you know um some other types of retail particularly that grocery or [46:37] you know glad to hear we have a a new uh coffee shop in the area now you know you [46:43] know those types of things are absolutely critical for that neighborhood feeling that you can go [46:50] somewhere and grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine or something with your friends and family and so um that that's [46:56] the biggest challenge I see in that area is defining a vision that includes all of those and integrates them somehow and [47:04] when you look at you know an area like downtown Minneapolis I mean that is residential office and then the [47:11] manufacturing industrial is kind of outside of that area and we're trying to [47:17] squeeze it all into one place along with the most visited attraction or Mall in the [47:25] country so and you'd like to have the people the residents there or even the people like the Polar Polar Fab and uh [47:32] and not just sick we we we tend to focus on that but polar Fab's been there for years um and rather than just getting [47:39] out and heading out how can we keep them here how can we keep the the residents of the [47:46] tenants perhaps working in the area but certainly shopping and uh you know it's [47:51] kind of a repeat we all repeat that one grocery Grocery well if I might just add [47:57] one comment I mean I remember when my wife worked downtown you know you'd work and then you'd go out [48:03] with your colleagues and meet friends and stuff and and there were things to do there and you know that for that [48:11] livability part you know there isn't a lot of that unless you go into the mall [48:16] um P Wood's fantastic I think it is but you know having some more options like that I think would really help out that [48:24] area what first farmers yeah actually think they do that at BCS [48:30] and to commissioner Peterson's point when you're looking at the the lovely Eastern structure of the uh the parking [48:37] ramp and you've got a lovely restaurant right across the street Hazelwood a nice hotel AC and you know you they come out [48:44] of there and they look at the monstrosity and it's part of the mall I mean hey I was there when we built it so [48:51] um it's it's just what we have to deal with so [49:00] any other questions okay um actually president hunt um Commissioners uh uh commissioner [49:09] Peterson kind of addressed all the questions if if if by um himself and so [49:15] if any if there are any other any other thoughts to the questions before you or um or you just [49:22] have any feedback to the presentation itself happy to take it [49:29] Mr Nelson yeah thank you um just one on the last question about the branding [49:34] because this is an issue that came before the council at one point they were going to put the big bird um by [49:40] 494 and we moved it into the back of house so um I in my opinion I think it's [49:47] good that self Loop has its own identity but I think it's important that it's Bloomington and and that was the concern [49:53] that we had you come in and it was South Loop and and uh that sort of thing so that's just [50:00] one person's opinion is I want to make sure it's still even though it's a distinct part of it it is still [50:07] Bloomington Bloomington MH [50:16] okay okay um uh thank you all thank you thank you appreciate it uh have a good [50:22] night and I'll well you'll be hearing from us as we again as we advance this [50:28] update we'll be providing uh providing you all uh those [50:34] updates as well we have a let's talk Bloomington page where we're going to be updating that page regularly as we move [50:40] through the project and it'll serve as a repository for other documents too so again uh if and and uh staff is always [50:47] available to take any questions or comments that you have so again thank you very much appreciate it thank you than presk thank you again for the uh [50:55] attention and if I could just add one last thing is just to thank your staff uh who are working with us directly and [51:00] who are conduit into this project so you have our contact information but also you can reach out uh through Holly [51:07] through Barb through Kevin uh through all the port members um who are engaged in helping us in this process and so [51:13] we'll we'll continue to collaborate with them and report back to you so thank you thank you can I ask one other question [51:20] sure that I forgot to ask earlier since Mr Johnson came up he can take this one so um is is there any benefit or any [51:29] reason why we might consider slightly delaying this because of those other [51:35] projects that are ongoing um there was a slide earlier with five other studies that I think are happening over the [51:41] course of the next several months forget about the comprehensive plan that's going to happen for a long time and [51:46] always part of the cycle but would this benefit from those being done before [51:54] this or have you coordinated the timing of this to um I just don't want [51:59] something to come out of those that would have maybe changed something in this plan yeah acting chair hunt and uh [52:07] commissioner Nelson the one thing I would say to that I guess is planners like to plan so there's always going to be another plan um to you know much to [52:15] the shagrin about actually implementing these things is always the Second Challenge right um but you know next [52:20] year we're going to start the process of looking at the 2050 uh comprehensive plan um in addition to that that we're [52:26] contemplating different ideas about uh doing some small area plans that connect to the South Loop potentially an [52:32] American Boulevard corridor plan if they continue to build up Transit um Along [52:38] American Boulevard that'll be an opportunity um and so I don't think there's a a perfect time in terms of um [52:45] how to sequence all these things would you know would South Loop benefit from knowing the exact uh strategies and [52:51] tactics of the economic development plan certainly uh but I think that one can continue to feed into the other and um [52:58] things can be adjusted on the fly as you kind of rep prioritize uh things and we certainly can look back when we do the [53:04] 2050 comprehensive plan as well um right now uh just from a perspective of big [53:09] picture what we're trying to accomplish here is we have a few key opportunity sites left in South Loop uh and we want [53:15] to make sure that we're having an updated 2024 conversation as opposed to a 2012 conversation uh as to how what [53:21] staff should be focused on uh as we look at those sites and do we have the right land use guid or zoning if you want to [53:27] get into the wonky stuff um and what other things can uh should we be integrating into those spites with [53:32] respects to public spaces and parks and those things so that's the conversation we need to have um and uh uh it's [53:39] probably best not to wait too long to have that conversation thank you very much for [53:44] those comments um and I also partially see it the other way too that I think it'll be positive to have this at least [53:51] in the works and have some feedback um from all the groups as the plan moves along when we get to the um the airport [53:58] parking in particular because I think a big part of the airport parking conversation is about the vision for [54:05] this area and and what we want to do in that area and if if Airport [54:10] parking is part of that plan um and and how how it's part of that plan I guess I [54:16] don't want to freak anyone out but no I agree with that um uh last before I leave just uh also just want to extend [54:22] an invitation to president Ericson if he wants to follow up with us individually uh we certain can make ourselves available to make sure that his voice [54:28] isn't lost in this process thank you yep thank you [54:36] all okay next item on our agenda is item 2.2 annual housing report [54:42] 2023 presentation all things housing [55:23] and we have uh Michelle Lincoln from our planning division presting in to us welcome thank you acting president and [55:31] Commissioners it's a pleasure to be seeing you all um some of you have met me it's great to see you again um I [55:38] presented in a joint H Port meeting this uh presentation for the 2022 housing [55:43] report last year and now I am here uh to present uh the the next iteration of all [55:50] things housing [56:02] no budget nod there we go there we go um so I have a a a pretty short [56:09] presentation for you but tonight I will be going over decog Graphics existing housing affordability and [56:15] accomplishments in housing for 2023 um and we will move through those [56:21] at a a good pace and then at the end I will of course pause for questions and we can disc discuss [56:28] more oops let me go back here so as you can see Bloomington [56:36] continues to grow um in 2022 this is based off of census data um which is [56:41] also what the Met Council uses for their projections um we have increased to over [56:47] 990,000 uh which and that will continue to happen over 2023 and 2040 through projections and our house number of [56:53] households will also increase so we'll have more people and more households in the coming decades and 2022 uh data [57:00] shows that that is the case our average household size has increased just a little bit but it's so small that we're [57:06] kind of just holding steady um our households with children decreased slightly that's the uh from the last [57:12] year's report so if you're looking at that that typically is um something that [57:18] you look at in Trend so from last year to this year it could be a decrease that [57:23] you might see in coming years uh but based on the previous five or 10 years of data this is about right about where [57:30] households with children have been also it doesn't necessarily indicate the number of children in the city um [57:35] households can have multiple children but they're still only counted once uh so uh a slight decrease if you noticed [57:41] from last year isn't really um something to note fully right now until we have [57:47] some more census data in the coming couple of years um our residents that are older than 65 have increased um 3% [57:55] from last year about 3% from last year um this is also in line with Bloomington [58:01] continuing to age as a whole uh like as the population the average age uh the median age is 41.8 which is a little bit [58:09] down um which can be really kind of a representation of the data but it's [58:15] still kind of staying steady it is the uh the fourth oldest in pure cities uh [58:23] and those pure cities are listed on page five of the annual housing report uh which was in your attachments but it's [58:29] also available online under HRA [58:37] reports sorry I got a little rambunctious um our demographics from [58:43] last year to this year have remain fairly steady um the distribution across [58:49] uh across race and ethnicity have stayed about the same and so we are continuing [58:54] to be more diverse every year and so looking over the next couple of years we'll probably continue to see that [59:05] Trend our existing housing types are also staying the distribution of those [59:10] housing types are also staying about the same 50% of our housing units are single [59:15] unit detached homes um as you can see we're um the multif family is at a third [59:22] um and then we have other homeowner opportunities which also could be rentals but home ownership condos Town [59:28] hoses co-ops miscellaneous residential is a category that might include um [59:34] properties that have had different types of improvements and don't quite fit into the other categories um so it's a little [59:40] bit on the miscellaneous um miscellaneous side um but this is all of our housing we have a a a good spread of [59:48] different housing types um and in the future you can consider uh continuing to uh um increase [59:57] housing as well as increasing the types of housing um which could give more [1:00:03] residents and future residents opportunities to live in the housing type that is uh right for them at the [1:00:09] life cycle that they're in this is showing our single family [1:00:16] rental licenses um there was 190 new licenses um last year you can see that [1:00:22] there was 184 um it stays about the same because some people don't renew and some people [1:00:28] um have new licenses so it stays fairly steady as you can see for the last few [1:00:34] years um it's been increases of 30 you've had some dips and and but it [1:00:40] stays fairly level Madam chair so one thing I've read about a [1:00:48] little bit is at least at the national level there's a trend toward like corporate buyers of housing for single [1:00:54] family homes for rental you es um and it seems like that hasn't happened at least [1:01:00] in Bloomington do you do you think that that do you think that's like a regional thing where they just haven't come to the Twin Cities and bought up homes like [1:01:07] that or what do you think what what when I read about that and then I look at this I'm like why why am I not seeing [1:01:12] that Trend here so um acting president and commissioner Peterson um so with [1:01:17] Bloomington uh Lyn Moore or environmental health um uh [1:01:23] uh uh supervisor spoke a little a little bit about this and um there are a few I [1:01:29] guess you could say corporate landlords that do own some housing single family housing in Bloomington um but those are [1:01:36] people that have kind of been here uh for like established like they've been [1:01:41] here for a very long time um the and the kind of coming in of of of maybe do you [1:01:49] mean like National other National or investment yeah I just that do that and [1:01:56] I know I know some of that market is where they're off buying like part of a subdivision or having something built [1:02:02] built as single family for the purpose of renting it out but I also know that there have there have been businesses [1:02:07] that just accumulate property then um yes I just wanted to clarify to make sure I knew which corporate uh landlords [1:02:14] you were were you talking about um I think that in Bloomington um some of the [1:02:20] factors that go into that might be holding that office we don't have like a ton of vket land that we're building [1:02:26] large subdivisions in so a lot of times like uh you know Equity capitalists or Venture capitalists that might be doing [1:02:32] that don't really have the opportunity here um also uh [1:02:39] um it just hasn't been as present I'm not clear on [1:02:46] why um it could be a lot of things to do with our zoning ordinance or our [1:02:51] policies that have um made it so that way LGE large SVS of single family homes [1:02:57] are being purchased also or single actually this might help here let me go to the next slide here that might also [1:03:04] help contribute there's many characteristics I'm actually going to skip ahead just a little [1:03:13] bit I'm hoping that I have this in here um our medium home value in Bloomington [1:03:19] is 361,000 um so that means 50% of houses are more expensive and % houses are less [1:03:27] expensive than that number um sometimes in those cases purchasing at that price in order to rent out doesn't make [1:03:35] sense and also in the last you know three years with the cost of [1:03:41] debt makes that even less appealing um so it does affect our [1:03:49] affordability for you know residents who want to live here for rents and Home Ownership um but may have also [1:03:57] deterred um uh people from purchasing in this market for that purpose uh so it's a [1:04:05] little bit of a double-edged sword um so there's the [1:04:11] um and that could this might be a good place to operate where we try to have more build more housing have more [1:04:18] affordability in order to get it to people who need housing like individuals who need housing um without having [1:04:26] as many as much impact from the trend that you're talking about nationally okay in some [1:04:32] places yes yeah Michelle yes yeah um would you go back to rental licensing [1:04:39] yes the line the two Lin can you give me a little clarification on that they're I don't [1:04:45] know what we're showing here we got a Gold Line and a blue line I don't see a key on it and so I don't yes the blue [1:04:51] line is the total Ral licensing and the Gold Line is new licenses oh those are [1:04:57] new licenses okay thank you I missed that I [1:05:02] apologize thank you um just one thing to follow up on commissioner Peterson's [1:05:07] comments um uh I don't know why historically there haven't been a lot but I think one of the things that those [1:05:13] corporate larger investors look for is buying groups of houses at one time and [1:05:19] our rental licenses tend to be um from what I recall that we got information on [1:05:25] last time this was asked about is um individual or maybe like you own just a [1:05:31] few houses and so we just for whatever historical reason we don't have someone [1:05:37] who had 50 houses and had someone from you know a [1:05:42] hedge fund come in to want to buy them and it's much more difficult to buy one at a time than to go buy you know 10 or [1:05:50] 15 at a top portfolio of them and so I think a lot of this just has to do historic Ally with you know strong home [1:05:57] ownership and you know um you know the rental market was maybe largely people [1:06:03] in this community that moved into a different house and rented out their previous house or something like that so [1:06:10] that just I think it's a great question though I think it's really important to keep an eye on yeah and I don't just to [1:06:15] follow up I don't I don't think it's necessarily like a good thing or a bad [1:06:21] thing necessarily um you know some people accuse them of jacking PR up [1:06:27] um I just I'm just it's more of a curiosity question yeah acting president [1:06:32] and Commissioners additionally Twin Cities as a whole um it's showing that investor owned single family rentals are [1:06:39] actually only 3.4% of rentals in the Twin Cities as a whole so it seems like there is kind of [1:06:46] a regional um uh Trend as well and so Bloomington being in the region is also [1:06:52] kind of falling into that [1:07:01] this is um housing tenure I show the United States Minnesota and Bloomington and then break it down by race and [1:07:07] ethnicity um Bloomington has a larger uh home ownership percentage of uh housing [1:07:15] of people households that are owner occupied or renter occupied um it's [1:07:20] greater than um the us but not Minnesota as a whole Minnesota has a strong own [1:07:27] homeowner residential population as you can see there's great [1:07:33] disparities between white Hispanic and white non-hispanic and other races in home ownership uh the largest gap being [1:07:40] between white Hispanic and not and white non-h Hispanic and black or African-American home ownership um a [1:07:46] majority of uh people in housing or households in uh Bloomington that are [1:07:51] black African-American are renter there's a lot of s that go into that but it is something of note in [1:07:58] order to uh be mindful of as we are trying to increase home ownership um [1:08:03] people who want home ownership we want them to own homes not everyone does but many many people do so it's just kind of [1:08:10] being mindful as we try to increase those numbers and getting the people that want homes into homes that they own [1:08:15] um Madam president I got the question here commissioner Peterson um so considering the second and the third [1:08:21] lines on here the second one being the Minnesota Statewide and the third one being the Bloomington one mhm um and you [1:08:27] see there's about a 4% difference in ownership percentage for Minesota versus [1:08:34] Bloomington um how much of that is do you think is [1:08:39] attributable to differences in the demographic comp composition of the City [1:08:45] versus the state in other words how much how much of this is how much of that difference is reflecting just demographics of the City versus some [1:08:52] other factor I think that there's a lot of considerations going into the difference between Bloomington as a like [1:08:58] a locality municipality versus the state one of them also might be um uh there [1:09:05] are just less renters outside of the Twin Cities metro era like per capita I [1:09:11] mean like in some place that might be more rural you might be seeing where people have uh just bought land or their [1:09:18] homes um or they might have a generational kind of ownership as well [1:09:24] where parents may have passed due uh to children and then their children to their children um as well also cost of [1:09:32] land is also less um outside of the Twin Cities metro area which could mean that [1:09:37] people uh the affordability might draw more homeowners or land owners to those other areas um so there's uh when you [1:09:45] kind of look at the city as or excuse me the state as a whole and you start kind of putting every single um you know [1:09:51] person in the pot and and determining um r owner or renter occupied housing um [1:09:58] you kind of get this this difference this about 3% difference um which [1:10:06] is in the sheer number when you think about like people is quite large but in [1:10:11] percentages are fairly close but those factors those factors I [1:10:17] mentioned could also impact why there might just be less renters outside of the metro area based on like cost of [1:10:24] land and housing [1:10:32] so income and employment uh Bloomington uh continues to uh increase in the [1:10:38] median income uh year-over-year um along with the henpen county and the region um [1:10:45] the henpen county Bloomington and the region are all kind of increasing at a similar rate except you see here in the region [1:10:52] that in 2022 the income uh uh stayed fairly the same while incomes [1:10:58] for Bloomington and hanban County increased there's still a lot of impacts that are kind of coming from uh covid [1:11:05] and uh the change in a lot of employment Industries um and salaries which could [1:11:11] contribute to that um so that's why we might have seen this um you know [1:11:17] 2021 and 2022 kind of stay the same things are still adjusting from that [1:11:23] time additionally I have the regional area medium income here these are the numbers [1:11:29] from HUD this is what they consider um 100% of the area median income is [1:11:37] $124,900 this is $6,700 more dollars than last year um these important these [1:11:43] numbers are very important because it determines these are the thresholds for affordability um these numbers here in [1:11:51] their formula extrapolate to what's an affordable home price and what's an [1:11:56] affordable renting price um so seeing that increase also me means that it's [1:12:02] responding kind of prices you know the economy but it's also um showing that as [1:12:11] these increase 6,700 more dollars median or like incomes for individuals may not [1:12:17] have increased in the same amount so more and more people are being captured [1:12:22] in some of these 80% or below am uh which means that housing [1:12:27] affordability as well as other necessities are uh very important and and at the very Forefront of many [1:12:33] households Minds Medical Care daycare and how their income is responding to [1:12:39] that um and will become like a greater concern to anyone in Bloomington as time [1:12:45] goes on commissioner lens yeah um I'm just noting the [1:12:51] disparity between henpen County and Bloomington and uh if you go back to 2010 it was [1:12:58] really close widened a little bit 2020 24 widened quite a bit and it narrowed a [1:13:06] little bit in 2022 do we know why I mean what's happening why are we falling [1:13:11] behind the county I know or have been um numbers disparity is increasing is [1:13:18] what I'm saying I'm not sure [1:13:27] okay thank you commissioner Nelson thank you can you help me understand the difference [1:13:34] between the region median income at [1:13:40] 87,000 and the regional area median income at [1:13:46] 124,000 I mean that's $37,000 difference between the two can [1:13:52] you just help me understand how those numbers relate or don't relate I would do the best I can to to explain HUD [1:14:03] formulas so this is um so this is what HUD calculates in order to determine [1:14:11] thresholds for like assistance and benefits and a lot of agencies and uh [1:14:18] governing bodies follow suit um so 100% [1:14:23] Ami is 124900 100 um and we're probably between 60 and 80% Ami for our median [1:14:31] income um for that it kind of means that a lot of people who are in that bracket [1:14:38] are available for like can get assistance as costs go up um this does [1:14:45] put more strain on programs so you know being mindful um and making sure that [1:14:52] those uh you know we we're taking Tak advantage of money that comes down from [1:14:57] higher levels of government or um the the monies that we produce at the municipality level um are there in order [1:15:04] to respond to the market and incomes changing in this way um it also means [1:15:11] that the people who might need benefits are have are eligible for them and I [1:15:17] think HUD there's a lot of things that go into it their formula isn't public [1:15:23] like super public so but uh it's kind of showing like if you make this amount of [1:15:30] money in this region then you're good there's probably housing available [1:15:37] that is Affordable to you um you can afford the cost of necessities and that's kind of what they're saying here [1:15:44] um it's not necessarily indicating luxury or like extreme wealth but it is [1:15:51] showing that the thing the things you need for quality of life you have access to and can pay for and so they're saying [1:15:57] if you don't have that here are the other percentages of area medium income and then programs are [1:16:05] developed from there in order and who they service I appreciate that I as a policy [1:16:12] maker my concern about it is that if the median income really is in the region [1:16:19] 87,000 not 124,000 you know as a community we are [1:16:25] investing significant money through Tiff and other programs we got a Housing Trust Fund and all that and a lot of [1:16:32] that is going towards people at 60% Ami you know to what we would call [1:16:39] Affordable but that just seems to be the median and and I just that's how far out [1:16:45] of skew housing is for most people that you know we have to look at ways to [1:16:52] subsidize the construction of housing that frankly someone at the [1:16:58] median can afford and and uh yeah it it I think it exac doesn't exac it [1:17:05] highlights the huge issue that housing and the affordability of it is within [1:17:10] the country and the region commissioner Keller [1:17:19] um I'm sure because I'm uh completely lacking in the ability to deal with numbers that it's obvious to all other [1:17:26] humans here um but I noticed that there 20% increments reflected here except 50 [1:17:33] to 60 being a 10% in in increase Step Up [1:17:39] rather bracket what have you what what's what's the deal with it why why this [1:17:46] seems like an odd sort of um shrinking in one bracket that's inconsistent with [1:17:52] how the other ones are defined is there per behind that acting president commissioner [1:17:59] Keller I am unsure of the Hud's reasoning for that distribution that consistent with my apprehension of the [1:18:05] federal government so I I too accept that response thank [1:18:14] you so here's the unemployment rate over time showing Bloomington and the county and the region um Bloomington is the [1:18:22] blue line um as you can see we um the region had an increase in unemployment [1:18:30] from 2022 to 2023 uh these numbers come from uh the [1:18:35] Minnesota employment and economic development um uh state agency which is [1:18:41] why we have 2023 numbers and we don't stop at 2022 just to clarify kind of where the data is coming from so as you [1:18:48] can see in 2023 the region had an uptick in unemployment um and blue maint [1:18:53] continues to uh drop uh there was a very dramatic drop from 2020 to 2021 and now [1:19:01] we're kind of seeing marginal drops from there likely attributed to co yes yes [1:19:08] acting president there uh covid was definitely responsible for that spike in [1:19:14] 2020 um which kind of produced just a like broad industry impacts um and [1:19:21] seeing that's why also as the area every geography kind of [1:19:28] adjusted and and new things where um new Solutions and strategies were implemented we saw kind of this this [1:19:35] drop in in unemployment um also some people may have exited the employment Market but I [1:19:42] would also like to attribute to adaptive strategies also helping people retain or [1:19:49] get new jobs commissioner Nelson I did it again commissioner Keller [1:19:56] well we are the same in all important respects okay um and this comes less [1:20:02] than a form of a question I think and maybe more of an observation but when we [1:20:09] were talking about uh mediums medians um I mean this 2.5 is a [1:20:18] crazy low number um and and one wonders what from the 76 the 25 what [1:20:28] income levels are reflected in this [1:20:34] nearly full employment so in other words um has their has the median gone [1:20:43] down or up depending on and I obviously it does depending on the um income of [1:20:51] the added job so if we get a whole bunch of low paying jobs is going to drag the [1:20:58] median down because there's that many more low jobs right and that many no [1:21:04] matter how many high paying jobs there are there is if the bottom expands the [1:21:09] median got to come down or I I'll ask all my people who AR numerically competent to correct me yeah well that's [1:21:17] but that says something and I'm trying to figure out what it is I think it's good okay I'll buy that but but there's [1:21:25] there's something underlying all that I think is is is it that it it it isn't reflected [1:21:32] within the realm of my intelligence or competence I think [1:21:38] um in inflation and a tight labor market puted the wage that people are making or [1:21:46] the salary that people are making up the last couple years okay so the new jobs [1:21:51] if you will are not coming in at the bottom at the rate perhaps they have in the past or what have you because the [1:21:57] inflation and the economic pressure unemployment has I mean these are [1:22:04] not you know migrant labor jobs obviously but but so that's but even the [1:22:09] low income ones I mean drive past McDonald's and they're paying over $20 [1:22:15] and you know even the the lower income jobs are paying more now than they did [1:22:21] okay pre pandemic and that's the answer I was hoping to hear yeah uh and I don't know that that's the answer that's just [1:22:27] my opinion well so if it comes from you it's got to be right yeah I don't think that's true thanks I didn't I don't mean [1:22:33] to drag us too far in the weeds but acting um president and commissioner also the median is showing where the [1:22:40] middle is an average would show kind of like if there was an influx um or [1:22:47] there's also like there could be high paying jobs leaving the market as well as low paying jobs coming in there's [1:22:54] kind of a lot of different factors here um but any of those in the direction could skew an average in pull an average [1:23:01] in any direction but the median is showing the middle um where 50% of of [1:23:06] salaries are higher and 50% are lower so there would have to be you know in your question a significant amount a number [1:23:14] of jobs at a salary below the median in order to shift the median um uh in a [1:23:21] significant way and but and all of the presumably changes housing values [1:23:27] because the dollar is chasing the housing which influences tax base so it [1:23:33] has that positive cascading I guess is Posite of a Cascade it's an uphill scade [1:23:39] um just just just wanted to understand that because I we're back it's how it [1:23:45] relates to our economic health in general and and the trend in is good in [1:23:51] many ways I guess for those of you who understand it thanks it looks good thank you [1:23:58] Additionally the state is also increasing its minimum wage number for uh companies that are larger than 100 [1:24:05] employ or yes larger than 100 employees starting January 1 um so we're kind of [1:24:10] seeing an adjustment at all levels which kind of shows the the increases [1:24:20] there this is housing cost burden broken down by income um housing cost burden is where [1:24:28] you spend 30% or more of your income on your housing um from last [1:24:34] year the uh number that has changed is in owner occupied housing which is yellow that's [1:24:42] less than 20,000 um that number decreased by 3% so was 93% last year um [1:24:50] a lot of things could have contributed to that if you're kind of looking at last year's report in this year's report [1:24:56] a lot of things could be contributing to that um either uh th those households [1:25:02] sold their home um and theyve uh moved into housing that is more affordable for [1:25:09] them they could have also paid off their mortgage so um housing is no longer a [1:25:16] part of their expenses except for things like property taxes and insurance um so [1:25:22] with home ownership uh there's a lot of factors that can go into why that number decreases um and would take a little bit [1:25:29] more digging in order to uh figure out kind of where the main considerations were for this drop from year-over-year [1:25:37] additionally with Census Data it's kind of the best available data we have but it's also a survey and they extrapolate [1:25:44] numbers and estimate numbers um so it' be very interesting to see in coming years what this trend is um could be [1:25:52] something to look into in the future for noticing sharp decreases over [1:25:57] time um for other income banss um they've all [1:26:08] increased just checking here they've all increased in housing cost burden so from $20,000 or more and [1:26:16] including uh for $20,000 and more uh housing cost burden has [1:26:22] increased as housing costs rise owner occupied housing as you in [1:26:30] Combined uh that between owner occupied and renter occupied owner occupied has decreased which makes sense when we look [1:26:37] at the less than 20,000 band and showing that decrease in housing cost burden um [1:26:42] and for renter occupied housing it has is increased by 3% from last [1:26:49] year so just continues to kind of show um the Imp impa that unaffordable [1:26:55] housing has on the population as a whole uh because even those who make 75,000 or more are seeing increased housing cost [1:27:03] burden uh last year it was 3.9% and 3.7% so next year it'll be when the data [1:27:10] comes out it'll be important to kind of see if that trend is continuing where more people are becoming housing cost [1:27:15] burden commissioner Lin yeah Michelle the first bars on the left got me a [1:27:21] little puzzled if if your income is less than [1:27:27] 20,000 oh my question just is how can you afford to own a house to start with [1:27:32] if your income's less than 20,000 I mean I understand the 981 you're a [1:27:39] senior seniors seniors think about seniors exclusively [1:27:49] yeah thank you I rely on Mr Peterson a lot acting [1:27:56] president and commissioner lens yes I agree with commissioner Peterson um it's often because they might have uh [1:28:02] retirement income Which is less than $20,000 a year um and or they may have [1:28:08] other things that are supporting them um where the the housing is might be the [1:28:14] biggest expense they have um but as mortgages get paid off [1:28:20] then it's great and this is why income not a accumulated wealth or yes this is [1:28:26] by income now this is a little this includes um things like dividends or [1:28:33] interest payments um what is considered just pure job income um is called [1:28:40] benefits or excuse me is called wages and compensation under the um under the [1:28:45] census so this is including is it it's expanded to include other sources of [1:28:50] income um our median for benef uh wages and compensation in [1:28:57] Bloomington is something like 64,000 if you're only considering what [1:29:04] people earn from their jobs so it's much lower when you do wages and [1:29:10] compensation um but typically you see the the expanded like where from all [1:29:15] income sources [1:29:25] we looked at the slide a little bit earlier um here's the the HUD area medium incor uh coming in to play again [1:29:33] um those family income levels are what uh was shown earlier but only in the 80s [1:29:38] per and Below excuse me and this is an affordable home price [1:29:48] um for each of those Ami bands um so as [1:29:53] you can see for 80% Ami uh which is the next band down in the HUD levels an affordable [1:30:00] home price would be $334,700 and in 2023 our median home value was [1:30:09] $361,000 uh $800 um so that means [1:30:15] that likely more than 50% of the housing [1:30:21] would be considered unaffordable based on the HUD numbers um in in [1:30:28] Bloomington uh so definitely indicates [1:30:33] uh a very tight market for the houses that people can afford High competition [1:30:39] um and also um a lot of houses that for those who are in search of housing they [1:30:45] can't find affordable housing commissioner Peterson um I was I [1:30:51] was think this slide is an interesting one because is [1:30:57] um the like if you if you look at that 80% number for example and you say that [1:31:04] there's a that that I think the I think thinking about kind of kind of Supply [1:31:10] demand balance in this area requires knowing like how many how many houses [1:31:15] were available in that $34,000 range and how many people were in that [1:31:20] 88% Ami bucket because that's really where the market is meeting in terms of supply and demand [1:31:28] um and you know I think it's it's clear like you know at the 50% Ami you're [1:31:34] probably talking a townhouse in Bloomington or a condo um is really your [1:31:40] choice for housing you know anything that's reasonable in the city that that a single family home under $200,000 is [1:31:47] not much of a single family home if we had any sales and under $200,000 in [1:31:52] there but that's you know when I look at this I that's what I always wonder about is um is if you if you stratify the the [1:32:01] kind of number of families and the number of properties available that that would be the interesting analysis here for me to really to really look at the [1:32:08] supply demand balance situation and I just want to clarify one [1:32:14] thing the source of this are assessment reports met Council these are not on actual sales I mean except that of [1:32:21] course assessments reflect sales to a certain thing but you can go on multiple listing service every day and find out [1:32:28] what the average sale price of a house value is different from sales so just [1:32:34] acting president and commissioner the Bloomington housing transactions table on this slide in the well I guess for me [1:32:41] in the upper right um that is based on the assessment data um so that's coming from City level collected [1:32:50] data and that lets median sales price for those trans transactions uh last [1:32:58] year so possibly yeah condo um maybe a town home depending on on which 50% [1:33:07] above or 50% below you're searching for as far as um sales [1:33:16] price Bloomington average rent stayed fairly steady steady from 2022 to 2023 [1:33:23] see only slight increase in the at total average price [1:33:28] um there was a significant there was slight increases in studios to three [1:33:35] bedrooms um which indicates why it kind of went up a little bit um the largest [1:33:40] increase was from 2021 to 2022 um which could be also still impacts [1:33:47] from covid um housing availability our vacancy our combined vacancy for both [1:33:55] owner occupied or or owner or home ownership um househ uh homes and rental [1:34:02] homes um is below 5% um it's and it's very low for home [1:34:08] ownership it's one it's a little over 1% [1:34:14] vacancy um and about 4.9% vacancy or excuse me 4.2% uh vacancy for for rentals so that [1:34:23] kind of um can explain some uh larger increases [1:34:28] from 21 2021 to 2022 to 2023 U but not so much from 2022 to 2023 as things kind [1:34:36] of uh uh plateaued and balanced out in our naturally occurring [1:34:42] affordable housing um this becomes from um a report of all of the rental units [1:34:48] that report the rents u based on their type of unit um by bedroom the total [1:34:55] units so out of the 10,18 units that were reported numbers [1:35:01] for their rental properties um about 60% of them are naturally occurring [1:35:08] affordable housing this is housing that has not received subsidy but it's considered [1:35:14] affordable um usually there's other factors like the age of the unit the size of the unit um impact the amount [1:35:22] that uh of rent that's charged compared to last year um studio [1:35:29] and one-bedroom numbers uh number amount of Noah had increased um two-bedroom and [1:35:35] three-bedroom naturally occurred affordable hous housing decreased so they are less of a share of the uh total [1:35:42] naturally affordable uh housing occurring affordable housing [1:35:52] units so I want to talk a little bit about some HRA program accomplishments in housing um so 700 households were uh [1:36:01] assisted with h in our housing Choice voucher programs um we also uh were on [1:36:08] purchased one home uh for rental homes for future home buyers um which is where [1:36:14] uh it is a a owned property and people can rent there a portion of their rent goes into uh an account to help them [1:36:20] save up for um uh a down payment for a home um five there were five moves or [1:36:28] turnovers from our rental homes for future home buyer home buyers programs [1:36:34] um and then also in our journey to home ownership uh which is an educational program there was 108 people registered [1:36:41] over at 11-month time frame and out of those 1089 participants purchased [1:36:51] homes this is a little bit of a breakdown of our residential development and services and the home ownership [1:36:58] assistance so as you can see in our home improvement loans uh we had 37 loans um [1:37:04] approved and we had a total assistance of over $1 million for those people who [1:37:09] were in that home improvement loan programs um 35 loans were repaid in full [1:37:15] um and the total repayment amount was a little over a million dollar the average [1:37:20] repayment amount was just under uh $30,000 additionally in our housing and [1:37:27] environmental Loan program um for people who need assistance in making Health [1:37:32] like environmental health improvements to their homes there were nine loans approved and the total amount of [1:37:37] assistance was 63,000 about an average of 7,000 per [1:37:43] loan for down payment assistance we had 14 loans approved in 2023 the total amount of assistance was [1:37:52] 147,000 B a about a little over 10,000 uh per loan and the average home [1:37:58] purchase price was $377,000 314 uh which if you noticed is really [1:38:04] close to that Ami uh affordable housing number that HUD says what's a affordable [1:38:11] um at 80% Ami um so definitely these programs help people stay in their homes [1:38:18] by being able to have Capital into order to improve them make sure they're still quality hous [1:38:24] as well as helping people afford uh homes in [1:38:33] Bloomington as far as new development Kenny who is following me with the oo de development or excuse me update will [1:38:40] talk about new development uh in his presentation [1:38:45] um coming up after me thank you I really appreciate you [1:38:52] listening to to me talk about data I really love data and I love sharing it especially about housing so I appreciate [1:38:59] a captive audience um and if uh what questions do you [1:39:04] have commissioner Keller so I have single family housing [1:39:10] and then multif family housing and blah blah blah blah where does a duplex fit into any of those [1:39:17] categories duplex would be let me here see here I have a breakdown [1:39:26] excuse me here um so just looking here [1:39:31] duplexes fit into miscellaneous residential of course all right thank you you're very [1:39:39] welcome commissioner lens did you have a question just real quick questions pure curiosity Michelle I I see uh H bought [1:39:47] five Lots did it say uh yeah five Lots I was just kind of [1:39:53] running what's a lot go for in Bloomington I mean do you do you know have to top your head if you don't that's fine too I was just kind of [1:39:58] wondering about that um acting president commissioner I do not know what the average lot goes [1:40:04] for in Bloomington that's a vacant be land lot [1:40:11] I presume too because you're differentiated from homes that were purchased to be scraped and then okay [1:40:18] location location thank you Michelle thank you so much Contracting president Commissioners [1:40:24] it was a pleasure if you have any more questions please uh don't hesitate to reach out to me I'm happy to provide [1:40:30] more information or even do a little bit more analysis well I could do a lot more analysis actually for you I love it um [1:40:37] so that for just putting that out there um and uh you can also reach out to the [1:40:42] HRA um with additional questions about their programs um as well as assessment [1:40:48] or environmental health for continued data about some of the numbers that I showed you if you have more in-depth questions questions but thank you thank [1:40:56] you the next item on our agenda item 2.3 is the opportunity housing ordinance [1:41:03] report and we have Kenny NE presenting where did KY go right down [1:41:11] there okay there you are I thought I saw [1:41:20] you yeah you're going to do this okay [1:41:31] thank you acting president hunt and Commissioners so tonight we have our opportunity housing ordinance annual [1:41:39] update this is a update that's required by the opportunity housing ordinance and [1:41:44] it's required to be brought to the city council before October 1st of each year [1:41:50] and also it is brought to interested boards and commissions such as yourselves uh we brought it to the H I [1:41:57] believe that was last week or maybe the week before so um yeah we'll cover these [1:42:02] three main topics we'll go through the annual update we'll talk through some upcoming projects uh around the [1:42:08] opportunity housing ordinance and then as Michelle mentioned I'll quickly go through development updates that have taken place over the last [1:42:16] year so just to ground and actually we've already talked about a lot of this but um the rent and income limits uh [1:42:22] which we use to establish what we consider affordable rents in our um [1:42:27] developments that come into the city here those get set by Hud at the federal level and they change each year um [1:42:35] except for this year so this year they they didn't change so from 23 to 24 for [1:42:41] the the levels that we consider um affordable for our Bloomington programs that starts at 60% Ami and below the [1:42:48] income amount didn't change and therefore what's considered an affordable rent did did not change but [1:42:54] it's worth pointing out that it's quite expensive still so we call out for example a two-bedroom is almost $1,700 a [1:43:02] month and that's considered affordable for our programs for purposes of our programs so this chart shows um what [1:43:11] developers uh have taken in terms of our development standard flexibilities that they become eligible for through our [1:43:17] opportunity housing ordinance so as you're aware we've got the two uh two c [1:43:23] categories of incentives that the oo offers one are these uh one are the [1:43:29] development standard flexibilities the other are Financial subsidies those are actually both in this chart so you can [1:43:35] see all developments that have come through the city since the oo was adopted in 2019 have taken advantage of [1:43:43] the parking stall reduction uh We've also had a majority of projects receive [1:43:49] tax increment financing or request and receive tax increment financing Ing and then I'll point out that in [1:43:55] 2023 uh we had the first utilization of the project-based housing voucher so [1:44:01] that's that the farthest right um and that was in support of the 700 American [1:44:07] Boulevard development that is hopefully breaking ground in the coming weeks and so we were able to partner with them to [1:44:14] get eight project-based vouchers in that development which provides affordability at that deepest 30% Ami level [1:44:23] Madam chair can you remind me on the previous slide what the difference is between the density bonus and the floor [1:44:29] area ratio bonus because I I I'm I can tell you what the FL ratio is but I [1:44:34] can't tell you what the density one is acting president hunk and Commissioners [1:44:40] this comes up often uh and the reason that it comes up is there's they're basically a duplicate efforts um and so [1:44:47] the reason that we don't see that F bonus get utilized is that the density bonus achieves the same purpose we still [1:44:55] hold them in the ordinance as an option but yeah that that is a question that comes up for [1:45:02] sure so moving on I wanted to provide a brief report on the affordable housing trust fund which was established [1:45:09] concurrently with the opportunity housing ordinance back in 2019 and it was originally funded with a loan of [1:45:15] around $15 million from Old National Bank so since 2019 we were able to [1:45:20] deploy all of those funds um in the form of an affordable housing trust fund loan [1:45:26] to th those five developments that you see on the right uh the per unit subsidy [1:45:32] amount has varied over the years um and we can see um on the left that second [1:45:38] bullet of creating deep affordability um we were able to support 23 units of [1:45:44] housing affordable at that deepest 30% Ami level um as a direct result of this [1:45:50] subsidy going forward uh we also saw the preservation of 306 units of what what [1:45:56] we consider naturally curing affordable housing so we were able to keep those affordable in Bloomington um but the the [1:46:03] thing that's important to note is that that 15 million has been expended so what we need to work on doing is [1:46:09] identifying a new funding source there are some uh dollars that are coming in that may be appropriate for the [1:46:17] affordable housing trust fund mainly the local affordable housing aid which is the Metro sales tax the % that gets [1:46:24] distributed to cities and municipalities um we've received our first half payment [1:46:30] for 2023 the next payment comes later this year in December and then next year [1:46:36] we'll start receiving the full amount um each year so this year we've received a reduced amount but it's it's there that [1:46:43] may be a suitable source to support this trust fund so I wanted to briefly go over [1:46:51] compliance takeaways um because last year or 2023 was our first year for the [1:46:57] um an in-depth compliance process with our property managers that have units that were required through the [1:47:03] opportunity housing ordinance so I will note that um low-income housing tax credit projects work directly with the [1:47:11] state for their compliance so we didn't do a duplication of efforts there we simply requested um compliance reports [1:47:17] from the state um but I wanted to highlight takeaways from the other projects so [1:47:23] mainly our mixed income projects um and there was it was basically a mixed bag so we had a lot of success with the [1:47:30] newly open projects um after providing technical assistance to get them running to get them through leas up we found [1:47:36] that they've been very successful with compliance uh we then also found that some of the older developments that uh [1:47:43] have been operating for a couple years now uh aren't were not in full compliance so there have been efforts to [1:47:50] um that technical assistance provided to ensure that they uh in compliance and then we did in one [1:47:56] case require some back pay um was paid to tenants of a property that wasn't um [1:48:02] in compliance so that was the first year results here and then considerations [1:48:07] going forward include potentially partnering um with an external organization to conduct compliance and [1:48:15] that's something that we're exploring and so we we may have more information on that coming [1:48:21] up uh and then I uh wanted to go over some upcoming projects and so the main [1:48:27] one will be the housing Nexus study we this is the um the housing Nexus study [1:48:32] is what was commissioned to inform the initial opportunity housing ordinance um [1:48:39] it was the basis for the requirement of 9% of units being affordable at 60% Ami [1:48:45] and also for the the fee andl rate of $9.60 per square foot and that was [1:48:51] commissioned in 2018 2019 and it's reached the end of its uh relevant lifespan so it's been 5 years so we were [1:48:59] successful in getting $45,000 from met Council to fund a renewed study and the [1:49:04] plan is to open the RFP for that study this month uh which would inform potential updates to those those uh [1:49:11] affordability benchmarks which would come in front of these um in front of you the Port Authority as well as H [1:49:18] Planning Commission and city council for final approval and implementation [1:49:23] the other um some other efforts that are underway I've just listed out here you [1:49:28] can take a look and happy to talk through any of these if you'd like and then finally um I'd like to [1:49:37] report out on our met counil goals so this is the housing need allocation the Met Council uh um determines based off [1:49:44] of projected growth for the the Metro region uh it allocates the need for affordable housing M by municipality so [1:49:52] you can see uh on that bottom column or sorry the bottom row is the housing need [1:49:59] that has been allocated to Bloomington and we've been very very successful in in achieving that um new development for [1:50:07] the 60% area Medan income and 50% area median income band so if all of the [1:50:13] projects that are currently under construction are completed will have achieved the the goal for 50% Ami um and [1:50:21] that's for the $700 American Boulevard project specifically once that's done we'll have reached that Benchmark but of [1:50:27] course we have a long way to go on 30% Ami units so um a lot of success with [1:50:34] the the higher uh the units that are affordable to households earning a little bit more and this highlights [1:50:42] again um that affordable housing trust fund that I mentioned you can see all of the units um in the 30% Ami band were [1:50:51] supported with trust fund loans so the at least so far that's the way we've been able to get those units to be built [1:50:58] in Bloomington is by subsidizing through our trust fund so we'll have to um we're [1:51:03] we'll need to work to find a new source for that um if we want to continue getting those units [1:51:09] built so finally I'll quickly go through some uh updates to development projects [1:51:15] that have happened over the last year so we've had four developments completed um [1:51:21] since I was last in front of you that's carbon 31 Riser Noble apartments and [1:51:26] oxboro Heights um we have currently three developments under construction there's [1:51:33] The Enclave development at 671 West 78th Street they recently finished their [1:51:38] environmental cleanup so they had some asbestos Laden soil and they were they partnered with the city to get cleanup [1:51:45] funds to to clean that up and so that's been finished and they they've now started the actual structure and then [1:51:51] 1801 Boulevard is well underway and then the AR is reaching completion there and [1:51:56] the AR um to to refresh you is a fully market rate development that elected to [1:52:02] pay the fee in Li of affordable units so we're currently holding that fee inl um [1:52:08] in the within the city um and if they so choose to to develop a sub a subsequent [1:52:14] Housing Development that includes affordable units they can tap into that funding if they don't do that by August [1:52:20] of next year that funding gets released and we could then use it to support um housing activities as we see fit [1:52:26] affordable housing activities and then finally 700 American which I already mentioned they have [1:52:33] reached closing for this deal and groundbreaking is expected in the coming [1:52:38] months and so that is the annual housing report for 2023 thank can I see that [1:52:45] 10th slide for just a second what can you remind me oh 10 okay page 10 look is [1:52:52] that this no that well that actually helps me but going forward the the beginning of the [1:52:59] part where we're moving into this last phase of this discussion here [1:53:06] back one more that's page 10 yep it's not the 10 all right fine can you go [1:53:12] back one more and then I'll quit buck with the here's the reason I [1:53:19] asked that so to to support my earlier appointment with the exception that I [1:53:25] believe I got this right of a slide slide seven where there's a group of three pictures in the middle of which is [1:53:33] not I think every picture of a building in this [1:53:38] presentation is of that architectural model that I raised before so just [1:53:44] thrown out there this it seems awfully consistent with the idea that there's if we're going to talk about diversity [1:53:50] architecturally is a problem [1:53:56] just you know not driven to that but I do have an actual question that's actually more helpful so so everything [1:54:04] we do that's affordability related is based on these brackets is that [1:54:12] correct so the the HUD brackets acting president and Commissioners in terms of [1:54:17] reporting and in terms of how we set the requirements for those properties yes we [1:54:23] use those uh brackets the banding is that how it's done with respect to individual renters [1:54:29] receiving the benefits of what we do acting president and Commissioners so if [1:54:35] renters wanted to live in one of these units they would have to show that their income for their entire household is at [1:54:41] or below the income level at that ban yeah so that percent so and I as an [1:54:48] administrative matter that seems really sensible to me uh it it it just you know when you look [1:54:55] at the going $1 doll over the current bracket the financial penalty for the [1:55:03] increase in cost is disproportionate and and and that's one of the reasons I was [1:55:10] curious about the 10% increment between 50 and 60 as opposed to the other ones [1:55:16] uh because some some granularity in these brackets would be um beneficial to [1:55:23] the people that we perceive to be worthy of benefit uh and and I [1:55:29] suppose because we're we're we're we are founding our decisions on HUD numbers if [1:55:35] I understand this correctly there's not a whole heck of a lot we can do about it I guess [1:55:41] but there's a fundamental unfairness fairness issue there and mean I mean [1:55:47] there's a there's a lot of consequence to potentially small [1:55:52] incremental change to the individual so I that's a common [1:55:59] question Cry for Help yeah whatever acting president hunt and Commissioners I think it's a great question and it it [1:56:06] is an issue that I've heard across programs that work through this framework so for example our our housing [1:56:12] Choice Voucher Program experiences that same difficulty I do want to mention with our affordability program once uh [1:56:20] households get into a unit M if their income exceeds that threshold they are [1:56:25] able to remain in that unit for up to 5 years so they don't they're not uh like [1:56:30] evicted the their rent doesn't increase okay that helps me a lot so it does yeah the the goal isn't to displace those [1:56:37] households um and then I just pushed some taxes out the door and you know the granularity of tax tables is so [1:56:45] much granual all right thank you that helps any other questions [1:56:53] thank you thank you okay next item on our agenda is item [1:56:59] 3.1 contract for Port Authority Bond Council services and this will be [1:57:04] covered by assistant Port administrator thank you acting president [1:57:11] hunt uh this evening uh the board is asked to approve the services agreement extension to approve Kennedy engraven [1:57:19] chartered um this is the ports bound Council um using it again in 2025 the [1:57:24] current Services agreement was first approved in 2022 um will expire at the end of [1:57:31] 2024 uh this does allow us to have two one-year extensions uh this will be the [1:57:36] first of one no change to the fees $250 per hour for attorneys and $150 per hour [1:57:43] for paral leals um and it is expected that all Bond uh Bond Council services for [1:57:50] Bloomington will still be perform by Julie Edington uh we do have uh Chief [1:57:56] Financial Officer Lori economy Scher here for any questions um and also Julie [1:58:01] Edington is online virtually thank you any [1:58:08] questions commissioner Peterson uh Madam acting president I move we approve the professional service agreement as stated [1:58:14] in the staff report second we have an approval first and a [1:58:20] second all those in favor signify saying I I I I motion [1:58:28] carries okay the next item on the AG agenda is 3.2 hanpen County business [1:58:34] district initiative grant program resolution also to be covered by m [1:58:40] wolf thank you acting president hunt so this evening before you uh we're looking [1:58:46] at um applying for the business district initiative grant program with henpen [1:58:51] County last year we also applied for the program for um dollars we received [1:58:58] $35,000 uh to be awarded out to businesses in our community the site and facade Improvement program is a new [1:59:04] program in 2024 has been very successful um and so we are applying for [1:59:10] it again in uh 2024 uh so just wanted to give you a [1:59:16] little background information um the item before you tonight is quite easy it's allowing us to apply for the grant [1:59:23] um if we're awarded the Monies to receive them and then also do the budget transfer um but I also wanted to take [1:59:29] this time to update you on the program for this year uh we did allocate [1:59:35] $150,000 in the budget for this year uh we also did uh receive the BDI Grant [1:59:41] last year to be utilized this year for $35,000 we also use some additional [1:59:47] funding uh to award 10 um grants this year [1:59:52] uh for almost a total of $223,000 so here's a list of the 10 [1:59:58] businesses that were awarded um and taking a look at again this is open to [2:00:04] all businesses in our community although we are taking uh a specific look at the [2:00:10] eight priority commercial nodes uh we'll move to a map next but I just wanted to [2:00:15] highlight here for the $223,000 that we're um awarding that's [2:00:21] almost 5 .5 million of investment in our [2:00:29] community on the map here this shows in the pink areas now this isn't Citywide [2:00:35] this is sort of condensed to show you the area War where the awardees have [2:00:40] been uh the pink areas are the neighborhood commercial Priority nodes that have been identified by the city [2:00:45] council and then uh the blue dots are where the awards have been given [2:00:56] the first one that we have uh dispersed a check to just happened last week uh [2:01:02] comfort in the uh front faces 494 uh the owner here uh came in and is a small [2:01:10] business owner that started his business his first business in Bloomington over 30 years ago uh he owns comfort in um [2:01:18] and you can see here doing an update to the exterior of the the [2:01:23] building and what it looks like with the completion uh with new windows new siding bringing it uh a little more [2:01:31] modernized uh especially with the windows and the [2:01:39] stucco sure they stuck over the bricks it was brick right yeah it has to have a [2:01:45] special application that was approved by planning first for the siding mhm MH I have a quick question [2:01:56] ker I maybe I just read this long I was looking for periods instead of comments [2:02:02] but and I see we only gave it somewhere in the name of $20,000 to the hieropolis [2:02:07] is that how we EUR opilus okay is that project really $1 and A5 [2:02:15] million what the heropolis one okay [2:02:21] that business guy here thing uh wow it was a small what former boss of donuts [2:02:27] looking yeah I know and I just drove by it this evening yeah I mean wow that's a lot of money it's kind of a messy corner [2:02:34] too very rer gas station title problem oh all right acting president and [2:02:40] Commissioners just just so an update on that too urab has purchased the vacant [2:02:46] gas station in 2020 so the cost for that purchase is outside of this uh we also [2:02:51] receed received a grant um that we uh um [2:02:56] subrecipient uh was europolis for $8,400 to help with infrastructure and [2:03:02] demolition um so current project here is $1.5 million but I would say overall [2:03:07] it's a much more expensive project and so [2:03:15] this and so for this program it allows for a minimum of $5,000 up to$ 24,99 [2:03:22] $99 uh for a one toone match uh with grant funding and private [2:03:31] investment and so tonight um just asking for uh action for applying for the [2:03:38] program for the grant program with hen County so [2:03:44] moved motion by commissioner kellerer second second by commissioner Peterson [2:03:49] all those in favor signify by saying I hi hi motion carries thank you uh the only other [2:03:57] updates that I have acting president is I would just like to make note that the [2:04:02] next meeting in November is on the 19th uh but just as a reminder in December [2:04:07] we're moving back to the second Tuesday so it'll be on December 10th in [2:04:13] December and that's all I had if there was other updates from president hunt [2:04:18] that's it motion to [2:04:24] adjourn oh I can do it I can do it we are adjourned [2:04:29] [Music]