[BoulderCouncilHotline] response to housing concerns from 6/18 council meeting

[Firnhaber, Kurt]

Dear city council members,

I watched your meeting last night and listened to the concerns brought up by some residents about the Ponderosa development as well as concerns about activities and compliance at a BHP property.  With assistance from my Housing staff, I have the following response to those concerns:


  1.  Boulder Housing Partners needs to be more proactive in addressing rule violations at the 3rd and Pearl BHP property.

BHP’s practice is to respond to resident concerns/claims of lease violations within 48 hours. However, due to privacy requirements BHP is prevented from providing the complainant/neighboring residents with information about subsequent action and/or resolution that occurred. As BHP is not law enforcement they are limited in their action to warnings and evictions. If criminal activity is suspected BHP contacts law enforcement. I attended the BHP board meeting last week and heard these same concerns from this resident. BHP leadership and staff are familiar with this tenants concerns and have offered to meet with her.


  1.  Ponderosa families are leaving the community even though it is the goal of the city to limit displacement of residents.
There have been two residents that have passed away since the property was purchased by the city. Six other residents or households have left and the city has purchased their mobile homes at market value.  These six households have left for various reasons.  We have spoken with all residents that have left and their reasons for departing are different from household to household.  None of them have indicated that they have left because of concerns of the future design or opportunities at Ponderosa.  However, the families that have left have primarily taken the opportunity to sell their current mobile home to help them purchase a larger mobile home in another community that meets the current needs of their household.


  1.  We won’t be able to afford the new homes and they will be three times as much as we are currently paying.
There are several strategies that are being put into place to enable the future homes to be affordable. First is that the land will be structured as a land lease, similar to the Poplar Project, which will allow the price of the home to not require the additional cost of the land. Second will be the use of different financing mechanisms such as very low interest rates with Habitat (in the range of 2%) as well as silent second mortgages that allows the full cost recovery of the home to only be realized in a future sale.  The starting monthly cost for the lowest income individuals is anticipated to be $800/month for their mortgage/taxes, insurance and community fee.  These second mortgages are used to ensure no one pays more than 40% of their monthly income on these housing costs.  In a survey eighteen months ago in this community, it was established that the average resident has monthly housing cost of $775 which also includes fairly high utilities and maintenance.  The new homes will also be near net zero with very little utility cost.  Ponderosa is a community with a range of incomes.  Those at the lowest incomes will have the opportunity of an $800 mortgage or they will also still have the option to stay in their existing home.  However, families with higher incomes will have higher monthly mortgages.  This will allow a community to have a variety of home prices and a variety of AMIs that it serves.  This is in line with the City’s affordable housing program to serve varying AMIs.  Lastly, the city will be purchasing the existing homes at market value which will be used as down payments on these homes to make the homes affordable to the lowest income residents.


  1.  The city showed us a drawing of single family homes at the beginning and then they changed this to duplexes.
We have resubmitted to residents of the community that have this concern, all the drawings from all community meetings of the past to indicate that this statement is not correct.  From the beginning a variety of housing types have been shown.  As well, in community design workshops, most of the community groups indicated a variety of housing types that included attached housing.  Many residents actually recommended attached units in order to create more usable public space. The reality is that this current community does not meet any of the required setbacks between buildings for health, safety and fire separation.  As a result the proposed design shows many duplexes in order to create required separation, while not loosing housing units.  In response to this concern by some residents, we have also created as many detached units as possible.  14% of the units will be stand-alone units and 20% will be single floor accessible units.  Below is a table of the current proposed breakout:

Category
Buildings
Units
Detached
10
10
Detached carriage homes
4
4
Duplex
24
48
Triplex
1
3
Fourplex
2
8
Total
41
73


  1.  Residents have requested to maintain access to Broadway and the new design will only have one exit.
       The residents are correct regarding their request to keep the Broadway access open and city council is correct that they supported and requested this design approach.  When going through the design process on this site we moved forward with this approach.  However, it also became clear that there was a conflict with the future flood mitigation priorities for the Four Mile Canyon Creek and transportation improvements for Broadway.  We have been working with Public Works to find a solution for all projects.  The designers and engineers worked together to find a way to accomplish both outcomes, but have discovered that both outcomes are not possible.  Therefore the proposed design will not include a Broadway exit, but it includes a total of four entrances/exits from Ponderosa.  We have also attached a document from staff whom are guiding the Broadway project and flood work for further clarification.

       The Ponderosa community is a very high priority project for the city with the largest number of affordable home ownership opportunities ever created.  It is a balance of strong community input from many varying opinions of the existing residents while creating a community that will serve the needs of families for many generations to come.  The questions and concerns brought up by the residents are important issues that will be addressed in the annexation application.  Please let me know if there are any follow-up questions where we can give further information.

In partnership,

Kurt




Kurt Firnhaber
Director of Housing and Human Services
<image001.png>
O: # 303-441-4424
C: # 303-917-0914
FirnhaberK at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:FirnhaberK at bouldercolorado.gov>

Department of Housing & Human Services
(Housing): 1300 Canyon Blvd  Boulder, CO 80302

(Human Services): 909 Arapahoe, Boulder, CO 80302
Bouldercolorado.gov<https://www.bouldercolorado.gov/>

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