Austin Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) Transcript – 5/2/2024 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 5/2/2024 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 5/2/2024 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [5:43:08 PM] we will recess the city council meeting of Austin, Texas at 5:44 P.M. And I will now call to order the board of directors of [5:44:09 PM] order the board of directors of the Austin housing finance corporation. At 544. We have a quorum of the board of directors present. We are meeting in city council chambers, on may 2nd, located in city hall at 301 west second street. And I'll recognize staff. >> Thank you very much. Mandy Demayo Aaron, director of the housing department, board of directors, you have three items on today's agenda. The first item is to approve the meeting minutes from, for previous February first, 29th, March 7th and March 21st for prior meetings, the second is to authorize staff to negotiate and execute all of the necessary documents to move forward, with an agreement with dma development company to develop affordable housing at 6909 Ryan drive. And the third is to authorize staff to move forward with negotiation, to sell a parcel of land approximately 2.5 acres on Tillery to the parks [5:45:12 PM] acres on Tillery to the parks and recreation department. I do want to note, I believe we have speakers, and I also want to acknowledge because number two is an item, of high interest, this is the Ryan drive solicitation that Austin housing finance corporation took on the recommended bid, proposer is dma development company. We have Diana Mciver, the president and owner of dma development, and Janine Sisk, who is the senior vice president of dma development. Should you have any specific questions, about, their proposal? >> Thank you. Members, right now, does any member have of the board of directors have questions of staff? In that case, I'll turn to the city clerk's office and ask if there's anyone signed up to speak on what will be taken up as a consent agenda. Items one, two and three. >> Thank you mayor. We have one person remote, magdalena de la teja. >> Thank you, mayor Kirk and [5:46:16 PM] >> Thank you, mayor Kirk and council members for your service, I am Maggie and I and district five, I vote no on dma development and asked that the city council approve Penrose LLC because Penrose LLC is an experienced developer and is willing to listen to the needs of area residents and others affected by this development, and they are willing to provide 50 units of shared affordable housing for seniors. Housing has become more limited for seniors, many who have been working, contributing to Austin find themselves struggling to be in a safe, healthy environment. I support the efforts of boomers collaborative to work with Penrose, LLC to obtain those 50 units of shared housing for seniors, and I appreciate that you all have had a long day. Thank you so much for your service. Thank you. >> That's the only remote [5:47:18 PM] >> That's the only remote speaker I have, so I'll move to in person, starting with Carol. Lily followed by Anna Buchanan and then Chad Wallace. >> If your name has been called, please come find a seat here on the front row. If your name has been called, please. It's all yours. >> Yes. Both Chad and Anna had to leave. Good evening. Now my name is Carol. Lily, I'm president and founder of boomers collaborative foundation, regrettably, other members of our planned housing cooperative could not join me today, many of us are senior women. If we still drive, we are simply not up for navigating downtown traffic and parking, at least not on our own. And others of us had some conflicting, doctor's appointments. So I am here as our primary spokesperson. We are now in year 11 of seeking a location for our boomers [5:48:19 PM] location for our boomers collaborative limited equity cooperative housing model, and Penrose, LLC is the only developer in the recent cohort ready and willing to collaborate with us twice. Thoughtful developers have included us in their real estate development plans. The grove at shoal creek after several years delay, turned out to be unaffordable. And last summer, crestview village fell apart for reasons unknown to us. Now, just as we have another developer willing to work with us, we again find ourselves facing disappointment. Todd and todds are ideal residential locations for a population group that increasingly cannot or should not drive, but who still need to run errands and attend doctor's appointments. We want, need and should collaborate with other seniors to live and, age in place together, especially the 1 in 5 of us who will eventually identify me as elder orphans. If [5:49:20 PM] identify me as elder orphans. If you don't know, an elder orphan is an is a senior single senior with no supportive family to count on. We want a shared housing model for our mutual benefit and well-being, and because we don't want to become a burden and unnecessary burden to society, and it should be near dependable transportation action. In 2018, the city's commission on seniors, now the commission on aging, passed a resolution endorsing our model and we have been, we have a recent invitation from them to deliver an update, we cannot deliver an update, though, because they want us to have a committed site before we go and make our presentation. Ann, we hope you will consider our needs and the overwhelming support of the community by selecting the only developer ready to build without tax credit financing, better suited for limited equity, cooperative housing, [5:50:20 PM] equity, cooperative housing, please pick Penrose LLC and their vision for a mixed use development in the crestview Todd. A new vision for Austin that includes a housing set aside for our 50 units, a neighborhood park, and other intergenerational amenities, especially a makerspace and retail gallery for wider community use. Under our separate collaboration with the Austin creative alliance. Thank you. >> Chad Wallace, Zenobia Joseph, Steven Knapp. That's all the speakers I have. >> Thank you, members, those are all the speakers that are signed up to speak to the board of directors of afc. Can you address the item number two and the two comments that we've had about a different developer, sure. >> So we received, first of all, I want to be clear, the [5:51:21 PM] I want to be clear, the solicitation was actually a request for qualifications, not a request for proposals. And there is a distinct difference, often times, and historically, afc has done, as well as other city departments, request for proposals or rfps or developers bring their actual idea and you see what the project is going to look like. One thing we have found at afc is sometimes that leads to unrealistic expectations amongst the community, because these are going to be partnerships between Austin housing finance corporation and the proposed developer. So our last few solicitations have actually been rfqs or request for qualifications, we see multiple advantages from that, we are really looking at the developer's track record where they have demonstrated experience in doing what we are proposing to do, and they have demonstrated that they are willing to work with both the community and with Austin housing finance corporation as we move forward toward a, joint [5:52:22 PM] we move forward toward a, joint vision. I should also note that when we put out the request for qualifications, it was very clear and all of the proposers agreed to this, that there was a minimum expectations and those minimum expectations included 300 units, of affordable housing included, the park space that was expected and was, supported by the community, as well as a transit, area transit station, because of course it is in right next to it is, right next to the crestview station. All of the developers promised that that is the floor. We will meet or exceed that, regardless of the developer who has chosen Ann, we staff, pulled together a panel of both ahc and city staff to look at the various proposals. Again, I believe we received 13 proposals, three of the [5:53:22 PM] proposals, three of the applicants were invited to go, with for an interview, those were the three that rose to the top after that, stage in the process every applicant all three were scored and dma development came out. I think it was 103 points. Dma development and the other two were less than 100 points, we then put out for public comment, which we have done with requests for proposals. It's a little more complicated with requests for qualifications because the community is not responding to an actual project, we received a variety of comments. There was a significant amount of support, for actually all of the applicants. But the bulk of the support was for the applicant that came in third, from a quantitative perspective, we do not want this to become a popularity contest, what we want it to be is to get feedback from [5:54:23 PM] it to be is to get feedback from the community and what we know from reviewing all of the feedback that we received these are all things that we can incorporate regardless of who is the selected developer we can incorporate moving forward. We feel confident that we can do that with dma development. >> Thank you. Any further questions of staff? Mayor pro tem are vice president. I'll entertain a motion with regard to the consent agenda. >> I'm happy to move. >> Approval motion is made, board member vela seconds the motion, discussion on the item. No. >> Madam vice president, great. Thanks, I am really, really pleased that we have another chance to move forward with the redevelopment of the Ryan drive parcel in my district. I think I first started, imagining what this might look like back in 2014, when I was but a candidate for council. So here we are ten years later, really working very [5:55:24 PM] years later, really working very hard at the staff level in the community with the Ryan drive, working group, which has done amazing work to develop the concept for this site, had a little bit of, of, of a need to regroup and come back, but we have moved expeditiously this year forward with ahc and mayor. I'm so grateful for the work that staff has done this is a 5.4 acre former laydown yard for Austin energy, conveniently located in the crestview tod, adjacent to the red line station. It's an important development that we're looking at here. Crestview station serves as an important transit hub for my district and will eventually be expanded with the extension of project connects blue line. There's a perfect opportunity for more affordable homes, new neighbors. They are welcomed by the crestview area on both sides of Lamar boulevard, which includes some [5:56:25 PM] boulevard, which includes some district four. So my thanks to ahc leadership, the Ryan drive team for your quick work in turning this around, getting the rfq out there and bringing this forward to us today. I couldn't be happier with the choice that is being recommended by the staff and our action moving forward. Mayor, thank you. >> Any further discussion, is anyone wishing to pull something off the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown abstaining from a vote on the consent agenda, recusing themselves from any specific item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown voting no on one of the items on the consent agenda. Without objection, the consent agenda of items one, two, and three is adopted. Members without objection, we will adjourn the meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation at 5:57 P.M. On may 2nd.