AHAC Minutes 10/18/20221.A.4
THE COLLIER COUNTY
AFFORDABLE HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE
October 181h, 2022
8:30 A.M.
Naples, Florida
LET IT BE REMEMBERED that a meeting of the Collier County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee
was publicly noticed on this date at 8:30 A.M. but did not obtain quorum.in an INFORMATIONAL
SESSION in the Board of County Commissioners Chambers, in Naples, Florida, with the following
Members present:
Present: Mary Waller
John Harney
Joe Trachtenberg — Chair
Gary Hains
Paul Shea
Excused:
Commissioner Rick LoCastro
Jessica Brinkert
Unexcused: C'
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ALSO PRESENT: N
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Jacob LaRow, Economic Development and Housing Division Director o
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Lisa Carr, Senior Grants Coordinator-CHS
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Julie Chardon, Operations Coordinator - CHS ,
OTHERS PRESENT: Michael Puchalla, HELP; Susan Golden; Katerina Pelic, Clerks OIG; Danielle Hudson,
NABOR; Daniel Zegarac; Matthew Holiday, Director of Advocacy & Government Relations, NCH; Todd
Lyon, Candidate for AHAC; Jennifer Faron, Candidate for AHAC; Stephen Hurby, Candidate for AHAC;
Bebe Kanter; Litha Berger, Candidate for AHAC; Randy Lichtman, Candidate for AHAC; Austin Jenkins,
Naples CRA; Jamie French, GMD Dept Head.
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1. CALL TO ORDER
Joe Trachtenberg — Chair called the meeting to order at 8:45 a.m. He read the procedures to be
followed by Joe Trachtenberg — Chair who led in the pledge to the flag.
2. ROLL CALL —COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND STAFF
There were 5 active members present when the meeting started, therefore a quorum was not
established. This was an informational session.
3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND MINUTES
a. No approval of minutes without a quorum present. Minutes of the September meeting will take
place at the following meeting.
4. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS AND PRESENTATION
5. PUBLIC COMMENT
a. Bebe Kanter, Candidate for Commissioner- Wanted to give advice on certain topics the AHAC
touches. First was the projects that have been proposed in the RSLA are being challenged in courts.
She advised that if anyone supports those projects it could a long time before any progress is made.
Second was scattered site affordable housing is best. She wants to include retired and working
residents living together. Lastly was that any builder who puts forth an application to the Planning
and Zoning committee that wants to take advantage of tax credits be required to apply to a various
amount of classes that talk about affordable housing.
John Harney- He wanted to respond on the scattered sites comment. John has spoken to the NCRA
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and has found the building single family housing sites is just about impossible due to the high costs
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of property. Habitat is building townhouses or condos to keep the units affordable. Habitat is also
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sharing a project with a Market Rate builder to help lead different ways in Collier County to make
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affordable places. He let everyone know a newly finished project in Whitaker Woods by Habitat the
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homes came out to 300,000.00 which in most places is not affordable. Everything Habitat will look at
from here on out will be multi family home construction due to the current price of land.
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b. Michael Puchalla, Executive Director, HELP- Is representing the Community Land Trust and has come
to speak to AHAC in regards of getting on next month's AHAC agenda. He wants to talk about the
Surtax funding and see where it's going to go. At the next month meeting he will present a joint
proposal he has with other housing partners in hopes of their support.
Joe Trachtenberg- Welcomed the presentation at the next meeting and gave background info on the
Surtax that was passed in 2018. It provided 20 million to be earmarked to purchase land for
workforce housing. To date the county has not generated rules on that 20 million and got guidance
from Collier County Chairman McDaniel for AHAC to create rules and lead the process.
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6. DISCUSSION ITEMS
a. Committee Vacancies- 8 Vacancies.
Six applicants attended in person and gave a brief summary of who they are and why they should
serve on the AHAC. Two applicants couldn't attend the meeting due to prior engagements, Austin
Howell and James York. A vote on the members will take place at the next AHAC when a quorum
is present.
• Litha Berger- Has been part of AHAC already for the past 4-5 years. She was very much
involved in finding Affordable Housing for elderly in Miami. She acquired 30 acres with a non
for profit in Miami and applied for Sections 202's. They managed to secure three grants for
women who were on social security to have apartments in a reasonable price range. She's
done a lot of work with Affordable housing and helping seniors in retirement centers. She
knows the players, the county manager, and wanted to let everyone know she knows how to
gets things done.
• Arol Butzman- Current chairman and CEO of Immokalee Fair Housing Alliance. Has an
undergraduate degree in Real Estate and Doctorate in Executive leadership and has been
active in real estate development for over 30 years. He's developed over 4 million feet of
building both affordable housing and office buildings. He recognizes the shortage of housing
and due to Ian, it's become worse. He wants to use his expertise to help address the issue in
Collier County. Has a project currently being worked on that will bring 128 units to
Immokalee.
Mary Waller asked how he would excuse himself when AHAC brought up topics that could
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potentially benefit the IFHA. He doesn't know how the IFHA would benefit that's why he put
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yes but he would excuse himself from any discussion that would include sensitive topics.
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• Jennifer Faron- Undergraduate Degree in Accounting and has an MBA in real estate
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investment and finance She also has a real estate business in Chicago since she is originally
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from Chicago but has been visiting Naples for the past 10 years. She has been learning the
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Affordable Housing issues in the surrounding areas and Naples and has ideas on
improvements. She has been learning them due to her work as being on the board for
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Heartland Housing. Heartland housing is an affordable housing developer primarily in Chicago.
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She's served on the board in the finance, project review, and board chair. Heartland is
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primarily a LIHTC developer but has expanded into workforce housing. She sees the severe
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lack of workforce housing here and sees opportunity here in collier county to bring her
expertise to the board.
Mary Waller- Brought up concern about her not being a full time resident and asked what her
status was. Jennifer assured the committee she'll be there.
Jake LaRow- Brought up that they're three projects currently going on that are supported by
LIHTC
• Steven Hurby- Has a bachelor's in architecture and a master's degree in architecture and
urban design. 80%-90% of his career has been in Affordable housing and has been dealing
with Urban Revitalization for 30 years in very major cities. He first joined AHAC in 2005 and
believe his experience has given him best practices to bring back to Collier County. He wants
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to give back to the community and was part of the first ULI study that has helped push major
change in Collier County on the Housing issues we have. He was the pervious chair and vice
chair of the AHAC as well.
• Randy Litchman- Member of Naples area board of realtors and a graduate of University of
Miami. He's seen a lot of change in the past twenty-one years and have seen issues with
Affordable Housing for our workforce. He wants to be able to support this board and has the
desire to part of the AHAC to help support the community he calls home.
• Todd Lyon- Administrative director of HR for NCH and sees firsthand how difficult it is for NCH
to keep workers. Seeing quailed workers from across the country turn down job offers due to
no affordable place to live. Involved with the leadership Collier Program and the tone of those
meetings are mostly focused on Affordable housing. He wants to give back to community and
knows the many connections he's made could benefit AHAC.
b. AHAC Incentive Strategies Report- The base of what AHAC does and its responsibilities. It's due to
the state in December and the latest is the December 13t" BCC meeting. Jake LaRow took last
year's report and added some context based on discussions the AHAC have had in the past. One
of the big components was the last four incentives from the ULI study. Joe Trachtenberg thinks
these items are logical and disappointed the BCC keeps pushing back the discussion on these
topics since they've been supporting these changes. They would increase density, simplified
zoning, more construction areas in public transportation areas and hope the topics get supported.
Jake has shared these incentives with Affordable housing Developers, and they have noted one
incentive would greatly benefit them. Jake LaRow added impact fee modifications especially
deferral and he's included to keep the discussion open and included two steps the county has
approved. He included the impact fee pilot program where ARP funds are used to pay fees on N
behalf of developers. Jake LaRow also included Density on the template and how the projects N
have received additional density to set aside units as affordable. Joe Trachtenberg wants to see N
the deals being made with these density deals to include the 60% and 80% AMI and below. Jake a,
LaRow added language to restrict the AMI in these deals. Deals made with 120% AMI is not the $
focus group AHAC needs to support. Jake asked that he could add further language to the report O
that when lower incomes are requested in the deals how can we bridge the gap of funding? Could '
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we work with CHS or looking at local sources of funds. Jake LaRow will provide a simplified list of
properties and land the county owns since the last list provided was confusing to understand.
c. Representative on Ranking & Review Committee. — In the past the AHAC appointed a member to
sit in on the review and ranking process for SHIP, CDBG, HOME, Etc. There's a second round of
applications going on and need a AHAC member. December 5t" will be in individual scoring for
the committee and on December 15t" the committee will hear the presentations. Mary Waller
agreed to participate.
7. STAFF AND GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS
Substantial Amendment (Public Hearing)- CHS must notify the public whenever there is a substantial
change. CHS is currently moving a million dollars of CDBG-CV funds. It was previously identified to
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support reconstruction of the Golden Gate Senior center. The project is still going to happen but will
be supported with ARP funds. The million that was freed up will now support two projects. One for
Youth Haven and a project that will support LMI residents that has not been established.
b. AHAC meeting location, date, and time- Upon review Mondays cannot be the new day for AHAC. Jake
LaRow expressed starting the meetings at 9:00am to work with Commissioner Rick LoCastro
availability. The Committee agreed. Two more meetings will be conducted in the BCC room then move
to room 609/610 in Growth Management.
c. Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU'S)- Considerable discussion was had and will be one item the AHAC
will like to take up next year in coordination with appropriate GMD staff for further guidance.
8. ADJOURN
There being no further business for the good of the County, the informational session ended at 11:04 a.m.
NEXT MEETING: THE NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING WILL BE HELD ON THE FIRST MONDAY ON NOVEMBER 15TH,
2022, AT 9:00 A.M.
Location: Board of County Commissioners Chambers, Third Floor, Collier County Government Center
3299 Tamiami Trail E.
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