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AHAC Minutes 02/20/2024February 20, 2024 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY AFFORDABLE HOUSING ADVISORY SUBCOMMITTEE Naples, Florida, February 20, 2024 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Collier County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9 a.m. in REGULAR SESSION at the Collier County Growth Management Community Development Department Building, Conference Room #609/610, 2800 Horseshoe Drive N., Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chair: Jennifer Faron (excused) Acting Chair: Mary Waller Hannah Roberts Planning Commissioner Paul Shea County Staff Members Present: Cormac Giblin, Dir., Housing Policy & Economic Development, GMCD Sarah Harrington, Planning Manager, Housing Policy & Economic Development, GMCD Derek Perry, Assistant County Attorney Julie Chardon, Ops Support Specialist II, GMCD Mike Bosi, Director, Zoning & Planning Department, GMCD David Merino, Management Analyst I, GMCD February 20, 2024 Any persons in need of a verbatim record of the meeting may request a copy of the audio recording from the Collier County Growth Management Department. 1. CALL TO ORDER & PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mr. Giblin called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. and the committee recited the Pledge of Allegiance. 2. ROLL CALL OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND STAFF Mr. Giblin called the roll call. A quorum of three was present. The agenda is to discuss the AHAC's workplan and incentive strategies and how they relate to the Incentive Strategies Report. The subcommittee determined a temporary chair to run this meeting because the subcommittee's standing chair, Jennifer Faron, is unable to attend. (The committee skipped to 3.b.) 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA a. Approval of today's agenda Ms. Roberts made a motion to accept the agenda. Second by Planning Commissioner Shea. The motion passed unanimously, 3-0. b. Selection of a Temporary Chair Planning Commissioner Shea made a motion to nominate Mary Waller as the temporary chain Second by Ms. Roberts. The motion passed unanimously, 3-0. 4. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS AND PRESENTATION (None) 5. PUBLIC COMMENT (No public speakers) G. DISCUSSION ITEMS (None) 7. STAFF AND COMMITTEE GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS a. AHAC Workplan Draft (S. Harrington) b. 2023 State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Incentive Strategies Report (C. Giblin) Mn Giblin explained the Workplan and Incentives Strategies Report: • Some new AHAC members were looking for the purpose of the AHAC and a greater understanding of what it works on a yearly basis to include documentation and measurable objectives. • The Incentives Report was brought back to the AHAC a few times last year with updates. • The Incentive Strategies Report is the only statutorily required function of the AHAC, to prepare this report, get it approved by the Board of County Commissioners and sent to Tallahassee to ensure completion. 2 February 20, 2024 • There are sections in the report for local AHACs to come up with other ideas they'd like to pursue and provide updates to their boards and the state. • The Incentive Strategies Report takes time to complete to ensure the required template is followed and provided to the Board of County Commissioners • As AHAC started working on the report, AHAC found a tremendous amount of overlap between the Incentive Strategies Report and the AHAC workplan • It's staff's recommendation that the subcommittee review both documents and see if there are items in the workplan that the AHAC wants to add into the Incentives Strategies Report. Acting Chair Waller agreed there were duplicates and it doesn't eliminate things that we have already done and taken care of. Having two separate documents for the same thing is redundant. Mr. Giblin reported that: • The Incentive Strategies Report is due to the state by December 31" each year. To make that deadline, the AHAC starts working on the plan fairly early so it can work on it throughout the year to get it ready for the Board of County Commissioners and then the state. • At the May AHAC meeting, staff will present the Incentive Strategies Report and discuss what items the AHAC would like added, deleted, amended or updated. • At the July meeting, staff will present a first draft of the Incentive Strategies Report. • In September, staff will bring a final draft. • The load date to get it to the Board of County Commissioners' November 121n meeting is October 8, so at the AHAC's September 17t' meeting, AHAC will review a final draft and possibly add final thoughts that could be incorporated by October 8" for staff to load into the county's agenda system so the item can be heard by the BCC on November 121n • There's only one BCC meeting in November and December, so staff will shoot for the November 12t' board meeting in case something happened and it's pushed to the December meeting. • The December 31" deadline is a hard-and-fast date, so staff envisions this report will be reviewed by the AHAC at every meeting as we continue to format it and get it ready to go to the state by the end of the year. A discussion ensued about the difference between the workplan and Incentive Strategies Report and the subcommittee decided to go over the differences and determine what should be added to the Incentive Strategies Report. Ms. Harrington told the subcommittee: • The Incentives Strategies Report is a template provided by the state, so the formatting is different from the workplan. • Items in the Incentives Strategies Report are required by the state. • If AHAC wants to add items from the workplan to the report, it could make the report more robust. February 20, 2024 A discussion ensued over what's an important AHA Cfunction and which items to add to the Incentive Strategies Report: • Going to Neighborhood Information Meetings does not need to be added because AHAC can't speak at a developer's NIM, but can attend them. • It's more important to go to Planning Commission hearings. • You're attending as yourself, not representing the AHAC's position, unless there's been a vote. • If the AHAC supported it, you could state that. AHAC members can say these are your personal opinions. • Mr. Bosi noted it's best when there's a formal vote and you can say it received support. • Mr. Giblin noted that items 1-4 are under "promote," meaning the AHAC will seek to promote substantive and impactful policies and programs through active participation and engagement in the community. • Ms. Harrington suggested incorporating that into the Incentives Strategies Report under Recommendation No. 3, where it says, "The AHAC established the development of a work plan matrix to identify actions, time frames and outcome goals for its ongoing efforts." You could have a section saying "promote" and list items, such as publicly speaking and attending hearings. A discussion ensued over incorporating items into the Incentives Strategies Report. Michael Puchalla, head of the newly formed Housing Alliance Inc-, told the AIIAC. • There may be some overlap with the alliance and the AHAC, especially promotion of affordable housing within the community. • THA already is having major conversations with employers, including Collier County Public Schools, the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce and NCH. • THA started doing workforce housing surveys to identify their groups' needs and how employees can qualify for a more sustainable rental or home -ownership opportunities. • THA can help the AHAC fill in some of those gaps and could provide a report to the AHAC. • Through the Land Trust, THA is also working with developers to try to move forward with whatever incentives the community has available at the local, state and federal level. • THA can help the community understand where units are, who can provide units, where incentives are and how to acquire them. • This will be done under the Housing Navigator program, which will help solve some housing -affordability challenges. • Michael doesn't want the AHAC to duplicate what the alliance is doing if we're already working on a similar path and there's alignment. Planning Commissioner Shea said it would be nice if Mr. Puchalla could provide a status report at AHAC meetings and tell us where we can help. Mr. Puchalla said that's what he was thinking and the AHAC may be able to provide assistance or support. 4 February 20, 2024 Further discussion ensued over what to use from the workplan in the Incentive Strategies Report and Ms. Harrington incorporated those ideas into the report. After a discussion, the following were added to the Incentive Strategies Report: • County staff will update the AHAC about current legislation. The AHAC will review projects at its meetings. • Impact fees will fall under state -required incentives Mr. Giblin told the AHAG • The Quarterly Apartment Survey was completed in late January. + The January 2024 apartment survey on CHS's website replaces the old version. • Moving forward, staff hopes to complete the apartment survey at least twice a year. This is on the agenda for the next AHAC meeting. • That survey will fall under education and outreach in the report. It's a snapshot in time of all rental developments in the county, how many units are available and what current rents are. Acting Chair Waller told the AHAC and staff. • Is there any way we can get a regular list of approved projects so we can gauge how many more available rentals there will be? • These are the rental units in process, which would show how many more units there will be at the end of the year or when the project will be complete. Mr. Giblin showed the AHAC a spreadsheet dating to 2017. • This shows every development that's been approved that contains an affordability commitment of some type. • Some are 30% affordable, 100% affordable, 10% affordable. • It shows which were approved, which are active, and open and active. • Bembridge is active and open, while some are active and under development. • Staff can provide that to the AHAC at the next meeting. • Since 2017, there have been over 4,500 affordable units committed in Collier County, about 23.7% of all developments. • Some won't be built for 10 years or more. Acting Chair Waller said that's good information. Mr. Giblin said staff can provide this as a regular update. Some developers may not move forward, but the restriction still remains on the property, unless the board removes it. CHS recently started publishing its monitoring reports and letters on its website to be transparent. Ms. Roberts asked if everything from the workplan will be put into the Incentives Strategies Report. Mr. Giblin said everything will be moved. Most of it was already in there, except we February 20, 2024 need to add an education and outreach piece in the incentive plan. Action Item: Mr. Giblin will provide the 2017spreadsheet showing all affordable - housing proiects to the AHAC at its March meeting. The report will be presented as an update at all full AHAC meetings. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • It's everyone's job, including AHAC members, to do education and outreach about affordable housing. • Too many people and groups were speaking about affordable housing in the community and the facts didn't always match so staff created the fact sheet, compiled from the 2017 spreadsheet and other information, to provide consistency and credibility. Members found the housing facts helpful.AHAC needs an elevator pitch, something to say to people. • Staff looked at every development, regardless of affordability, that was approved in calendar year 2023. • Staff can provide the AHAC with an official policy statement so AHAC members can speak as the AHAC. • AHAC should show some success stories. Ms. Harrington said for the March AHAC meeting, staff will incorporate feedback received from today's meeting about items to keep and incorporate from the work plan into the incentives report, then bring the Incentives Strategies Report to the full AHAC in May. Action Item: Staff will incorporate items from the workplan into the Incentives Stratev-ies Report and bring it back to the full AHAC for review and discussion. Action Item: Staff will create policy statement cheat sheet for AHAC members. Planning Commissioner Shea asked if staff would be reporting the results of the subcommittee meeting. Mr. Giblin said staff will give a subcommittee update on migrating items from the workplan that were not in the Incentive Strategies Report. 8. NEW BUSINESS (None) 9. ADJOURN Ms. Roberts made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Second by Planning Commissioner Shea. The motion passed unanimously, 3-0. 10. NEXT MEETING DATE 9 a.m. March 19, 2024 Conference Room 609/610 Growth Management Community Development Department February 20, 2024 There being no further business for the good of the county, the meeting was adjourned by the order of the chair at 10:19 a.m. COLLIER COUNTY AFFORDABLE HOUSING ADVISORY SUB��C��OJJMMITTEE Mary W er, Acting Chair These minutes were approved by the committee on /q , (check one) as presented_, or as amended