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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-01-19city council minutesBook 20 Page 27 SPECIAL MEETING January,19,. 1979 2:00 p.m. The Meeting was called to order by Mayor,_Pasley. The Roll of the City Council was called with the following members present: Williams, Hopper, and Bauman. Absent: McCluskey, Olesen, and Raymond. (PUBLIC HEARING REGARDING AN APPLICATION TO THE,DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT FUNDS) The Mayor opened the Public Hearing by stating that this hearing was in regard to a project for a revitalization of a large neighborhood in Caldwell between the railroad tracks and Canyon Hill. The elements of the program include ,housing rehabilitation, park development, street, curb and gutter repair, street lighting, and core area redevelopment.. The.of.ficial statement was as follows: The Department of Housing and Urban Development has develope& a grant program.for small cities. It is called the Community Development Block Grant Program. The.State of Idaho has approximately-3.5 million dollars for the program, which will be distributed in 100% federally funded grants. About one- fourth of the total amount will be expended for single purpose grants.. Three- fourths will.be committed to the,.comprehensive.or multi -year aspect of the program. The grant system is very competitive and not all applications will be funded. Last year, HUD could only fund one out of every six applications. Denial of the application does not mean the City cannot try again. Virtually every community development project is eligible, but not all are competitive. Some projects which are not eligible are stadiums,.city halls, museums, airports, sewage treatment facilities, schools, equipment, personal property and furnishings. Your statements at this hearing will be noted. You may also submit written comments if you would like until February 2, 1979. You should be aware that if the City does submit a project, it will be accompanied by an Environmental Review Records, a Housing Assistance Plan, and a.Community Development Plan. You are welcome to assist -in ,preparation of.all these documents. The City will hold open meetings so that you can participate if you would like to. A Roll was then taken of those present at the.meeting which included the following people: Harold E. Young, Si,Williams, John McBride, Phil Morford, Sharon Brown,.Florence.M. Schooler, Rolf D. Schooler, Gerald Talbot, and H. E. Dresser. The Mayor explained that public hearings.wer.e..held last year and the City made an application for the area North of the railroad bounded.by Fourteenth Avenue on one end and Boise Avenue on the other and going to Plymouth Avenue.. This year they were applying again as Caldwell was the.first runner up last yea.r... Another public hearing would be held on Monday evening a.t 7:30 p.m. for this application. The Mayor then stated that they would appreciate any and all input that the audience cared to make. The Mayor further commented that if the grant was. appr.oved.they would hope to curb, gutter, and pave any of the .streets in that area that Book 20 Page 28 were not already paved, replace a couple of sewer lines, put in a street drain North of the freeway roughly from Second and Ithaca to the river and the other money to be used for housing rehabilitation low interest loans. The application woldld be going in for one and a half million dollars over a three year period. The Mayor then introduced Miss Koni Harper from the Ida -Ore Development Agency in Weiser who handles a nine county area in assisting cities with grant applications. Miss Harper explained that the application last year was for two million, but the difference in the year's time made less dollars. Phil Morford was recognized and asked if this grant was 100% federally funded. The Mayor replied that it was 100% funded and again explained that the reason the City of Caldwell was submitt <ing another application was due to the fact that Caldwell was the first runner up last year and they felt that the project had merit even though there was not enough money to go around to include Caldwell. The City was hopeful that the application would be approved this year. One member of the audience inquired as to what the criteria was for applying for this grant. Miss Harper replied that there was four main criteria that they rank every proposal on first; That is the absolute number of those in low and moderate income level, the percentage, absolute number of substandard housing and the percentage. These four factors were taken from census date. She also explained that Caldwell was right up there in the running. Only two or three applications from Idaho were funded last year which included Nampa, Moscow and Pocatello. Another part that they really stress heaveily was how much it will serve the low and moderate income people. The data that the City of Caldwell accumulated through the survey they did with the CFTA people will strengthen the possibility of receiving the grant. The Mayor explained to the audience that the City of Caldwell has used CFTA employees to survey from house to house to gather information as to who would be interested in the housing rehabilitation. A questionnaire was left with each home and the response was very good. He also agreed that this should be a help to the City in getting the grant this time when the application was submitted again. One member of the audience asked if there was any limitation as to who would be eligible for this rehabilitation money. In other words, would rentals be eligible. Miss Harper said that the rentals would be eligible, but that the landlord would have to be interested. Another question from the audience was whether this was the same program as the Senior Citizen Center as far as the funding was concerned. Miss Harper said that it was not the same. The Mayor explained that the Department of Housingf and Urban Development was involved in both of the grants. Subsidized rentals were provided by HUD. An audience member then questioned as to who would administer this money if the grant was approved. The Mayor stated that the City of Caldwell would. He said that the City of Boise had already utilized this ::type of grant. The money would be loaned out and as the loans were repaid they would remain in a type of revolving fund so that it would become a continuing thing. One gentleman asked if the Federal Government would pay the extra employees that would be required to administer this program. The Mayor answered that it would be at no expense to the City, but Book 20 Page 29 would be part of the grant funds. The same gentleman then commented that the money was still coming from the people and would be a direct expense to them. He felt that the City could still get along without some of these things. The Mayor said that he just gat a letter from the State regarding the drainage problem created by the four lane highway which eliminated the natural drain. This was around Ithaca Street and left no place for the water to go. The City will have two choices; either to put in a drain from there to the river which would cost approximately $38,000 or to join with the State in the system that they will put in when they build the freeway. They would have to enlarge the the and the State estimated that this would cost approximately $45,000. This was the reason the City of Caldwell was anxious to add this to the grant as otherwise it would be a direct cost to the City of Caldwell. The Mayor further explained that this was a street drain, not a sewer drain. The audience then asked why the City should get involved if the State was going to take care of it when the new highway went in. The Mayor replied that they would not take the City of CaIdwell's drainage unless the City pays for the pipe required. One gentleman asked who would keep the maintenance upon this drainage system if it was put in. He felt that the City was looking at a long issue. The Mayor then commented that if they were opposed to the drain being put in, then they should say so. The gentleman then stated that he was not opposed to the City putting in the drainage system, but was opposed to the City maintaining it. Whereas, if the State Highway Department puts it in, it should then become their problem. The Mayor said that it would be the Engineering Department's problem to decide. John McBride was recognized and stated that on what he had heard he was opposed to the project. He lived on College Avenue, but owns property in this area under discussion. The Mayor again explained that the area under discussion was from the railroad track to Plymouth, and Fourteenth to Boise Avenue. Also included was one sewer lime along Galveston where the building blew up. This was in addition to the drain line that was being requested. The audience then commented that .if this:was federally funded they could go along with this, but did question whether the City could withstand the upkeep of the improvements. Si Williams was recognized and asked for an explanation as to what the other items were that were included'in the grant application. The Mayor then explained that those things eligible and being asked for were the low interest loans for housing rehabilitation; curb, gutter, and street repairs;. replacement of sewer line on Galveston, and he hoped to add the street drain as the streets could not be improved until this -drain -goes in. All of this would be federally funded if the grant was accepted'. Again, the audience asked if the loans would be made to the property owners. The Mayor stated that they would be long term loans to the property owners, but would not.be for.new construction, only for rehabilitation. They then asked if the people were not eligible for Local Improvement Districts in this area. Book 20 Page 30 Again, the Mayor stated that they were but that on Ithaca below Fifth there was no way to put in an LID'for curb, gutter, or street improvement until there was a proper drainage system. The cost of the drainage, which would be approximately $38,000, would have to be added to the LID which would make the cost very high. The City Engineer felt that the State was responsible for the street drainage as they were the ones who ruined the natural drain. They had at this time denied any responsibility for this. The streets just could not be improved without this drain. He further stated that this problem has been going on now for six or seven years; since the highway was - put in. Councilman Hopper pointed out that this was a rather unique situation. The Government would give the City the money and the City would be able to choose the priorities. He also commented that the City would :Like to have some written testimony as well. Sharon Brown was recognized and stated that she was definitely interested and wondered if there was any chance of the City taking in more area than was presently being discussed. She was not in this particular area; but would like to see it expanded. The Mayor stated that the City of Boise had been able to extend their area a great deal. Koni Harper explained that after a three year period', the City would still have the loan bank going and that the City would then not be limited in to how far or where the project could be extended. The money would stay with the City of Caldwell„ Miriam Barr was recognized and asked what the interest rate would be. Miss Harper stated that 6% was the interest on the loans and it would be based on the ability of the person to pay. The Mayor explained that if the grant application was approved an offer would be made to the City of Caldwell and then the City Council would determine wh.ehter they would accept it or not. The question was then asked regarding if those homes with mortgages would be allowed to take advantage of this grant. The Mayor stated that he felt the Council would have to decide this question when the Grant was approved. Much discussion followed regarding the amount of people that would be eligible for this money due to mortgages on their homes. Miss Harper reminded the audience that this was only the first application for the grant and that all of these other questions would be considered and answered at length when the finalization of the full application was accomplished. She also stressed that the purpose of this meeting was to get input from the people of Caldwell as to what they would like to have included in the application for improvements in the City. The next question posed was who would be the one to approve or not approve the applications for the loans. The Mayor replied that the City would have to hire someone to handle this which would also be funded through the grant. Miriam Barr was recognized and stated that there was no free money and she could not help but think of this when hearing the people talk of the rehabilitation of the homes. She also pointed out that if they must own their homes to be eligible, there would not be very many who would be able to apply as in this area many of the homes were mortgaged. Book 20 Page 31 One member of the audience said that he was under the impression that in Boise not all of the homes were paid for that applied for loans. The Mayor informed the audience that at the next hearing on Monday night the City would have a map showing the location of those people who have shown an interest in the housing rehabilitation loans. There was a total of 215 people who have shown an interest in these loans according to the survey that was taken. One person in the audience suggested that the area for the grant be enlarged to include or benefit more of the low income people. Again, the Mayor explained that they could not apply for that big of a grant, but that as'the loans were repaid, the City could expand the project. The administrative overhead just couldn't be handled at this time. Councilwoman Bauman stated that she remembered =iri 16st"year's public hearing that several people suggested and encouraged the repair of broken sidewalks to be included in the grant application. Miss Harper said that this was part of another grant and was not a strong point as it would not benefit the low and moderate income people. The Mayor then asked if there was anyone else from the audience who cared to speak regarding the grant application. Since there was none, the Mayor declared the Public Hearing closed. The Meeting was adjourned at 2.40 p.m. APPROVED AS written THIS 6th DAY OF February D 1979. Mayor uncilman; Counc Counci an Councilman Councilman" Councilman ATTEST: City Clerk---'