Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We'll call the, February Ridgefield Planning Commission meeting to order. If we if everyone could please rise for the flag salute, commissioner Glavin will lead us in that. Thank you. Could we do roll call?

Commissioner Glavin.

Present.

Commissioner Burkhart. Present. Vice Chair Flynn. Present. Commissioner Moylan.

Present.

Chair Tyler.

Present.

Commissioner Rezak. And Commissioner Gordon. Here. Present.

Thank you. Do I have a motion to excuse Commissioner Razak from the meeting tonight?

So moved.

Second. Thank you. All in favor, say I. I. I. Aye. Any opposed? Oh.

Too late.

We'll withdraw that. Nope. We're right in time for the end of roll call. So I don't know if we oh, I think you're on this end, I guess, this week. Do we need to do any supplement on the roll call or?

I think we can just state for the record that Commissioner Aizak is present.

So noted. Thank you. Miss Lust, are there any late changes to the agenda?

No late changes. Thank you.

Thank you. So then at this time, that'll lead us right into our first public comment period of the evening. Anyone requesting to speak to the commission may do so at this time. If you have not provided notice in advance to speak during the public comment period, please use the raise hand feature. And the clerk will send you permission to unmute your microphones You're able to make your comments. For controls over the phone, press 9 for raise hand and press 6 to mute and unmute. Is there anyone wishing to make a public comment at this time period? Not seeing anybody, we will close the first public comment period. We'll move on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?

I guess we have. Have a motion. I guess, let me back up.

If everyone's had a chance to review the minutes from last meeting and if

there are no changes or suggestions, we have a motion to approve the minutes.

Motion to approve. Second.

Thank you. All in favor, say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We'll now proceed to the business section, business portion of our meeting tonight and turn the time back over to miss Lust.

Thank you, chair Tyler. Good evening, planning commission and members of the public. This evening, we have a presentation on some, affordable housing funding the city is receiving and talking through an option to use it for rental assistance, which is something we've been tasked to look at by by council. So with me here this evening is Kirk Johnson, our finance director, and I'm gonna go ahead and hand it over to Kirk to get our presentation started. Thanks.

Thank you, miss Lust, and, chair and commissioners. What we wanna talk about is some funding that we received through a substitute house bill 14 o six, which was approved by the legislature back in 2019. The funding provides, it provides funding through a dedicated sales and use tax credit for affordable housing, and the sales and use tax is credited against the state portion of the sales tax and goods and services in a jurisdiction. So what that means is there was no increase to the sales tax that, the public was paying. It was coming against the 6.5% that the state already received, and we get that as a credit if we chose to adopt this, back back in 2020, which was a time frame for doing that, and it's good for twenty years.

So the things that council talked about back then to kinda get into some background of this, we wanted to look at options for providing affordable housing programs and eligible uses, through the the, SHB 14 o six was and I'm gonna read, what came out of that legislation. Acquiring, rehabilitating, or constructing

California,

health organizations. The other options were operations and maintenance costs of the new units of affordable or supportive housing. And then for cities under 100,000 population, they may also use for rental assistance for tenants at or under 60%, AMI or the area median income. And that would be the area median income for Clark County. So available revenue for the program over the twenty year timeline, 2020 through 2039, the maximum amount was based on the fiscal year 2019 taxable retail sales.

So this is probably the drawback of, getting that funding is it never increases. So it took our taxable retail sales in 2019 and it caps it as that's a maximum amount amount we can get per year. So, as you're well aware, we've been growing quite a bit. We've been working through our transition, getting additional businesses online, and getting more sales tax revenue in the city but this particular funding source would not increase as a result of that. So, for what council considered at that time, we brought ordinance number thirteen nineteen to them, which was adopted by the city council in July 2020 and added a code section in, RMC three, which is the the finance, section, of our Richville municipal code.

So, again, it provides funding through the dedicated sales and use tax. So the things that council considered at that time, was whether or not we did wanna adopt and accept that funding source and then administer a city led grant program for acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation, or did we want to pass the funds through to a nonprofit such as Vancouver Housing Authority? We did have discussions with Vancouver Housing Authority in conjunction with the regional aspect to looking at doing something county wide and those conversations include Vancouver Housing and Clark County and the City Of Vancouver. Most of the other at that time were not considering whether or not they wanted to accept this. If cities did not accept this, it automatically passed through to the county.

So, what our, council decided at that time was we really wanna make sure that we have control over the funds that are raised in Ridgefield. If we entered into an agreement with Clark County and Vancouver and passed it through to a nonprofit, profit, we may or may not have control as to whether or not that funding is spent in Ridgefield and it is used to provide any type of affordable housing here or rental assistance in the the city. The benefit having done it at that time that they considered was there was a bigger scope. You know, there's more availability of funding that could be used regionally which most of the regional aspects of homelessness and stuff are at the county or or city Vancouver level but also if Vancouver housing was the one that was chosen at that time, they would also do all of the reporting that's required annually to the state on this particular funding source. But after several discussions on that, it was decided by council to adopt ordinance thirteen nineteen and keep the funds here and start to build those so that we we would have some funding available to decide what we wanted to do here in Richfield.

With that, the available revenue over that twenty four year timeline works out to about $24,500 annually. So, that's not a lot of funding to do anything major to affordable housing complexes, you know, build homes, things like that. So with that, we started build up what our funds are. So let's go to slide four. So after those conversations, earlier on, again, like I said, they wanted to build up the funds.

It's been about six years now. Last year the council retreat, they asked staff mainly miss Lust and I to start to research what are the options that we could do for rental assistance. There's a significant need you know, some of it's masked in Richfield because we are, you know, what's considered a little bit higher earning city but there is that need out there. So, what we've done is we've talked to Vancouver Housing Authority, Sharehouse, different municipalities in Washington that do then we also talked with Richfield Family Resource Center and Compassion three sixty. Those are the two nonprofits located in Ridgefield that we're We're to We're program where they can do offer some rental assistance as well.

So, in looking at that, most of the entities in Washington do offer a little bit more significant programs because they're in areas that, you know, they have a lot more funding for that. They have more taxable retail sales at that time in 2019 and or they have determined to offer in their budget, you know, some general fund dollars as well as they have other affordable housing taxes that they put into it as well. With what we looked at, we kinda came to the realization that it would be best to kinda keep it in house basically in field without working through Vancouver housing and or share house just for the fact that they are more of a regional and it's more difficult to ensure that the money is spent to you know, our jurisdictional as far as families that are in Ridgefield. Both Ritual Family Resource Center and Compassion three sixty have offered to help and to help vet people. They already do that.

That's part of their programs and then they would be able to look at what our criteria is both statutorily and then what council directs us to do with recommendations also from the planning commission of how to manage that program. Both the planning staff and the finance staff would be the ones that would administer that program. Again, with a smaller amount, there's not a lot we can do on an annual basis but we have built up over a $138,000 currently. So we do feel that there's some, funding available so that we can get this off to a a good start to help, those in need. What we're look at a cap on the dollar amount of assistance.

Options that we have heard is nonprofits offering a cap of $500, municipalities offering a cap of a thousand dollars and $2,000, and then some that have more, funds out there, full rent, during, their their assistance program. What we've seen for the majority of places is they have a cap of $1,000. We're not saying that we're recommending that. We're just putting that out there as information that we have received. The other thing that we're looking at from you, is how many times in a twelve month period should we be able to offer assistance to one family?

Part of this is we're kinda looking at how many people can we help and kinda spread it out versus keeping that just you know, very segregated where there's only, you know, a few people that were able to help during the year. Then, also, the other thing that we heard was putting caps on how many times one specific family can receive assistance an entire lifetime. And that is something that we heard pretty specifically from our local nonprofits that that's something that they recommend that we do. So, we're kinda looking for input on that as well. What we're planning on doing is as we get that recommendation, we're gonna go to a council tomorrow for a study session.

We're gonna give them, the different options that I've just mentioned, get some input from you with the recommendations to them to kinda look at, and then we're hoping for directions so that we can finalize. We have draft ordinance language and code language to update, what we currently have in there for receiving this funding, and then try to get a program going hopefully with the target date somewhere around April 1. And then what we would do is we would, prepare checklists and documentation requirements and that we would roll out and work with both the Family Resource Center and Compassion three sixty to verify that what they're vetting when they send someone to us, we know that they're already eligible for that. We will be the final one to review that because we're responsible for the statutory requirements but we wanna make sure that we're helping the people and when they get to us, we're not having to say no. So, there are other options.

You know, obviously, miss Les would be able to answer how this fits in with the the growth management plan and any affordable housing legislation that's out there and our code related to that. So, we're kind of looking at this might be a good time for some questions and I'll kind of send it back to you, chair.

Appreciate that. Do any of the commissioners have any thoughts or questions they'd like to raise? Start down there.

I was wondering when people receive this assistance, does it go does the city directly pay their rent or do they hand the individuals a check and they use it as they wish?

So, no, they can't use it as they wish. Okay. One of the requirements of the statute is we have to pay direct to the landlord.

Okay.

So, we would have to have an agreement where the landlord actually has to sign that agreement as well that they are accepting that rent. Part of and this came from the nonprofits and other municipalities. Part of what they're looking at is they want to pay direct and make sure that if they're at that point where they're close to eviction or something like that, that we're not going to pay and they're still going to evict them. Yeah. You know, we want to make sure that this is helping them and keeping them in their home.

Now, one fact that I saw in the paper just the other day is Clark County for the third in a row has the highest eviction rate in the state. So, there is an issue. There is help that's needed. So, this is something that we're trying to do what we can with the resources that we do have to help.

Yeah, I guess my my question is, what what is the, what is considered a rental that is affordable for the 60% AMI right now? What is that rent level at?

So, that's a good question. The city did purchase two homes here recently right on the corner of Hillhurst and Pioneer. One of those we are renting out at affordable Although, we're doing it 80% AMI right now and that's $19.95 per month.

Okay. So, this would be a $1,000 would be a good, nice, sizable, helpful.

Correct. The hopes is at least it gets them half of, you know, what they need for their rent for that month.

And then the other question I had is, you know, one of one of your comments was assistance over a lifetime. How how was that tracked? I mean, you mentioned a family. In my in my mind, like, that family unit could change, you know, are are you tracking an individual? How does that family unit get made up in terms of what done.

Going going be to done. Shows who's in the household. So, with the primary person on that tax return and then, we'll require two months worth of their most recent pay stubs or you know, whatever income they are receiving. With that, we're gonna be able to use that. Basically, it's gonna be on that primary household member's name that we're gonna be looking at.

Thank you. Any other questions? I know Commissioner Flynn has a long list. But

Annually, how much are you planning on dispersing? I see that there's a 138,000 available but it's only getting replenished 24,000 each year.

So that that's a big reason why the cap. Initially, I I don't think we wanna say that there's a cap each year. We would want to use it as it's needed and then if we do burn through, you know, that in a year or two, three years, whatever it might be, then, we are capped at that 24,500 per year unless the decides to, you know, open up other resources. There is legislation in Olympia right now for short term rentals that could bring additional revenue to the city that's specifically for rental assistance. So, there could be other sources that could come at a later date.

Just to back up. Just to back up a little quarter the

nineteen And

second of of the state of of years and then last year, we started to to explore. Is that right?

That that's correct. So, I'll kinda back up in the the approval process is we really couldn't approve it until 2020. So, there was a two step process and intent to go ahead and accept the the credit and then an ordinance to approve that and that was a statutory requirement there. So, approving it in July 2020, then, that made it available so we would begin to receive that at a later date. So, as far as accruing it, yes, since we weren't receiving very much, council had not decided how they wanted to use it, whether or not they wanted to use it as part of an an affordable housing program and incentives or things like that or rental assistance and we did have some change over in different council members.

So, we have to reeducate people on what this is and and what is available for. But since we got over the 100,000, we thought that's a good time to make sure that we have it to use because we don't wanna get in and and you can only help a couple of people, you know, first year would have been maybe two or three people and then, you know, we have to stop. So, that's kinda why it accrued and and, we let that go. Did that answer your question?

Yeah. So, you hit the 100 to to to do do

And

not to take the money?

I believe the only ones who approved it were Clark County, Vancouver, and Us.

And is that I guess, do you know why?

Most of them didn't wanna deal with the administrative.

Yeah. Administrative and Mhmm. And accounting and Right. Compliance requirements. And

part of the reality is most of the services are offered either by the county or by Vancouver. So they thought it's gonna flow through to them. So it's gonna be available in our communities, not necessarily in their specific community, but it is something regionally that the funding is still there.

And we decided that those administrative costs would be acceptable, and so we decided to to take the money. Is that right?

Correct. And the administrative cost cannot come out of this funding source. It has to come out of the general fund.

So we haven't implemented, any type of support to anybody yet because we're still trying to figure out how to do that. So this is not a fair question maybe, but how much is it gonna cost for us to to implement this?

Well, I don't think the administrative cost is gonna be too much. It's labor time. Yeah. And we're already there. We have a utility assistance program that that council approved a couple of years ago. We've modeled how we do this off of that program as well just with the modifications down to the 60% AMI. So we don't think it's gonna take much more than what we're doing there. And then as far as reporting, we get asked and miss Lust is one who submits that annually, and it's really not a a detailed report that we have to send in.

Yeah. Is there well, I guess one of the last things you talked about is we've accrued a ton of money now, and we're gonna continue to have 24,000 and change coming in. And you said something about how it's not like we're capped at using 24,000. Right? We can plow through that as quickly as we can hand it out if that's what is decided to, to do.

I guess I would say, number one, I I agree with that method rather than wait. You know, if there are people that need help today, let's let's help them out today is what I would say. But, you know, if we have a $136,000 and we can potentially hand out a thousand bucks per household, how is could the city handle a 136 or more applications to be able to get this?

Yeah. I believe so. Is there a little bit more staff time involved with it? Yes. But how we're doing it is we have both paper application and we have an online submittal portal that they can use. Again, we're it after the utility assistance. So, we've got it ready to go, just not turned on on our website yet. So, one of the things is the help that we're gonna get from the Family Resource Center and Compassion three sixty to already the people and go through and make sure that they are already qualified. They already do that. That's part of their job today.

So, it's not any different for them. They're excited that they have another resource to send them to. So, they're already gonna do a lot of that. Then, when they come in, whether they submit online or they come in with the paper application, we're just reviewing that information. We're gonna check off that they've they've supplied everything we need. Of course, the difference here is having to have the the landlord, you know, agree to accept the money. So, there will be a little bit more there but I don't think it's where we can't manage it.

Do landlords have to have any particular status on the property in order to accept the funds?

I don't think there's any status requirements. You know, either the landlord themselves have to own it or it's gotta be the property management that manages that for, you know, a landlord.

Okay.

Or for an owner.

Alright. And then, as far as criteria, could you maybe, talk a little bit more about what pieces of that are missing thus far? Under 60% is the the income requirement, and then there's a couple of hoops to jump through first page of the tax returns and pay stubs and whatnot. But what about is there any preference that's going to be given to families as opposed to someone of a different age? Or how was the how do you vision that working?

I I don't anticipate any preference. I think we're gonna get, families of school aged children coming from the Family Resource Center. And I think from Compassion three sixty, we're going to be getting older adults that are are struggling as well because we're we're trying to make sure that everybody is involved. It doesn't have to come only from those two sources. This is something that they can also come directly to us. It's just the partnership with those two particular nonprofits. They already do this. Yeah. And they see the need. They need resources of how they can help people so they're not getting evicted from their homes.

So, I think that's where the majority of these are going to come from but we're not saying it it has to be school aged or or families or it has to be you know, older adults where the kids have moved out and you know, they're they're on a fixed income. It's whoever needs help that qualifies. So, it's gonna be a first come, first serve.

First come, first serve up to however whatever our capacity is? Correct. Okay. I like that. I also just wanna reiterate, I do think it's a really good idea to basically just accept as many applications as you

we'll

that we'll see

that

good that that's good cap. I don't know if it would make sense or not, but should be considered is if there could be a cap on the landlord also. I don't know if that's a good idea or a bad idea, but just thinking about the parties involved, I'm not sure good

that's

perception would be for that even though the people point. Would obviously need the help. I'm I'm just concerned.

Yeah. I can see your point on that. And you know, it'll be what council direction gives us but I think it's more focused on the people in need versus, you know, the landlord who's gonna receive that. We just wanna make sure also that the landlord is going to accept that and they're not going to evict people. So, what what I heard from both Family Resource Center and Compassion three sixty and also when we talked with Sharehouse and Vancouver Housing is some of the people that we're gonna get, they're they're at their point where, you know, one more is going to set them over the edge.

Yeah. And I think what we're trying to do is help stop it there and give them the ability where they they can recover and get back on track. Yeah. And I think that's a goal of both of the partners that we're gonna go with as well.

I have about fifteen more minutes. No. I'm kidding. Okay. Well, I I do that tracks with me very well.

I think that, I don't own a rental home in the city, but if I did, I think it'd be extremely poor form for the city to facilitate a tenant of mine just because of my position here even though I'm unpaid and it's a volunteer thing. I think that we should have some sort of a limitation on who which type of landlord is eligible. If there is someone on the city council or I I don't know where we would draw that line but I think that would be incredibly bad for the citizens to see that happen. Okay. So I don't wanna limit someone who needs a a sandwich but I also don't wanna have that have dollars going to to people who should not be receiving money in this way.

Or at least that's

my Bring that up to council.

Okay. I think that's it. I'll be back.

I think Commissioner Moylan has raised his hand and so I don't want to miss him on there.

Thank you. Mr. Johnson, two questions, please. The first is, do you have an idea or does the city have an idea of the scope of potential applicants? In other words, do you think it's like maybe 50 individuals or 50 families or 500 or I'm trying to get to answer the questions that you would like the commissioners to provide to you to take to the council?

Okay. So, let me answer that a couple of ways. What we got from the the local nonprofits was their significant need. They didn't give us a They just said that they've seen a significant increase over the last couple of years in need. So we're going by that. Now the other way I'll answer that is when we put in the utility assistance program, we expect a significant request for assistance on that. We didn't get nearly as much as we expected.

And when was that?

That was about three years ago. Okay. I don't remember at the exact date, but, we don't we have probably 1,500 to 1,800 a year in assistance. We initially expected about 18,000 in assistance. It's

And

I

question question. Question. I I a difference. Good

I don't expect the city to become a landlord except qualifying that we have one house that we're doing it but we're only doing that up until the time that those traffic improvements are done at that location. We just wanna make sure that that particular location, something's being used and it was previously a lower income household. We didn't wanna take that away. So, two to four years, we expect some traffic improvements at that intersection. So, until then, we will be a landlord on one property.

I would not expect us to be getting into that market. I would expect that we're support of that market but again, that's both the planning commission recommendation and also a council decision.

Okay. I understand. Thank you. Mhmm.

I'll echo everyone's appreciation that you're here tonight and spending your evening with us. Appreciate the presentation. Just a couple of quick questions. The area median income, is that based on Ridgefield? Or and I know we've talked about this number quite a bit. So I'm assuming it's kind of the same number used in other aspects as well. Is it

It's a county wide.

County wide. Yeah. What is that number now?

The number that we have been basing our comprehensive plan math on for area median income is about a $110,000 a year.

Okay. So 60% would be a little over 60,000. Organizations have indicated there's a significant need, but do we know statistically how many individuals living within Ridgefield are 60% of AM, high or below?

You probably have that through the I don't. Okay. I don't have that. We can try to look that up. I'm thinking we can probably get it, but it's gonna be some age data through the Census Bureau. Mhmm. So it'd probably be a minimum of two years old, but we can look that up for you.

Yeah. I when I was I was going through this, I that was one of my main concerns is while I I I love the program and I agree with many aspects of what Commissioner Flynn said, use it and use it use it quickly. I I'm I'd be interested to see how many people would actually qualify that live within the city of Richfield at this time at least.

Based on what we heard from both of the nonprofit partners, there will be quite a few because they are already referring to Sharehouse, Vancouver Housing, and things like that under that same program. So, they are seeing quite a bit of need for that.

Good. And I you may have said this, but I was thinking about something else, I apologize. How many applications did you say that the city has been receiving through the utility assistance program?

So I I mentioned it in a dollar amount. So we offer up to $250 as a one time in a rolling twelve month period, and, we're getting about 1,800 a month right now. We expected about 18,000 per year in request, and that all comes from late fees so it's not general fund. It's not regular rate revenues. It's late fees and returning that into assistance for those that are in need with all the also educating them on how to avoid those late fees in the future.

So based on that number, we're probably getting 10 or 12 and then there's probably an equal amount, if not a little bit more that are not qualifying but the majority of the time they don't qualify is because don't turn in any paperwork or they turn in the application for the assistance and then they turn right around and pay the bill and there's nothing to, you know, give them assistance for.

Mhmm. And is, do you know, does that have the same kind of 60% of AMI limit, or what's the limit there for

That one's based on, a different metric, and it's a 120% of poverty level. So it's a little bit different. So we we ask them for the exact same information, but we would have to calculate the incomes just a little bit differently.

Understood. Okay. Kinda go through my questions that I've written all over my page. I I think you did cover most of them. Commissioner Flynn did cover most of them, which is great.

I think I would, as at least for conversation purposes, push back on a couple things that commissioner Flynn raised. I I would not wanna penalize a tenant just because of who their landlord is, and I I certainly appreciate the optics that that could raise about sending money from the city to, I guess, an insider for lack of a better word. But I also from it does seem that the program designed to is focused on the tenant and their their qualification for the money and that the landlord is only there as a yes, no of whether they're gonna accept it. So that a pushback there on that idea at least. And then I think that's it for at least for right now. So I think we should work out.

Yeah. I I just had you know, we're the the program is intended intended to prevent eviction. As

part

of that there is there some sort of, you know, stabilization counseling to say, Hey, you know, what are we doing from a budgetary standpoint and assisting them and making sure that it lasts a little bit longer than the the one month I think that we're recommending at this point.

So, here's where working with the two nonprofits are helpful. Both of them already work with these people and they work on getting a plan together and sending them to other services as well. With Ridgefield, we don't have the services out here. We rely on Clark County, Vancouver, and all of the nonprofits that are county wide. Both of these nonprofits refer them to those sources for other help.

What where this kind of came from was a discussion on, you know, that that last hurdle that's going to just it's going to cripple them and so I'll I'll give kind of the example that was given, okay? So, you know, they're paying their rent. They have enough money for their rent but all of a sudden, their broke down. Their tire, you know, they had a tire go out and they're all bald. They can't get to work. That is a trigger that causes them not to be able to get their next paycheck. Then there's a spiral. They go downhill. We can't pay for tires. We can't pay for improve you know, car repairs and things like that with this program.

What we can do is we can help them out with their rent. That can hopefully free up that money where that gives them the ability to not have that final trigger push them over the edge. And then in working with the two nonprofits, they will also work with them to set up a plan. We won't be doing that. That's not, we're not counselors. We're not, you know, a nonprofit that specializes in that. We're just providing funding and vetting the funding that that qualifies under the statutes. They will help them in those other areas, and they'll try to push them to other services that can help as well.

And and they have to come through the referral of those entities in order to apply for this assistance?

Not necessarily. That's where we expect the majority of them to come through because they're already working with them. If somebody hears about the program and contacts and contacts us directly, then we'll work with them. We'll just verify that they're eligible. We won't work with them on setting up a plan. We won't have necessarily all the resources. We may have a list of things, or places they can call. But we won't be sitting down with them and going over like, you know, a counselor or something like that.

Thank you.

Commissioner Moylan that was your hand raised from the previous? Or

No. This is another

Please go ahead.

Questions, I guess.

Perfect.

Mr. Johnson, do we have an idea in terms of the city of Vancouver or Clark County if they have cap limits themselves or a maximum amount that they offer in terms of assistance in a twelve month period? I'm trying to, I guess, get back to your what you're looking for from the commissioners.

Mhmm. I don't know if either of them have, a cap. They have significantly more resources, and they have other, funding sources that are going into their programs. With Vancouver being over a 100,000, they can't do the program we're talking about because their population is too high to do, rental assistance. So, where they're offering rental assistance is more through, state programs, which a lot of those are out of funding now.

And the county can't offer this exact same program as well. Only cities under 100,000 in population. So, where we got the caps were from nonprofits and some of the cities that are doing this program that that are more our size.

Okay.

And again, I know mister Johnson said this at the start of the presentation but just I think this will be helpful information is that those other cities that are doing rental assistance under this exact home. Question. Question. A opportunity that's And to the level. Get

And And then that per year or to to per award?

Per award. Thank you.

Anyone else before Commissioner Flynn takes another fifteen minutes? Or did you have any further?

Just what Claire's got here. Yeah.

The only thing I guess I was gonna is bringing it back to what the actual recommendation you're looking for. I I think this discussion has been very helpful to help frame those that those issues, though, or at least what the recommendation should be. I guess one way I I I I could see it two ways playing out, saying this flat, we're gonna give up to a thousand and exactly how you have it laid out. Up to a thousand once per year or up to two times lifetime. Or another way I was considering it is maybe we the finance department could do some kind of calculation saying, here's what 60% of AMI is.

And based on this is the average amount an individual should be stay spending on rent, that should give you kind of a monthly amount what the rent should be for that income and say, maybe we give you that amount one time, and it's probably gonna be higher than a thousand based on just kind of a rough calculations in my head at least assuming what average rent would be. And so that might operate as a a very helpful reset for that individual or that family. But since it'd be higher, maybe limiting it then to then just one time per lifetime. So I I could see kind of both of those options, maybe presenting two different to the council, obviously, to kind of because I think both have pros and cons depending on what the the policies or the goals of the city council would be. Any other thoughts from commissioners?

Or

How long does the approval process take if someone gets flat tires and their rent's due next week? Is it pretty quick for that to turn around if they get approved?

So what my hopes would be is as soon as they get referred to us, they already have all the documentation because we've provided a checklist to, let's say, they're coming through one of those nonprofits. They've already vetted everything on the checklist, told them what they need to bring in, they come in, we get it approved. The only thing that could delay it is getting the, signature of the landlord. And then we would be able to pay. If the landlord approves of that, it it's not necessarily dependent on us getting the check to them. If they approve and and they know, then hopefully, they can already divert their funding to whatever they need.

Okay.

So it could happen in two, three days at the quickest possibly?

Well, quickest would be same day.

Okay.

And we could at least have the agreement. So, again, with that checklist, what we're hoping is that they talk with their landlord already, and then their landlord's ready and willing, you know, has communicated that to them. So as soon as we contact them with the document they have to sign that, you know, we can get that right away. And it's not something they have to physically sign. We'll send it through DocuSign and and get it done that way.

Got it. Okay. One more question. Has it been looked at, instead of doing it, you know, one hit for a month, doing it, you know, for three months consecutive or six months consecutive? Not necessarily at the higher amounts we've been talking, but maybe at a slightly less amount?

We haven't really talked about that internally at this point, and and counsel really hasn't other than just giving us the direction to go look. The only reason we haven't talked about that here on a consecutive basis is the resource that we have. And it was recommended to us by both the resource center and Compassion three sixty that we don't do that just for the fact that we won't be able to help very many people.

Any other thoughts or questions from commissioners? Please.

So, it sounds like we expect most folks to come through the partner organizations. For those who did come to us directly, what does the rest of the eligibility criteria look like beyond the 60% of the AMI?

So really, it's it's pretty simple. It's you have to depending on your family size because the the, income could be significantly different depending on family size. They have to qualify at 60% or less, and then, the landlord has to agree to accept this and take the payment and apply it to their rent.

So the so 60% of the AMI really is the

Correct.

That is the eligibility.

Got it.

Right.

Thank you. Mhmm.

Anyone else? And, miss Lester, mister Johnson, based on our questions or comments, were there any other additional thoughts that you had that you'd think would be helpful to share, or are you ready for a motion?

I think we've covered everything I can think of in the presentation. So, yeah, it would be helpful to have a recommendation to bring bring to council in their work session tomorrow.

And do do we need a motion to make that recommendation or procedurally? Or

I believe our code does require a formal recommendation from Planning Commission. Is that correct? Or could it just be a a discussion recommendation?

Discussion recommendation.

Sounds like we can just have a would not need to be a motion recommendation. It doesn't mean you can't make a motion. But

Chair, I'd like to make a motion that the notes that miss Luss has taken during this meeting, both mentally and physically on paper should be submitted to the city council work party.

And mister Johnson's notes.

And mister Johnson's mental and physical.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none. All in favor, say I. I. I. I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. Excellent. Thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate the presentation. And it's been a very interesting topic to be able to discuss, isn't it?

Commissioner? Thank you for having me.

That concludes business portions. And now we'll move on to our second public comment period for the evening. It is now time for a public comment. Anyone requesting to speak to the commission may do so at this time. If you have not provided notice in advance to speak during the public comment period, please use the raise hand feature, and the clerk will send you permission to unmute your microphone so you're able to make your comments. For controls over the phone, press 9 for raise hand, and press 6 to mute and unmute. Is there anybody wishing to make a comment during this public comment period? Not seeing anybody. We will close the public comment period. I'll move on to staff reports.

Sure. Thank you, Chair Tyler. I did something new and different this month, which you may have noticed. I put a document in the staff report section of the packet. As you all know, we're working on our critical areas ordinance update, and we just had some, I think, good relevant information kinda summarizing stakeholder interviews and I didn't want to keep that from you unnecessarily.

So just giving you the opportunity to have that basically a month in advance. We're going to be having in our March meeting an actual agenda item on, once again, on the critical areas ordinance update. Our plan is to have some some draft code, for you all to start reviewing. So I guess it's a homework assignment. Take note of the the stakeholder interviews. We included some kinda kinda guiding questions in there to to think about before we come back and discuss it formally. If you do have any questions or or thoughts now, I'm happy to take them, but not expecting this to be a business item this month.

Perfect. We appreciate the homework.

You're welcome. And I do not have anything else for my staff report. Thanks.

Thank you. Okay. Well, then at this time, I think we can go to reports from the commissioners. If we could start maybe at this end today. Commissioner Gordon, do you mind?

Chair chair Tyler, I'm so sorry. I I had something else that was important. I'm really glad I wrote it down. I spoke too soon. Next month is the state of the city address, March.

We the city is gonna have the sort of prepresentation tabling again in the high school lobby. And the vision this year is to have tabling from all of our council boards and and commissions. So I am looking for volunteers. I have it has been suggested two to three of you would be great to be at a table for a half hour before the state of the city address, talk be be available to talk to members of the public that come through about what you do as planning commissioners and work items for this year. So I don't know if we want to, like, harm wrestle over it or what, but I am I would love to have two or three of you willing to do that.

You can talk to me after the meeting. Yeah. So thank you very much.

Right. You sure you're done this time?

No

kidding. And, yeah, as we go through, if if any of the commissioners do wanna indicate their interest in attending, that'd be helpful. So, Commissioner Gordon.

I don't think I have anything to bring to the commission but I am interested and willing to serve at the state of the city.

Thank you, Commissioner Borschardt.

I got nothing this week. Happy week.

Thank you. Vice Chair Flynn.

Nothing for me other than thank you to the members of the public who have joined us this evening and thank you to our city staff for preparing us and especially thank you to mister Johnson for being here. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Glavin.

I did enjoy doing that state of the city last year so I wouldn't volunteer again this year if you'd have me and thank you for your presentations. It was a lot to go over.

Thank you. And Commissioner Razek.

Nailed it. No news. I guess I'll just express enthusiasm to see the rental assistance program on the agenda. I'm excited to see us working something like that out.

Thank you. And I will echo Commissioner Glavin's comments. I joined him last year as well at the table. It was a fun opportunity to interact with the public kinda share what we do as a commission. This year, we probably hopefully won't be upstaged by the police department's new drone, which was the hot item last year.

But I I also endeavor to make my make it make it there. I'll confirm with you again, but I will volunteer for that as well. The only thing I would like to share also at on the twenty second, I joined miss Lust at the city council meeting where we presented our our kind of goals and plan for the next year. And I just wanted to pass along to everyone on the commission. Every single one of the members of the council was very appreciative of the work that we perform.

Was very, said it was very helpful to the work they do and that they are very happy that we're all willing to volunteer our time and and make their jobs easier. So I just wanted to kinda pass that along that every single one of them was very complimentary and and appreciative of everything that we do for them. And then as always, thank you to miss Les and the staff for all your help and members of the public for being here and a special thank you to mister Johnson for being here as well with us. With that, oh, I'm sorry.

Commissioner Yes. Please.

Thank you.

Please go side out of mind. I have nothing, but I am looking forward to being home for for the March meeting and being at the commission meeting and seeing everyone in person. Thank

you. And you can't be really out of sight. You're like directly in front of all of our faces. That's on me. But thank you. With that, we will end the meeting.