Affordable Housing Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

We'll call the October 29 meeting of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee to order. If you all can please stand if you're able and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It says we'll do roll call, which I think is wise, because we might have some new faces on the committee. So if we want to start, we'll start with Mr. Green, because we know that he's not we're not going put him on the spot, because he's done this before. Yeah, that's good.

John Green.

Diana Stevens.

Juan Pagan. Hey, Juan. John Bowers.

Tanya Siskind. Heather Mori.

Sachin Pauline.

Thanks, everybody. Okay. Introductions was next. Guess maybe I should have given more clue on that for if we were actually going to provide introductions. But I suppose we could do that later, unless there's something else that you want specifically from us. Staff? Anything else?

Heather could just introduce herself.

That would be great. Yeah, because Heather, we haven't met you before, so

Okay. Hi, I'm Heather. I've been a social worker for about eighteen years, specialized in senior care health care and Medicaid. I'm very privy to the, issues with regards to affordable housing. That's why I wanted to get involved. I'm from Wellington. I went to high school, middle school, all that here. So I do love it here. I think it's a great place, and people a lot of people should have opportunities to be here.

Thanks. Which which high which middle school and high school, Heather?

Landings in Okay.

I was I was I followed that suit too. Yeah. That's good. What class did you graduate?

2000.

2000. Okay. Were the year ahead of me. I was I was a one. Great. Oh, want to ask that of everybody else, you know. Alrighty. So we've got a few new business matters in front of us. Before I begin with the slate, is there any changes or amendments to the agendas that you guys had for staff? No? We can go in order. Okay. So first item is 28, it's selection of chair and a vice chair. Anybody that has interest? We have neither the chair nor the vice chair here for right now.

But just to be clear, would you mind reminding us who else is on the committee that's not here right now, Andrew?

So mister Johnson, he did not wanna be reappointed.

Okay. So he's not not serving on the committee, period, anymore. Okay.

Alright. He was our vice chair.

He was the vice chair.

But mister Theas was the the chair last term.

And Mr. Theas was supposed to be here? Is supposed to be here? Okay. All right. Well, if anybody wanted to had an interest, wanted to express an interest in serving, we could do that, where we could make motions, we could entertain motions to for the chair first, and then the vice chair.

John, just to kind of update everybody, where do we stand? Who's current chair? Are you chair?

No, I'm not chair. I'm just filling this is not me wanting to be chair, this is just me filling in, because I've run meetings before, but no, I am not chair. Mr. Theus is the chair, and is reappointed to the committee. Mr. Johnson was the vice chair, and we had seen him at several of the meetings before, but he is not serving on the committee anymore.

John, I would nominate you if you have any interest. Oh, boy.

And I would second that.

Oh, gosh. You've our little bull here. Okay. We a motion and a second. Any further discussion besides me saying ouch? That's okay. I got off planning and zoning, so I suppose this is my I'm not chair of that anymore, so I suppose this is I was due to have a title. Okay. We'll call it for a vote then. Any Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. I will be the chair. How about a vice chair motion?

I would motion that Juan Pagan be vice chair, if he was so inclined.

Juan, great.

I'll second.

Excellent. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. Thank you, vice chair.

Thank you, chair. Okay.

So I'll keep this rolling then, I guess.

Great. You're doing a great job. Hi.

How are you? Mr. Theus, good to see you. Okay. So next on the slate is number 29, the approval of the minutes. They were included in the packages. Hopefully everybody had a chance to read them. Any questions, I would can be raised now, or corrections that anybody noticed? Otherwise I'll entertain a motion. Motion. Okay. I've got a motion for Is that for approval? Is that for the motion for approval? Thanks. A second?

I'll second.

Thank you. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That is done. All right. Then we'll get to the presentation by Planning and Zoning Division. Take it away.

Good evening.

My name is Corielyn Kramer, and I am the planning and zoning manager. I'm here to participate in tonight's meeting to provide you with some information on two projects that are utilizing the Live Local Act. So as you are probably aware, the Live Local Act became effective in 2023 and then was amended in 2024. This provided a streamlined and expedited process for projects that provide affordable housing options. The project is required to comply with Wellington's comprehensive plan and our land development regulations, specifically those of the multifamily regulations.

There are a few exceptions to those. And those exceptions are utilized as incentives and are related to density FAR, which is floor area ratio, and building height. The subject site must be located on a property that is zoned commercial, industrial, or mixed use. And they are not required to amend the land use or designations. And with that being said, what I would like to do is provide you hopefully this works.

On our website, we do have a page dedicated to the Live Local Act and some information. It provides the senate bill, some of the key provisions, and the project requirements. When you have less than 20% commercial property, the mixed or the Live Local project is required to be mixed use. So in the case of Wellington, that is one of our requirements. We have, I believe, 5.7% commercial and industrial property in the village overall.

So that's something we have to take into account when we review the projects as they come in. The density they would be able to propose a project up to the highest density that we offer, which is 22 units to the acre. And that, again, would not matter what the land use and zoning designation were for that property. And then, of course, the building height, they would be allowed to utilize the highest height within a mile or three stories, whichever is greater. The site plan approval process is an administrative process.

It does require that they have a rent restriction for thirty years to ensure that the affordability component of the affordable housing is actually used and stays that way for that period of time. So they would also need to continue to go through the same approval process for other new developments, such as their architectural review board approvals, a plat, building permits, and any other development orders or development agreements that would be required. And so this is the location of the two projects that we have as of right now. The one on the North is called Country Landings, and they're both properties by New Rock. Country Groves is the one on the South.

They're both offering 106 units. And this property is located just North of Southern Boulevard on the East side of Pratt And Whitney Road. At this time, they've only submitted site plans. We are still in the review, and we'll be providing them with additional comments. There were certain comments that were already issued, and we have not received a resubmittal at this time.

So we suspect that they are working on them, and we will see those shortly. This is the first time we are working with a Live Local project. So there's little bit of a learning curve, I think, for all of us to kind of understand the ins and outs of it. And I hope and believe that we've done a pretty good job at providing that information to the public. And at this time, I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

This is it's a little hard to see, but this is essentially a typical model site plan that they've submitted. And as you can see, there really is no mixed use component. And it is a mirror of the property. So they would be utilizing the same site plan on both sites.

Before we launch into questions, do you mind going back to the section where you talked about the density amounts and the floor area ratio in that section, just to go back to that slide? One a couple before this, I think. Or the oh, yeah. It might have been on the website link. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. All righty. Any questions for Ms. Kramer?

So Corey, so what are they getting? I mean, they're getting approval on density. They've got to maintain a certain percentage for affordable housing. But what kind of dollars are they being given to move this project forward?

So they are working through the county. I'm not 100% sure of the actual financial obligation that the county has provided for them. I do know that they needed to submit their site plans to us within a certain period of time in order to obtain those funds. So I'm not 100% sure what that is.

There a maximum grant that's permitted under sort of this program?

Again, that's something that I'm not 100% sure on.

It's the same developer for both sites, obviously. So they're looking for two grant awards, one for Correct. Each property?

Yes. I think Mr. Polanini might know about this, but I believe that the don't think I might be wrong on this, but I don't think that there's any automatic fundraising grant that they receive by simply being a Live Local Act. It's just simply the density and the approval mechanisms they have to go through, right? But then they can apply for county funds for soft costs on planning development. Is that restricted only to entities that are not for profit developers for that?

I don't believe so, because I I don't mean, NewRock is a for profit Okay.

All right. Yeah, I've yet to meet a developer that's not for profit.

Yeah. I know. Well, know that Mr. Palin sometimes they do joint ventures with nonprofit entities, and so that's why Mr. Palinini's at the Bogey Housing Authority, they've done some of those projects in the past. So that's why I was suggesting it. But it's and so they've had to submit those site plans within a certain period of time to basically be eligible for the grant money for this, I think, for the planning cost supplement, right?

Okay. I guess typically the value add for a developer would be the increase in density by maintaining a certain percentage for affordable housing?

Yeah. Essentially, the incentives that we give based on state statute are that, again, you don't have to go through the land use and zoning change, which if you have been on any of those boards or paid attention to any of those meetings, that can be a pretty lengthy process. It can require a lot of information, which does not necessarily make it as effective if you're trying to build affordable housing. Because everything costs a certain amount of money in order to provide all of that documentation above and beyond the application fees. So they aren't required to do that.

And then again, our density, the highest density that we offer in the village is 22 units per acre. So that would be the maximum that they could request. And essentially, it's a site plan review. It's an administrative review. It gets reviewed by every department in the village. And if they meet the criteria, if they provide the proof that they have the thirty year restriction on at least 40% of those residential units and in this case, it will be if and when they provide the mixed use component to the project, then we will have a little CLEMENT more to review and a little more to look at, at that time.

Question. Is there a guideline in terms of the square footage per unit that make those 22 units smaller or bigger?

No, they don't.

Who determines

It's that? Actually I believe it's based on there is a square footage that comes from, I believe, health department as to how many people you can have per bedroom and what the minimum unit size is. Our codes do not have a minimum unit size. So that would just be part of our review process.

JOSHUA So these could be micro units. I know that's been a popular sort of product in certain markets. So there's probably no restriction. I mean, we're covered by FAR and then building height. So I guess whatever they can squeeze in, they're going to try to squeeze in.

JULIE Should we have a minimum? Should that be something we discuss?

I think it's probably something we will. Honestly, until they resubmit an actual plan that shows all of the details that we need, it's going to be really hard for us to evaluate that. Because even what they submitted, it was where there should have been lines for the units for us to determine how many units were there, if the plan was showing what they said it was, they didn't quite match up.

When you look I was thinking of the units that are up there on the corner of Southern And 441, those buildings over there. My grandson was living there with his wife. And the unit they have was 700 square footage. One bedroom, kitchen, dining, living room, a little balcony, and only one bathroom. And the rent was like $3,200 a month. So who's going to be paying for that?

Well, I think that's one of the questions throughout this process that a lot of the municipalities have even talked about is, well, when you talk about affordable housing, that's different in every location. It's different based on your municipality and where you're at in the state, where you're at in the country.

I'm just curious, because it says affordable rent for a two bedroom is $3,156 a month.

Heather, do mind just speaking into the mic? Because Okay. They do record us for

It says affordable rent for a two bedroom is $3,156 a month. So is that what they're saying they're

going to That's based yeah, that's based on the calculation as to when they utilize it's essentially an example. And it's based on the numbers that were provided from the statute to determine that at this particular level, that would be what was affordable for this area.

Because that seems to me standard anywhere in the even in the county, so I don't under I guess I'm confused how that's considered affordable. And then so it's the 40% of the units. So the 60% I know you said mixed use, but is that gonna be whatever rent they end up deciding, so it's not going to be for the affordable housing?

That is a question that we'll have to answer as we get through this review process. They really have not given us any ideas yet as to what their price points are. So for us to be able to determine the difference between the 40, or if they're going to provide more than 40% versus, you know, what they will have at a standard market value.

And I recognize, Ms. Kramer, that we probably haven't it sounds like, based on the submittal that we received, it didn't give us a ton of detail. So I'm assuming that we're not trying to invest too much time on this until we get better details, is what I guess. And this being that it's the first submission under this, is certainly there's going to be, as you said, a learning curve on understanding the statute, because live local does preempt a lot of our normal local decisions that we get to make on units. I am curious, though, in that evaluation if it continues to progress, if we look at because it's one thing that I've always had a question about in terms of so we know we determine what 120% of area median income is, right?

We can figure that out by reporting. And then we can back into what the affordable unit is based on the percentages of 120% of AMI. But I have been curious in terms of when they're income restricting those units, there are obviously going to be people that make less than that, right? That make 80% to 120%, 80%. There determinations or consideration of where the income level is of the actual tenant in terms of what their rent payments would be? Or is it basically that they just have to show that they're not going to charge for the 40% of those units, they're not going to charge over what 120% of the median income is?

Correct.

Okay. So it's the latter. Okay. So effectively it's they can basically do a product based upon what they expect occupancy to be in those areas based upon okay. It So might not be affordable for people that are 80% of AMI, you know, to go into those products, but they still would meet their obligations under Live Local. Okay. That's good to know. Could you also just clarify the comment related to it being mixed use? I think you said originally that if there's was something about the commercial mix, if we're less than a certain DELL: percentage, that there had Right. To be a

So when a municipality, when you look at the overall land use of and we looked at commercial and industrial properties. Or our industrial is the Flex District. So the overall percentage of that land use within the village is only 5.7 of our total land use. So any time it's under 20%, then the project is required to be a mixed use project. And what we've found also is that it states that 65% of that should be the residential portion.

Like, that would be the minimum. But it does not state a minimum for the mixed use component. And so one of the questions that we're trying to get answers on now and get an interpretation on is, well, does that mean that they could provide a 500 square foot building and meet the requirement? Because how is that functional? So that's one of the items that we're still digging into.

Have we evaluated that in terms of I'm trying to think of recent multifamily rentals that we've looked at. Is requirement for them to be mixed use projects, has that been in existence? That's not a feature of Live Local, that's a feature of just our regular ordinance, local ordinances, correct?

No, that is

That's about Live All Local right. Because I was thinking other multifamily stuff that we've done, I don't think we've considered the needs for those, for that.

Right. Don't require that a multifamily project be mixed use.

But if

it is mixed use, there are some thresholds that we utilize based on the size of the project and what they're offering.

And to the best of your knowledge, on the 22 units per acre, given the fact that the state is trying to encourage affordable housing by this initiative, my guess is that unless there's other sections of development code that preclude it from having 22 units per acre, I'm guessing that it's going to be difficult for us to grant them anything less than 22 units an acre, if they request that. Is that a correct assumption?

If they can still meet all the other criteria.

Setbacks, floor area ratios, things, building height and stuff like that.

Okay.

And obviously the area that's being looked at is currently very rural. Are those those is that commercial zoning on the current properties, or it's not agricultural?

No. So the properties let me go back to the slide. Sorry. So everything along

Seminole Pratt?

Here along Seminole Pratt and everything along Southern. Southern is was when we annexed, we also provided that that land use be commercial.

Okay.

And then everything on the interior is residential. Okay.

And the lot sizes for those two lots?

Those are the five acres.

Okay.

And have you heard any feedback from any of those surrounding properties? I mean most of that land is probably well, I shouldn't say that in this specific area. It may not be a question. But has there been any pushback from any of those surrounding properties and the owners about having these sort of 106 unit to the north and south of them?

JULIE We have encouraged them to talk to their neighbors. But because there is no public hearing process there

GREGORY There's no notice?

GREGORY There's no notice. I mean, it's an administrative site plan. So we have encouraged them to reach out to their neighbors to

GREGORY But they're not required to.

And that's why we also have them listed on our website. Part of the Live Local requires that you do have those projects listed on your website. So to go back to the website, you will see here at the bottom the current projects. And if you click in this link, you will get a map. You kind of have to click outside of that box.

because it's the newly annexed areas. Yeah.

And then when you go to the actual location and you select that property, you can go over here to view. And that will take you into the applications that were submitted. And you can see where it is in the process. And if you go to attachments, you can see what they've submitted. And this is with any active projects. But we are putting our Live Local on our interactive map. And we will be specifically listing them on our Live Local page DAY: as required.

So there's a lot of value to developers to be able to participate in this program, expedite the process and not have to go through the same notice requirements that anybody else would have to do. I mean, I've been involved in projects where we're coming in for land use change. We want to develop something that's not currently permitted. And it's a year and it's a lot of money. So this gives these developers an opportunity to really bypass kind of the normal system. And it's a little unsettling to think that these people are living out in sort of this nice quiet five acre parcel. And one day they're going to wake up and see bulldozers clearing land. And before you know it, you've got a three story building in your backyard. Right.

And the Live Local projects are required to be on commercial, industrial, or mixed use. So I think the one benefit there is that it can't necessarily happen on any of those internal five acre lots. It would have to be where it's commercial, which would be along Pratt And Whitney and Southern Boulevard.

And then if somebody wanted to change that land to commercial, they wanted to assemble a few of those lots, they then go through the normal process, and it would be noticed and

Right. But it would almost be backwards, because they would have to change it to commercial or mixed use instead of residential, even if it was well, in this case, it would still have to be a mixed use project.

But, I mean, that quickly changes the landscape and the feeling of these communities. I mean, I understand, I mean, clearly there's a need for more affordable housing. These rates, the example that was given, I don't know if that really solves a lot of problems for people who are struggling, you know, to pay rent. But it's interesting to see how this plays out.

I Mr. Chair?

May I?

Yes, please.

Thank you. Has there been discussion, or did we already talk about the environmental impact of the development of this area?

The environmental impact, they would be required to submit, as part of their site plan review process, all the necessary documents that we currently require for every project. So we would look at traffic. We would look at environmental impact. We would look at circulation. Again, we'd look at all the bulk regulations, like the floor area ratio and the square footage. Are they meeting the criteria of Live Local? Are they meeting criteria of our multifamily standards? All of that has to be taken into account.

Prior to development?

Prior to getting a stamped approved site plan. You're welcome.

I think it would be interesting, by the way, to it does seem like there is a little bit of a carrot in terms of the Live Local standard in terms of offering mixed use, especially given that currently this particular area doesn't really have much in the way of any commercial access right there in your proximity. So to the extent that we could require a greater percentage of mixed use might make the equation a little bit more interesting for the developer to try to understand. I don't know if that would be good or bad. I guess it would depend on whether we thought this would be a good project. I do know this area that was annexed. It was Did the applicant Did they own the land already? Or did they are they under contract? We know if they're

I believe they're under contract. And I mean, all of these properties were individually owned and are individually owned. So it went through a different process than the voluntary versus involuntary

investigation. Yes. And so I think that one of the things that at least makes me feel not like it's just some random resident that's going to get something is that I think that with the annexation that people did have an idea that there was going to be future development on these sites, and that was part of the reason for why they wanted to be voluntarily annexed, I suppose. But it will be But they didn't

come out for public comment during the land use and zoning Yeah. Changes as

Okay. In terms of our process then, so we're basically looking to adopt this policy that's being presented. And then administratively, applications will go to staff. Will it go to counsel for final approval? Or how much of this is done administratively?

MS. So I'm going to let Andrew handle that. Because what we're what I'm all I'm doing right now is just basically going through the criteria of Live Local, how we're utilizing it on our website, getting that information out to the public, and the the two projects that we have. As far as the policy, I I would

Yeah. So the incentive report, if it gets approved tonight, will go to village Council. But it is in relation to our ship funds.

And just In terms of the applications, so developers got this plan. We approve the criteria.

MACHT: It goes through sort of the normal process. Mean, it does Yeah, don't think we have this one

JOSHUA This project is outside of it.

JOSHUA Yeah, we don't even get any she's just filling us in because it came up. Don't even think we get any I mean, it's really, as I understand it, it's fully administrative, the decision making process for it. I don't think we are Even though we are the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, don't think we get to have any influence on it at all, because there's So I think that the next the item that we're going to have for the that's going to have public hearing with it is going to be the incentive report for it, but that's apart from this. Don't think we're not providing them any incentives under ship for this project, is my understanding.

Yeah. Yeah, this is a straightforward site plan review. All

right. Thank you, Ms. Kramer. Any do we have any other comments? I don't want to cut it off before we're good? Okay. Next matter is the public hearing portion, which we will entertain public hearing after the presentation. This is for the annual housing and senate reports.

Thank

you.

So for those of you that don't know, we receive a ship allocation from the state. And because we receive over $350,000 we're required to have an AHAC. So if you look at the chart, this is what we've received since 2022, which was our inception of our ship program. And we've done a good job at catching up because we were a little bit behind, but we are almost fully caught up with encumbering and expending what we've received thus far. And we recently just submitted in September our first closeout report to the state, and we've yet to hear back.

So no news is good news on that. So as part of our SHIP strategy, we are required to have a LHAP, which is a three year basically plan, our local housing assistance plan. And in our plan, we have our housing strategies. So we have owner occupied rehab, emergency repair, and disaster repair. As part of this program, we have certain set aside requirements that we're required to meet.

30% of the funds must be reserved for very low income households of the local AMI, which is for us, that's probably our biggest challenge is hitting that set aside requirement. Because Wellington is a more affluent area. And finding those people that are homeowners, it's pretty difficult.

Do we have to is a policy by which we have to actually verify the income on that? Like do we have to is it a certain look back? I'm just thinking about people that are older, they can usually control their income each Yeah.

It's actually for SHIP, it's actually looking forward. So they're required to submit pay stubs, and then we do a calculation of what it's going to be for the remainder of the year. And they're also required they basically sign an affidavit that they're

That they're qualified. Okay.

That's what they expect to make. But pay stubs, we have to go through their assets, expenses.

So there's an asset requirement as well so that even if they didn't make very much income, they still have to have a below a certain amount of assets?

And I believe to qualify the assessed value of the home has to be below 568,000.

From the property assessed? For the property Thanks. Sorry to take you off track there.

It's getting challenging to find

something I know. It has

been challenging, although we have been able to find people. We find a lot of residents who have been in Wellington for a long time. I think the average length of homeownership is around twenty years. And most of those people have been in their home a long time and are now on fixed income and are just seeing the cost of living is really outpacing what they're receiving on their fixed income. So there are other strategies that we could do that we have not approved in our LHAP.

That's new construction, down payment, mortgage assistance, which the county does that, if didn't know that. Palm Beach County receives SHIP funding, and they've allocated, I believe, dollars 3,000,000 for down payment assistance. So I think they offer up to a 100,000, I believe they took 30 or 40 applicants. We could also do construction and gap financing and acquisition of property for affordable housing, tenant assistance, which we've done in the past and we no longer do, impact fees, and homeownership counseling. So this chart is, I believe, it's from 2023, but this is kind of a breakdown of our block groups by income.

And then on the next slide is where we've done our grant projects, our home rehabs. It's kinda it's it is kinda all over, but the majority is kinda in that, you know, Old Wellington area off Forest Hill. So since we've started SHIP, we've approved 47 rehab projects, and 31 have been completed. And the average cost for each project is $32,558 Typically, the projects take about eight months to complete from the day the application is received until completion. Right now, we're seeing a lot of reroofs, impact windows, shutter installations, water heater replacements, electrical panels, and air conditionings.

These are some of our projects we were able to accomplish this past application cycle.

That was that was the bees' house. Right?

Yeah. So this this house was infested with bees on this balcony, and it was also the balcony was failing. So we we removed the bees, then we did we basically built them a new balcony.

This is a

reroof. This was replacement of siding. And this so we were through our disaster repair strategy, we were able to help people affected by the tornado last year from Hurricane Milton. It was one of these houses on this cul de sac here. And the issue with this hurricane or or tornado was that it really affected people who are in the, you know, higher income area.

So we it was we got a lot of calls, but it was we weren't able to help a lot of people due to the the income requirements. So there there were some requested topics for tonight about rental assistance. We we have offered it in the past in our first cycle. We discontinued it because we received minimal interest. I believe we only received two applications, and they were both incomplete.

I mean, we do have a higher homeownership rate than the state of Florida and Palm Beach County. We do think that since we've started the program, we've gotten a lot more we've done a lot more marketing. And then through word-of-mouth, lot more people know about the program. So maybe if we were to reimplement it again, it could be more successful. Another topic was down payment assistance.

First time homebuyers are currently the lowest market share. The average age of the first time homebuyer is now 38 years old. If we were to do this strategy, it'd be an excellent strategy to use up a large amount of funds at one time. But our staff, I think village council as well, through our CDBG program, I think they think that, you know, home rehab is kind of the best strategy to to help the most amount of people possible. And this was an example of the the Palm Beach County does the first time homebuyer program.

So going forward, we hope that the chair and vice chair can select one or two incentives. And at future meetings, we can kind of go through each incentive more thoroughly than what we've done in the past. In the past, our director, Tim Stillings, has kind of gone through each incentive and has presented on it. And we recommend for this incentive report so this report is due every year. We recommend that we continue doing what we've adopted in the past, which is the expedited permitting and the ongoing process review.

Just for background, for my memory purposes, I can't remember how we determine the ship allocation, how that's determined. Is it basically, can we ask for more money than we've received previously? I I see that the award varies. I'm assuming it's based upon the allocation that's received at the state level for the

project. JOSHUA Yeah. There's a formula that they allocate it by. So the funds are from it's through the Sadowski Act, it's from the document taxes on real estate transactions. Our funding has actually gone down.

Yeah. So I'm wondering, it based off of the percentage that we get? Is it based off of the DOC stamp tax received in real estate transactions inside the village of Wellington?

Inside the entire state. Okay.

Yeah. But how do they determine what allocation a municipality gets versus another municipality? Do we know? Do we have any insight on

I can look that up. Okay. I believe there is a formula.

Okay.

If it's like CDBG, they do it by population and kind of the AMI. Okay. That would just

be interesting to understand, because I agree with the council's or staff's decision that down payment assistance can be I mean, that could be a big chunk. And so especially given the grant allocations that we're getting, you know, we wouldn't be able to affect that many people in terms of versus the doing their emergency repairs. And

initially, once we got the funds, we were very worried about hitting those set asides for the very low brackets. But thus far, we've been able to find those people.

And do you think so it says, since inception, we have approved 47 home rehabilitation projects, and 31 have been completed. Do you think since Wellington's taken over the SHIP program versus the county that more people have participated in Wellington, like more education about the program and people know about it more so they're utilizing it more?

Yeah. Yeah. We've had a lot of residents who have applied because their neighbors have been in in the the program. Gloria and Tim were on the news. This was in last year's cycle. So a lot more people have have and we do a mailer every year in the utility bills. We'll we'll send out information about the grants. So, yeah, a lot more people know about the program.

That's good.

Question. What has been or have you identified as some of the most effective marketing strategies in trying to get the awareness of the grant opportunities?

I would say the utility bills. Yeah. It's most of our recipients are elderly.

They actually read their utility bills. They don't

get election. Unlike myself, they read their utility bills. So that's probably been the most effective strategy.

Okay. And then some other strategies that are implemented are?

For marketing? Yes. So we put it on our website. We will present to local clubs, like the senior club. We'll put notices in the Palm Beach Post. So that's what we've been using thus far.

Is it is it available in more than one language?

Good question. Yeah, that is a good question.

Yes.

It is.

Hi, yes. So we use the Neighborly portal software. And so you can actually log in and click what language. But also, too, with the applicant, whatever computer they're using, they can also put the setting there, it will translate on there.

JOSEPH Okay. Also, you mentioned that you put some posting on published posts and things like that. What about Atlantica's? Yeah. Digital newspaper that is available through the whole county, you know, no cost to the clients, you know, and they can subscribe just going online. And it's published. And Mirta Loases is the editor. And Mabeles, which has offices here in the business section of the Wellington LRC. So she's the she's the owner. She can she can help with that.

Okay.

Great. I can't give you her number, know,

so. Yeah. Andrea, have we come across any instances of fraud or abuse, misrepresentation on applications? Has there been any issues?

You know, we're as they tell us, we're not supposed to be auditors. You know, we're supposed to take people at their word. So I you know, no. You know, we we verify what they give us, and, you know, we take it as long

as it pans out. Pans out. But if there's something nefarious going on, it's not your job to

investigate. To that end, do we do any like, know they talked about that with the county for the down payment assistance, they do a 0% payment deferred mortgage that's recorded and released after, I think they said thirty years or something. But the do we is there any security that we have, like to try to for the funds that have been given? I mean, terms of the grant, like is there any clawback provisions?

Yes. So it gets recorded

It does.

To lien against the property.

Okay,

good. And it's over five years, 0% interest. And basically, if you stay in your home for those five years, you don't have to pay anything. But if you were to sell the property, pass away or change the title, it's you pay it back at a prorated amount.

Okay. But there's not like a forgive the the proration would have to be manual, so there's no like automatic offset? Like, if somebody for example, if we if there was an incidence of fraud or something or abuse and it got audited, right, and somebody was found to have not been entitled to the funds, they could we could technically have a lien to enforce the full repayment.

Yeah. So there was we did have one foreclosure, and, yeah, we got funds back. Okay. Great.

Well, not great for the foreclosure, but great that

we have. Yeah.

Further comments? If we don't have any, I entertain a motion for approval.

Motion.

Motion by Mr. Pagan. Any second?

I

second. All those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That carries unanimously. All right. Oh, actually, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. But I don't know if I can do this retroactively or not, but we should have opened public comment, I believe. So a public hearing. Does anyone want to make a motion to open public hearing? Second. Public comment. I'll entertain a second.

Second.

Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, public comment is opened. Are there any comments from the public? Hearing none, I will entertain a motion to close public comment.

So moved.

Thank you, Commissioner Siskind, Councilwoman Siskind. A second? Vice mayor. There you go. Okay, good. You. Very much. That's good. Okay, good. Thank you. A second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Green, thank you. All those in favor, aye. Any opposed? All right. Public comment is closed.

All

right. So any closing comments, Andrew, that you want to give? Or anybody that's

So the report will be submitted by the end of the year, granted village council approves it. So I'd like to schedule our next AHAC meeting for the first quarter of next year. Does anybody have any dates in mind?

What are we looking at? What month were we looking at?

February. Still going to be around? Yeah, you're going be around. You just snuck in.

You can get it to the end

of Just snuck

will be probably Councilwoman Sylvestre anyway, because that would be silly for me to come and then leave, you know. So I maybe I won't weigh in on this. I'll just let you all decide.

Is March better for you?

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't think that I have any travel scheduled in March, so I think that I'm generally available.

Like, Wednesday's the best, is that what we are aiming for? Because

Wednesday is good for me. I mean, I I can I can send out dates March

for Wednesday? Yep.

And, yeah, we'll go from there.

You'll just check that there's no other, obviously, no other I think I have a planning and zoning meeting scheduled. I might get a hold on my calendar for that. But I'm sure we won't you won't book on the same date.

Does anybody have any conflicts now? March 5 is Ash Wednesday. It shouldn't really impact the meeting, but the twelfth would be a conflict for me again. I know we had March 12 last year, but it's my daughter's birthday. I could do the fifth. Do we want do it on Wednesday or the nineteenth?

I think you might be in are you in 2025?

Yeah. Oh, never mind. Sorry.

I thought that I might be first. So Okay. Hold

on. Let's change the year. Here we go.

March 25? How about?

Right. Fourth or the eleventh would

be Yeah, fourth, eleventh, eighteenth or twenty fifth.

So are you the chairman, John?

Well, think the eighteenth I have blocked. I don't know if that's gonna that meeting will go or not, but it's for PZAB. But the So the fourth, eleventh, or twenty fifth, I can make all of those. So anybody else?

Fourth works. The fourth works. Fourth works? Works? We've got a quorum.

Good. Does that work for you, Mr. Stoops? It works. Good. Okay. So I'll pencil that in.

Is it always at 06:30?

We can change the time.

Yeah, I think they was this one always at 06:30? I know PAZAB was at seven, and then they tried to get us to move to 06:30 because council meetings moved to 06:30, and we fought them on PZAB, but we went to seven But I think this is either is, has been 06:30, or it's were converted with council times. Is that a problem, Heather?

No. I was just curious if it was that was the standard time.

Yes. 06:30 is good. Yep.

It's fine with me.

You will be sending an email anyway, right?

Yes.

All right. Sorry we got that out of the way, I put it in my calendar. So I apologize for keeping everybody holding. Okay. So any other comments from the committee before we adjourn?

I just want to make a comment that I saw in the news not too long ago regarding Palm Beach County employees who works in the West Palm Beach County, about 38 to 36% of them, they live in a different county. Because they cannot afford the housing here. So they live Stuart North. That's where they've been living. So I'm thinking in terms of any thoughts about that, we're trying to call affordable housing in Wellington Village to see, you know, I don't know how many of the employees are living in Broward, you know, so or living in Martin County, you know, but.

Yeah. It's a good question. I'm myself, I live in Wellington. I think the majority of my coworkers do not live in Wellington. They live in West Palm, yeah, but not Wellington.

I have

a question, though. The AHI, is that something debatable, or is that set by state or county?

The AMI? AMI, I'm sorry. I believe it's statutory, but I don't know what the, how you pull out the area. I'd be interested to know how you pull out the area median, like what defines the area.

So the Department of Housing and Urban Development, they put out those numbers.

And is the same across the county, or is it different by cities, or is it different by because I'm thinking, like, the county, we have Mr. Polanyi. Ours is

West Palm. They say the West Palm Metro Area.

Okay. Area. Okay. And then so like the Glades, like that area would be different, would be a different

Yeah, that would

be Okay. right.

And that's not that's set in Okay.

it's set in stone.

The numbers come out, I think, April of each

year. Okay. I

was curious that it was only 40%, and it was at the 120%. I guess you could try to lobby your legislators in the Florida to see if they could pass something that gives us some more granularity around lower income, but I think that's beyond our scope here in the village to be able to control. That's really state's debt. All right. Any other questions or comments?

I just wanted to like, since this might be my last meeting, I attend these Region V AHAC workshops for the village by Zoom. And so all of our neighbors, like West Lake and West Palm Beach, are on there. And I just wanted to give you kind of a flavor of what it is that we discuss. And it's not always relevant to Wellington because we're pretty much a build out. And we have different issues than other people have when we're trying to come up with ideas to how we can create affordable housing.

So some of the things they talk about is like the rental assistance program, which we know isn't as big here in Wellington as other places. But they also discuss things like habitat for humanity, changes in LDRs and zoning to be able to increase affordable housing options. Then they also, the different committees, set priorities. So I guess you guys will be doing that now, our new chair and vice chair, setting priorities for the committee going forward. We also discussed the public school boards selling land as another way to maybe acquire some land. The Live Local Act, which we went over tonight. And then YIGBI, yes, in God's Backyard. And how would this apply to us? It's something that passed earlier this year. Didn't know if we were going to present on it tonight.

But it's discretionary, not mandated. And it's a minimum 10% affordable housing relative to the AMI. And it's faith based and colleges underutilized land, another way to acquire additional land. And I also brought up for Wellington the, you know, annexation as something that we could potentially, and now it's happening. So that's another way for us. But just to give you a flavor, that's kind of the stuff we talk about. They talked about first time homebuyers being the lowest market share that it's been. The age of first time homebuyers being higher, like an average of thirty eight years. And the need for maybe smaller homes or splitting lot sizes into smaller. You know, just these are the kind of things we discuss in these meetings.

And I just wanted to bring that to you since I attend those. And like I said, this might be my last meeting.

Thank you. CHRISTOPHER appears that some of the challenges would be, though and it's funny, I've been having these conversations with some family members who do feel like we'd like to create some housing, whether these are tiny homes. And I keep telling him, I said, the problem is, guys, the land you're going to find to be able to do that is going to be in areas that the density is going to be your biggest problem. So I don't know how we can address that, but I think there'd be a great opportunity for somebody to come in and do sort of a tiny house community with maybe some common elements and shared community assets. But small mean, look, these are not intended to be homes you live in for thirty, forty years.

It's you're young, you're starting your career, or maybe you're scaling down. But these are opportunities for people to get in and have good housing and good communities, send their kids to good schools or to hopefully stay in Wellington and raise a family. So I don't know how we can get around that or how we can address that. I don't think we have that problem here because we don't have that much land that we can it's all equestrian. And it's going to be problems to get it out.

But we've looked at areas like in Loxahatchee, in the acreage. And it's interesting to see kind of these 106 unit developments going in. Maybe there is a way to kind of tackle this. But to me, that's always been the challenge is you know, you wanna get the higher densities to make it affordable for people, but these communities don't want that kind of density on five acres. Right. So if if there's gonna be a change to that, if this is a little pocket, then, you know, maybe there is some opportunities out there for folks.

JULIE just to piggyback on that, can I ask that we talk about ADUs next time? Because I think that would be

Yeah. I think accessory dwelling units would be an interesting was also curious, I think it would be interesting to explore what kind of because typically you put in restrictions on multifamily properties that you record. They're recordable in terms of they consent to agree to a thirty year period. How you deal with ADUs if there's going to be I mean, typically, accessory it'll be interesting to see what the standard requirements around accessory dwelling units are, and then also how you would enforce some kind of affordability element on private property that could potentially be it's just that would be sort of an interesting exercise to kind of talk through what that would look like. I think that is Yeah. An interesting

the ADUs, I think, themselves are affordable. It's doing the land, the plumbing, all that makes it not affordable. You may as well just

Yeah. Well, depending if you have to if you have to do the upgrades to your electric, you may have to replace it entirely different. If you're if you're gonna have a dual a new meter, you know, if you're gonna have to do, you know, that's

But like something like that on how that that could be accessible here, but plus the cost effectiveness for people.

It would be interesting.

So your biggest barrier is going be your land acquisition costs because land prices are just so high that you run these numbers and just the underwriting typically doesn't work in more affluent communities because our land costs are so high.

Yeah, would agree with A. The only thing I could see is potentially somebody I mean, maybe there's a market for people that have bought their house in Paddock Park one, you know, a long time ago, and could theoretically have an accessory dwelling unit. And if we got it under maybe we could help with infrastructure costs up to a certain amount if we got it under this, and they would basically get the gravy income off of it if they capped it a certain amount. You know, I don't know. Maybe those are ideas, but

And if you made them, though, specifically for, like, multifamily purpose, not for, like, income Correct.

Yeah. Something. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. I think we can talk about that afterwards at the next meeting. All right. Well, you all. Unless there's anything else, I would take a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Second?

Second.

Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. We are closed out. Thank you all.