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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRDA Minutes 1998-04-22 Chairman Eugene R. Mullin M I N U T E S Boardmembers: James L. Datzman Redevelopment Agency Joseph A. Fernekes Karyl Matsumoto Municipal Services Building John R. Penna Community Room April 22, 1998 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN CALL TO ORDER: (Cassette No. 1) 7:14 p.m. Chairman Mullin presiding. ROLL CALL: Boardmembers present: Datzman, Fernekes, Matsumoto, Penna and Mullin. Boardmembers absent: None. AGENDA REVIEW AGENDA REVIEW Executive Director Wilson stated there were no changes to the Agenda. CONSENT CALENDAR CONSENT CALENDAR -- Motion to approve Minutes of the Regular Meeting of Approved. 4/08/98. 2. Motion to confirm expense claims of 4/22/98. Approved in the amount of $36,042.18. 3. Resolution authorizing an Owner Participation Agree- ment with TC Northern California Inc. (Trammel Crow Co.) for the property at 349 Oyster Point Bou- levard. ~'~ ~ A RESOLUTION APPROVING AN OWNER PAR- RESOLUTION NO. 5-98 TICIPATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND TRAMMEL CROW NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INCORPORATED, RELATED TO PROPERTY AT 349 OYSTER POINT BOULE- VARD M/S Datzman/Fernekes - To approve the Consent Calendar. Carried by unanimous voice vote. '--DMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS Motion authorizing staff to draft the required partici- Director of Economic & Community Development pation agreements with Mid-Peninsula Housing Co- Van Duyn related the history of the building 4/22/98 Page 1 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN .ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS Motion - Continued. of Willow Gardens and its subsequent problems with lack of management, maintenance, vandalism, drugs alition, to issue a request for proposals to secure and crime over the last twenty years. He spoke of consultant services to undertake the Redevelopment the Assessment Lighting and Landscaping District Plan amendment, to prepare preliminary work re- formed and in effect to make amenity improvements quired for the public purpose bond issue and autho- to the site which have fallen into disrepair and an rize expenditure of the Agency Housing Fund reserve additional $50,000 is needed as it sits today, in in the amount of $3,500,000. .~qoffi addition all of these task forces came with a price which was over $150,000. The Police Dept. in a survey tabulated a years worth of police calls from the Project in one year with 562 calls to which they responded. He went over the major five problems in the project - the site plan, the set backs, open space, parking and related issues due to a lack of sufficient management, deferred maintenance, and garbage, vandalism, overcrowding and crime has de- manded City time. CDBG Coordinator Fragoso highlighted the proposal from Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition: notice of the meeting was sent to 350 owners and residents, to a 300' radius and notices to owners in Minnesoto; the acquisition of 17 four-plex structures; market inflationary values have made things worse for these sell for $385,000 and that doesn't pay for the maintenance needed, and staff is not seeing signs of reinvestment; while condos would create additional problems for the City and the residents in terms of relocation and the inability to use redevelopment funds, as well as the social problems not being addressed; the key word is reinvestment that results in improved living conditions; Mid-Peninsula's plan requires the acquisition of 17 four-plex structures; the proposed rehab will include exterior facade im- provements, interior renovation and landscape de- sign and many units will receive a private entry and a private patio area, and some will have a conver- sion of the interior garages into living space to create three bedroom units, creation of an on-site manager's office and, a public laundry facility and public street improvements to foster pedestrian use to create a sense of place; in Mid-Peninsula's expe- rience it takes a minimum of 30 % of a neighbor- hood to turn it around and have the site control to handle problems; the final two things are on-site professional management over the units and a loan management over the units and a loan limit that could be made available to all owners and that would work hand in hand with code enforcement; 4/22/98 Page 2 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN _ ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS Motion - Continued. she described the project financing and pay back issues. Ms. Wagstaff, Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition, related: Mid-Peninsula is a private non-profit orga- nization; they have been in business for 30 years; they have bought, developed and manage 360 hous- es; this City is not unique in having a neighborhood causing problems because of poor design and main- tenance and poor management; she showed slides of the various managed projects they have turned around, this was after the rehab, investment and working with all the people in the neighborhood, so they could upgrade their own as well. Mr. Mike Pistof related: there is a book on how to make safe housing developments and in 1964 this development was built without those ideas; there are escape routes throughout the development that make it easy for the criminal to get away, and if the corri- dors are shut down you discourage them; a no, no is that the entire ground floor is given up to autos and no human supervision of what people are doing in the street, so the public realm is insecure; they are here to set the stage so the management will bear fruit; they are proposing to have street trees and front yards and front porches with people living on the ground floor; they want to allow people to sit on their front porches and enjoy their living. Mr. Frank Decesare, 389 Heather Way, related: he is the owner of 312 Susie Way; he was hoping after a month of waiting that the Council was going to come up with a better idea, specifically with the three bedrooms; we are talking about improving the area and he does not think taking out garage spaces will improve the area; you are going to have lots less parking spots; if you are to convert his units, you would be denying him, so how can you listen to these people for it boggles his mind; he keeps hear- ing about garbage and trash, yet we are paying $920 a year for that; the City is supposed to keep the street clean, the garbage collected and take care of the greens; the only thing he has seen the City do is put in a light in the back of the building; his build- ing will never be for sale, it is always clean and anyone can come and inspect his building; taking away garages will make a lot less parking spaces and should be against City Codes; you are talking 4/22/98 Page 3 1 AGENDA AC_TIQN TAKEN .-ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS about low cost housing when the area is surroundedby $400,000-$500,000 homes; he is not against low cost housing, but he does not believe Willow Gardens should be included as such; he admits that some of the property owners are not doing their job, but the City could enforce the laws and have them keep up their places; etc. Discussion followed: the development now has 1.5 parking spaces per unit and there will not be a loss of parking spaces in the proposed plan; staff will come back for authorization of the loan and other issues. Mr. Joseph O'Connor stated he in lives in San Mateo, owns 348 Susie Way, has concerns about the neighborhood and echoes some concerns already ex- pressed. He is one of the owners that is trying to manage their property and are at their property once a week. He has looked forward with some enthusi- asm to some of the plans these people are putting forth, because he too is concerned about the way the property is maintained, however, he screens his tenants and they take good care of their homes. He also has a concern about converting the garages for his tenants use the garage and park their cars there. If the City converts the garages -- he is a registered engineer and his apartments have windows and one can see out as well as if they lived on the ground floor. He would like to see improvements in the neighborhood, what he heard makes sense but he questions the conversion of the garage for his ten- ants have nice cars and want a garage. Anything other than converting the garages he will support and will work with the City. Mrs. Helen O'Connor stated their tenants are screened, each unit has two cars, one in the garage and one outside. They have fantastic views for everything faces the front and they can see the kids. She suggested having a basketball court and some- one to supervise, to give the kids something to do other than vandalism. ..... Discussion followed: Vice Chairman Datzman stated, speaking about the expenditures of $3.5 million, that recommendation was not made lightly and the people looked at it carefully and the staff is coming back and saying it makes common sense; 4/22/98 Page 4 I AGENDA ACTION TAKEN ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS Motion - Continued. CDBG Coordinator Fragoso spoke of redevelopment funds spent in the last year in the downtown and the existing fund resource and the projected tax incre- ment will be sufficient to cover the debt service on the downtown and the new bonds and there will still be sufficient funds to undertake other projects; Vice Chairman Datzman related his experience as a police officer dealing with the impacts of Willow Gardens and waiting for the problems to go away; there were two, three, four, as well as group meetings in the neighborhood and more than not, we heard it was the City's problems; so, we invested revenue re- sources to take care of things and we are right back here again; and since 1991-92 we have spent a lot of years dealing with the problem; we sat down with the owners over many months and talked about issues and problems and at the same time heard criticism of the City; the City did more resources and we were encouraged and said, okay homeown- ers now is the time to come together and put re- sources together and give us some on-site manage- ment to make this thing right; we got finger point- ing, yet these are nice people; he looks at the list and he does not see a single owner that lives there and he looks at the continuing police calls where everything is still the same; he was there today with a student government person and did not see any- thing different; he thinks that the recommendation made may be imperfect, because when we sit down and talk about it, it needs to be done and we are talking about affordable housing and that is impor- tant and meets important social needs which is something we are required to look at; we are look- ing at Mid-Peninsula that has a proven track record and they meet with people and are making things happen; Boardmember Penna stated he received five calls and a hang up on his cellular phone tonight; Mr. Ray Nennery, 294 Holly Ave., questioned which apartments are being affected and voiced concern on how this is going to be done; CDBG . Coordinator Fragoso stated it will be those that are on the market; the next question had to do with parking on the sidewalk, so how do you prevent that; there is no sidewalk, people are parking outside their garage and are parking half way into the street and in the garage, so each unit will have one full size designated space and a parking lot will be com- mitted for a total of 1.5 spaces per unit; Chairman Mullin stated there are certain areas of the design 4/22/98 Page 5 1 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS Motion - Continued. that are preliminary, it is general concepts and the conversion of garages may in some be appropriate and may not be appropriate; more units will not be added; if you have two bedroom units and you assume two cars in each unit, then where do all these people park when you create the third bed- room; still be 1.5 spaces per unit; when Boardmember Penna walked into the meeting he was not in favor of the project, but his opinion changed due to the number of police calls and meeting with Mid-Peninsula where he saw a high quality manage- ment firm that takes some property over and makes improvements; so, he is seeing opportunities for af- fordable housing that is needed by State law and the City does not have a choice; redevelopment funds are also available to any individual owners, but they have to abide by the regulations to stay with the affordable factor which most people would not like to do; Boardmember Penna spoke of the housing shortage for people with limited income and said the City would be able to go in and if the individual __ would not sell we could use eminent domain, but the intent is not to take the entire area, but maybe a third just enough to allow everyone to know we are dead serious to see the area improved and put a management team in; Boardmember Fernekes stated in his 16 years of public service the one continual item coming up is what are you going to do with Willow Gardens, he appreciates the Vice Chairman's comments as a policeman, for the problem still ex- ists and he applauds staff; staff heard from the Council and the Agency on numerous occasions to come back with a recommendation and he concurs with Boardmember Penna and the Subcommittee that this project is good for the City; Mr. Jimmy Brusco stated he has lived in S.S.F. all of his life and ques- tioned why they were running down Willow Gar- dens, how about looking at Westborough; before it was the problem of garbage and now you want to pack more people in there with more bedrooms and then you have more problems; who picks up the papers there, how many times a week does the City do that and yet we pay the landscaper; he stated he owned the whole area at one time and he cleaned it __ by himself; when he cut the lawn then, on the com- mon greens, he put on the sprinklers and fixed them; the person the City hired doesn't do it and the sprinklers shoot the water into the bedrooms; he is against taking out the garages; Mr. O'Connor stated, 4/22/98 Page 6 1 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS ADMINISTATIVE BUSINESS Motion - Continued. if units are bought that are kept up, is Mid-Peninsula improving a situation or making it worse; Ms. Wagstaff stated it is not their intention to cherry pick; Mr. Don Jacobs, 390 Susie Way, questioned, if no one is willing to sell is Mid-Peninsula going to make 17 properties look bad and say they are not up to Code; Chairman Mullin stated it is a free market and there are properties that come on the market; the City is not going to come in and take over 17 buildings and the Chairman can assure Mr. Jacobs the whole intent is to get the buildings in disrepair; Mr. Jacobs questioned how Mid-Peninsula rents will affect the property owners' rents that are at the mar- ket place that do not want to sell; Chairman Mullin stated the City is going to go along with Mid-Penin- sula based on their 30 years of experience and it is a good faith effort; Boardmember Penna stated this is an attempt to remove the negative housing that exists in the area, so the property owners can take advan- tage of improved situation and rent out at fair mar- ket rates and have a higher quality product that is __ not there at this time; Vice Chairman Datzman stated Mid-Peninsula and our staff have solid reputations in working with the people and he is in support of the project. M/S Datzman/Fernekes - To authorize staff to draft the required participation agreements with Mid- Peninsula Housing Coalition, to issue a request for proposals to secure consultant services to undertake the Redevelopment Plan amendment, to prepare preliminary work required for the public purpose bond issue and authorize expenditure of the Agency Housing Fund reserve in the amount of $3,500,000. Carried by unanimous roll call vote. GOOD AND WELFARE GOOD AND WELFARE No one chose to speak. M/S Datzman/Penna - To adjourn the meeting. Carried by unanimous voice vote. ~DJOURNMENT: Time of adjournment was 8:47 p.m. 4/22/98 Page 7 AGENDA ACTION TAKEN RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, APPROVED. Barbara A. Battaya, Clerk ~' Redevelopment Agency ~irman City of South San Francisco City of South San Francisco The entries of this Agency meeting show the action taken by the Redevelopment Agency to dispose of an item. Oral communications, arguments and comments are recorded on tape. The tape and documents related to the items are on file in the Office of the City Clerk and are available for inspection, review and copying. 4/22/98 Page 8 !