area median income range so it's a it's a moderate income facility not a low income facility there
will be a few units that would be designated for folks at 20 percent of area median income
and a few units targeted for those at 80 percent of area median income. The city has indicated
support for the proposal in the form of a million and a half dollars in home funding that was
approved for 2020 because we didn't have a zoning approval that that commitment expired but there
is another application that will be submitted within a few weeks to the city by the by the
the team in addition human good itself is going to be contributing a million and a half dollars
in equity to construct the property we're estimating the total total project cost to be
about 17 million so they're and while the human good and the parish are non-profits the entity
which actually owns the parcel will be for profit. So they will be taxable for real estate purposes.
So there will be construction, investment, and real estate tax revenues that will be generated
that will provide an economic impact for the city. Now, as far as the RCO process and the
community process, it's been a little bit protracted. We initially submitted this
application back in September of 2019 to L&I, got the refusal. The ZBA appeal was filed in October
of 2019. Before even the L&I application went in, Father Walsh organized a meeting of the neighbors
and that was held at the church. He received some feedback. After we filed the zoning application,
we had our hearing date, initial hearing date was November of last year. There was an RCO meeting
coordinated by the 50th democratic ward and held on October 29th of last year. Based on some issues
raised at that hearing we decided to continue the November 14th 2019 hearing date. COVID then hit
and our process stalled but in the interim we've made a number of changes to the plans based again
on what we heard. We're now proposing an additional 16 parking spaces on site so we'll have a total
of 25 spaces. Recall I indicated earlier we were proposing nine and we've also modified the facade
so the facade will now be all brick and it will look essentially like that. On September 29th of
this year we held a follow-up meeting with the 50th Democratic Ward and that was the meeting
pursuant to which the letter was issued. Unfortunately they did not approve the
the the project of the 72 non-project related attendees at the meeting uh 19 supported the
balance were indicated as having opposed the project um were based on feedback that father
walsh received from the from the the entire rco process in the community process um he's set up
a neighborhood advisory council um with his church we'll meet with the community um on a regular
basis. To date they've already met three times and it's hopeful that he can resolve some of the
issues and the concerns that the neighborhood has. Are you suggesting Mr. Kerr that this
discussion is still ongoing? Well the neighborhood has raised other issues related to the parish
so Father Walsh has agreed that he's going to he's going to deal with this
these ongoing issues through this neighborhood advisory council
um but we've had significant discussions with the community about this this project so we are
uh we do intend to put the case on today um i have all my this is lined up and uh because
some of the issues again are not related to this project they're related to other other issues with
with the parish okay yeah before before you go any further uh is the councilwoman parker's
representative on by any chance? Hillary? We have Hillary Emerson that's been unmuted.
Yeah, I'd like to hear from Hillary before we go any further.
Yeah, I'd like to hear from Hillary before we go any further.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Hillary Emerson on behalf of Councilwoman Sherelle Parker, Emerson, E-M-E-R-S-O-N.
Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
The reason I asked you to get on before Mr. Kerr brings on his witnesses,
The indication is that the RCO has voted to oppose this project, but then he mentioned something about Father Walsh creating some sort of advisory committee.
I'm not sure what that may mean.
Do you have any, could you, you know, enlighten us about that?
Yeah, so absolutely.
So just at the outset, as the project stands right now, the councilwoman does not support it because she does not feel that the applicant has done enough to garner community support and address some issues that Mr. Kerr alluded to,
some trust issues stemming from past projects that the church has done that caused some concern
in the community. So because the support by the near neighbors is not significant for this project
right now, there is some support in the broader neighborhood, but the near
neighbors have indicated at meetings and to our office that they are not in support of the
project at this time. Therefore, the councilwoman is not in support at this time. We do understand
that Father Walsh has set up the advisory committee, and they have been meeting, and we
we think that's a great um first step forward um but as I said the um there still seems to be um
the the advisory committee is relatively new so it it will it will I think take time before
the the issues are resolved so the you know we we don't feel that they they have been resolved to
the you know to the point where that we can support the project yeah just the advisory
committee Mr. Kerr is is the is the mission of the advisory committee to address the concerns that
the the community is having about supporting this project I mean if that's the case I'm just
not clear on that I can answer yeah okay Hillary you can give your take and then I will give my
take sure yeah so no the it is our understanding that the advisory um committee is um working to
address multiple issues at the campus for which the community has expressed concern not solely
the senior housing project. That's where I get a little confused it's like
suppose just hypothetically if the advisory committee comes back with some recommendations
as it relates to this project that could be I'm just saying may or may not be acceptable by the
immediate community uh is that something that the advisory committee is that part of their mission
i guess or is i know there's other issues but is is this project part of that issue
this is one of the sorry this is hillary again um this project is one of um i have i have not
attended one of the meetings but i have seen um minutes from a couple of the meetings and this
project has been one of the issues that has been discussed at the meetings. So what I'm getting at
Mr. Kerr is rather than the board make any decision today if this advisory committee's part of its
mission is the deal is to address any of those issues that may have caught may be causing the
immediate community not to support it wouldn't we be better off waiting? Well we've had
three but three community meetings now two with the RCO the advisory committee meetings were
really set up at the suggestion that it came out of the RCO meetings related to other issues with
the parish not not necessarily this building not necessarily this building so it was really an
effort from our perspective to sort of mend some fences and improve relations between the parish
in the community. And that was an effort that was independent of this application. And again,
we've had two RCO meetings, we have a letter. We think we're at a point where we have
significant support but there's significant opposition and we're not sure that we're
significant support, but there's significant opposition, and we're not sure.
that this advisory committee will ever get rid of get rid of that opposition we just think that
some of it is just the folks don't want this in their backyard and that's we we see that a lot
so what I would prefer to do the other issue is we have I indicated the city home funding
that application process is coming up in a few weeks in early January I believe
and then the PHFA application is in February and we need to have some zoning resolution hopefully
a positive resolution for those applications so we're concerned about not moving forward now
what so what I like to do is put put our case on the record today if the board after you hear our
case wants us wants to hold the decision so that we can work further with the councilwoman the RCO
we're willing to do that but we would like to just keep this moving given some of the
the time constraints that we have going forward well again that's what i was i'm suggesting only
because of this advisory committee which for all the good intentions they have i mean to me it kind
of sounds like it's duplicate but but maybe it isn't i i don't know i mean i i'm not at those
meetings um so all right look if we can in the interest of time we do have a 3 30 session this
we're way behind and i know this is important it's not a small case by no means if you could
just maybe summarize it we don't no disrespect but to have all of your witnesses come on i can't
imagine what they're going to tell us that's anything that's that much significant as to
what you've said uh correct me if i'm wrong um they were they were going to provide some additional
um color but i will summarize what i was going to have each of them say and then i will have them
just confirm that that's what they would have said okay be very helpful thank you okay so as
far as father walsh he would would have testified that um that he did in fact hold the initial
meeting before the application was was um submitted to lni he's been in attendance at the uh the two
rco meetings and that in that whole process on a number of occasions he has actually gone around
to the blocks immediately surrounding the property, including the 7,800 and 7,900 blocks
of Williams and Forrest, 1,200, 1,300, and 1,400 blocks of Vernon and Phil Elena. He's
knocked on doors. He's tried to get signatures. He's tried to talk to folks. A lot of folks
wouldn't answer the door. His estimation is that of the folks that he was able to talk
to in those blocks. About 50% of them were in support of the project.
In the, he held the most, there was a meeting, a neighborhood advisory council meeting in
October. Again, they flyered and knocked on doors on all of those blocks. They got about
50 folks who attended on Zoom and 20 who attended in person in the church. And again, he felt
that the support was about 50 percent um amongst those who attended in person while the folks on
zoom his his sense was that more than 50 percent of them supported the uh the project so at this
point can father can you just raise your hand um and i'll just have you confirm that uh that my
my statement is accurate good evening father just identify please identify yourself with
the record and i'll swear you in christopher walsh and father do you swear and affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do thank you mr kirk yes good afternoon father
you've been on this call for the the entirety of uh my presentation so far i have okay and
you've heard my statements with regard to the project and your efforts on the project
I am. And are those accurate? They are. And do you adopt them as your own testimony? I do. Okay,
thank you. Next witness will be Vidhi Anderson. Vidhi, could you raise your hand?
hi can you hear me yes please identify yourself my name is vidhi anderson it's v-i-d-h-i
and i'm a development director for human good thank you swear and affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes okay miss miss anderson uh her testimony would be
basically that she's been involved uh at presby and human good for a number of years um she's
been involved in you know up to two dozen of these types of uh of affordable housing properties um
she's very experienced with these she believes that these are this is a very
She's very experienced with these.
She believes that this is a very appropriate location, that there's a very significant need in this neighborhood.
She would give you a little background on the tax credit process, a key fact that it's administered by PHFA, which has oversight as far as maintenance, upkeep, the construction.
So there's very high standards, all of which are monitored by PHFA.
So this would be a very high quality property, despite the fact that it's going to be used for affordable housing.
There's also 25 parking spaces, she would have testified as to this chart, which I'm sharing.
These are affordable housing communities that Human Good East owns and or manages.
And let me just see if I can scroll down here a little bit.
What you see is that these are the number of apartments in this column, the number of parking spaces provided, number of residents with vehicles, and these are the ratios of residence vehicles to the number of spaces, the spaces per unit and the resident vehicles per unit.
So if we scroll down, in total, you'll see that they have 2,400 units.
They have 810 parking spaces at those complexes where they have 2,400 units.
Currently, resident with vehicles are about 545.
So they have fewer resident vehicles than they have parking spaces.
And that all of the ratios are, you know, below 75%.
It would be the ratio of resident vehicles for the number of spaces.
So less than 70% of the spaces are filled with resident vehicles.
We need about a third of the resident spaces per unit.
And then the resident vehicles per unit, there's about 0.22% of the resident units actually have vehicles.
She would also testify that this, it's her experience that this development would bring positive impacts to the neighborhood.
It would provide much needed affordable housing and that it wouldn't result in any negative impacts.
So, Ms. Anderson, you've heard all my statements today, correct?
And you've been on for the entirety of this proceeding?
Yes, I have.
And are my statements accurate?
They are. Yes. And do you adopt them as your own testimony? I do.
Thank you. Okay. Then I have one last witness, Nancy Bastian from Cecil Baker Architects.
And I'm going to defer to Nancy. I'm just going to let her walk you through the plan just so you
have a sense for what... Actually, I don't know if we need that at this particular time. And I
No disrespect.
I'm just trying in my head, and I'm open for any suggestions from my fellow board members.
I don't want to shut the door on this either way.
There's obviously community concerns.
The Councilwoman's office has concerns.
But there's obviously a need for senior housing, not only in that neighborhood, in every neighborhood in the city, I assume.
And I know you have some deadline dates as it relates to tax credits.
I think you said one is in January
One is in early January
And I know we have the holidays
Coming up so I don't know how quickly
If we could get back on in early January
That would be great
That's what my next question was going to be
I know we're way out
We're out in February now
But is there any opportunities Tanya
In January
What will we be
Asking for in January
A resumption
of just community input alone uh i would think so because i don't i think mr kerr gave us a
pretty good overview of what they they want to do and the purpose is obviously is for senior housing
yeah i think i would just want to have miss bastion talk about the plan a little bit and
that should be my last witness i think there are three neighbors who want to testify in support
and i assume there are some who want to testify in opposition right but again i'm not sure if
you know sometimes we make obviously don't make the right decisions here that if a if a follow-up
meeting is going to satisfy any any of the opposition i'm not encouraging that i'm just
trying to be fair to everybody so if we can just do a resumption meeting uh hearing
on january sometime how about january the 20th at 3 30 um and if the board wishes or the chair
likes, we can also take testimony via letters.
um likes we can also take testimony um via letters yeah we can do that mr kerr okay all right and
and hillary you still on
no i'll get her back chair okay we'll just we'll let her know so uh it's understood that uh
MI 2020-000717-1330 Vernon Road.
This hearing will be resumed on January the 20th at 3.30 p.m.,
at which time we will consider any feedback related to the RCO's position
and the Councilwoman Parker's office.