SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 2018 | 7A
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“There is a preference in the
grant for rural and communities
of color. We feel like we have a
decent chance with this grant be-
cause we are so rural.”
If awarded the LIFT grant,
NEDCO and WNHS will begin
work on a potential affordable
housing project on Airport Road
that could bring up to 12 one- to
three-bedroom houses to a 1.73-
acre lot.
By partnering with NEDCO
and WNHS, two nonprofits in
the process of merging, Florence
hopes the application is success-
ful.
“These are two organizations
that cover all of Lane County
and Linn, Benton and Lincoln,
so quite a few areas,” Weese said.
“They are slowly starting to
merge out to the rural areas. …
NEDCO has done quite a bit of
affordable housing work in the
Eugene-Springfield area. This is
the first time they will spread this
far west to Florence.”
The current plan, which both
the city and NEDCO representa-
tive Karen Saxe emphasized is still
preliminary, involves 12 cottage
cluster units with their own park-
ing and storage gathered around a
central green space.
“The common greenspace in-
cludes a pavilion, and this is all
common area that people can
share together. Each of the homes
will have additional yards and pa-
tios that are theirs individually,”
Weese said. “This is called ‘miss-
ing middle’ housing because it’s
a middle ground between apart-
ment living and homeownership
in the traditional sense.”
The units will have a smaller
footprint than traditional homes
and should be easier for first-time
buyers to purchase a home.
NEDCO will hold the land in
a community land trust while the
homes are purchased with mort-
gages, similarly to a condo, Weese
said.
Saxe, NEDCO’s director of as-
set building programs, said, “We
just plan to be a strong and active
partner in this moving forward.
The community land trust is an
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ability for us to maintain perma-
nent affordability. These will be
held affordable in perpetuity. We
are making sure that everything
we do on the front-end allows
homeowners to buy the home,
build equity and move on to
whatever their next step in home-
ownership is. And it allows us to
give an affordable opportunity for
the next first-time home buyer.”
The five city councilors ap-
proved the sale agreement for $0,
showing a local buy-in that should
reflect positively in the grant ap-
plication, Weese said. However,
the property sale will only move
forward if the grant succeeds.
“This agreement is between the
city and NEDCO/WNHS for the
city to sell the land should they
achieve grant funding and be able
to actually develop the property
as is,” Weese said. “The proper-
ty value was set for $238,000 in
2017. It will be used as addition-
al points in the grant system. We
hope to have a very competitive
grant with this sort of local gov-
ernment money going towards
the project.”
The timeline for the develop-
ment is contingent on receiv-
ing the grant, which will be an-
nounced in October. If approved,
it will involve community interest
meetings for potential buyers and
community feedback, as well as
classes and counseling through
NEDCO’s financial and housing
programs. In addition, a new site
for the Florence Community Gar-
den will be sought.
“All of that only occurs if grant
funding is achieved,” Weese said.
“If NEDCO/WNHS can’t get
funding, then the city will main-
tain ownership of the property,
the proposed sale agreement will
expire and we’ll continue to have
a community garden until we find
another alternative for the site.”
The City of Florence contin-
ues to seek options for affordable
housing on many different fronts.
“We feel like this meets the
city’s goals of economic develop-
ment and livability and quality
of life,” Weese said. “Affordable
housing is a dire issue in Florence.
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that, or the city. This is some-
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thing that we have been working
on for a year a half, and this is an
opportunity to have an innovative
solution that really works to help
some families.
Mayor Joe Henry said, “We’ve
really been working hard on af-
fordable housing for longer than a
year and a half. So far, we haven’t
been very successful. I believe this
is an opportunity … I’m appre-
ciative of NEDCO stepping in to
show us their model and at least
start this process.”
Before the council approved
moving forward with the proj-
ect, four residents in the Airport
Road and 15th Street area spoke
out against the project as it stood.
The primary concern was the
character of the neighborhood,
and how it already stands in an
area of change.
According to resident Thomas
Elzy, 15th Street is increasing-
ly used by local traffic to access
Kingwood Street and the Flor-
ence Municipal Airport. In ad-
dition, he added there is already
a “pinch point” at the Highway
101 entrance because of local
businesses and people needing to
access their homes and the Boys
and Girls Club of Western Lane
County.
“I believe there needs to be a lot
of research done on the impact
to this neighborhood,” Elzy said.
“This development would greatly
increase the population, as well
as the traffic. That would pose a
safety concern to organizations
directly on that street.”
Jonathon Hornung, a teacher
at Siuslaw High School, also had
concerns for the neighborhood.
“As a parent now,” he said, ges-
turing to his one-month old son
and wife who also attended the
meeting, “and as a teacher in this
community, I understand the
need for housing. However, I see
a lot of problems with this project
as it has been presented.”
He expressed worry about
losing the “woodsy, quiet feel of
the neighborhood,” especially if
stands of native vegetation were
removed.
“The City of Florence claims
it is the ‘City of Rhododendrons’
and that the ‘city is committed
to maintain natural beauty while
welcoming new development,’
but the Florence Realization 2020
Comprehensive Plan states that
the city has done a poor job of
maintaining native stands of veg-
etation,” Hornung stated. “It says
that if the city wants to keep using
the ‘City of Rhododendrons’ title,
it must get proactive.”
Besides wanting to preserve the
area’s natural beauty, Hornung
said the vegetation is vital to re-
taining the integrity of a dune that
runs along part of the property, as
well as the neighboring Mulberry
land.
“I’m not a fan of this land sale,
but if it does get approved, I im-
plore you to add an amendment
that the vegetation on the dune
along the southern border be pre-
served … along with the western
edge,” Hornung said. “It would
help to stabilize things.”
Hornung also said the 2020
Plan requires a certain amount of
native vegetation be kept on new
developments.
Vegetation was also important
to David and Rosemary Lauria.
“You’d be taking away a moun-
tain, not just removing the com-
munity garden,” said Rosemary.
“In May, that forest on the other
side of the garden is a sea of pink
— and I’d hate to see that gone. I
hate to lose the song of the war-
blers in the spring. I hate to lose
the family of deer that sleeps
underneath our rhododendron
bush. It’s our house that has the
baby birds in our flower basket.
It’s a quality of life.”
David said that “other consid-
erations need to be thought out,”
including the economic impact to
the neighborhood.
He said an appraisal of his own
property showed that lower-in-
come housing already in that area
had reduced his property value.
“What about the economic val-
ue of the property? If you lower
the property value of somebody’s
house, who pays for that, and
how do you determine it?” Da-
vid asked. “You are hurting all the
other direct neighbors, property
value wise, while you’re trying to
help another sector of the com-
munity.”
He said he had lived through a
similar pattern in Boulder, Colo.,
which turned into “a nightmare
problem.”
“I have seen the effects of tre-
mendous infill in the city that
overtaxed the infrastructure that
was never set up to hold the num-
ber of people living there,” he said.
“I realize right now that affordable
housing is a political hot button,
and I agree with the need and the
whole concept. … But 15th street
was never meant to take that kind
of traffic.
The speakers all agreed that
housing, especially affordable
housing, is important; they just
worried that the current model
would bring too much change
to an already strained neighbor-
hood.
Several of the speakers spoke
of a need for a buffer between the
single-family zoned homes and
this proposed multi-family NED-
CO site, especially as up to 40
people could occupy the 12 units.
“The public land is being mis-
used,” Elzy said. “Any time the city
deems property a surplus proper-
ty, there needs to be a public hear-
ing and there needs to be public
input to determine what the pub-
lic would like for the property. …
That land is not owned by the city
or the city council. That land is
owned by the taxpayers. I would
like to see more input being given
from the taxpayers.”
At the end of the hearing, Saxe
and Weese answered questions.
“We’re in a very early stage of
this,” Saxe said. “As applications
go in for funding, and as fund-
ing is secured, a lot of the ques-
tions and concerns that came up
from neighbors will certainly be
a large part of our conversations
and our process moving forward.
Our next step is to really start a
series of outreach meetings, both
with prospective first-time buyers
of these homes but also with the
neighbors to get more of this info.
… I was very happy to hear from
some close surrounding neigh-
bors tonight.”
Weese said that the civil engi-
neers and architects will be a ma-
jor part of any decisions moving
forward, as well as community
stakeholders and the neighboring
residents.
She added that the city has been
partners with NEDCO/WNHS
for six months so far.
“They both are really nonprof-
its focused on building quality, af-
fordable housing. They’ve done a
good job in their other areas, and
they are not really here to bull-
doze over vegetation and upset a
neighborhood. They really want
to make sure that this fits the
needs of the community. That’s
why we feel confident they will be
able to do the work. But it is a leap
of faith to some extent, since we
do not have the permission to be
able to say exactly what the devel-
opment will look like at this stage.
Frankly, we need the money for
that,” Weese said.
She said the Florence Planning
Department is well aware of every
step necessary in any new de-
velopment, and know about the
slope of the dune and the impor-
tance of the stabilizing nature of
the vegetation.
“When and if we get grant
funding, we will need to have a
civil engineer come in and as-
sess the slope and the vegetation,”
Weese said. “I will say, as already
proposed, there is still intended to
be quite a bit of vegetation on the
slope on the south side of the de-
velopment, just because the slope
is steep. That vegetation is the best
way to keep the slope intact, and
we’re very much aware of that.”
During the council discussion,
councilors questioned if it would
be feasible to add clarifying lan-
guage to the motion that these
issues will be addressed.
Councilor Joshua Greene
asked, “If the priority were to
maintain a certain quality of the
dunes and landscape, do you
think NEDCO would be willing
to reconfigure its design in a way
that will incorporate that type of
landscaping? If you are flexible
enough to consider that, do you
think that is still doable?”
Saxe agreed that NEDCO is
willing to be flexible and reiter-
ated the very early nature of the
current design.
“(These comments) will be a
central part of our exploration
process moving forward,” she
said. “We will make sure we have
the right people at the table to re-
ally dive into that in a way that is
sustainable to both homeowners
who will be living there and also
to the neighbors.”
Ultimately, it was decided that
the motion would move forward
as written.
Henry said, “We will move on
with the idea that we will have
additional public input and lots
more planning to try to address
some of the issues.”
Later, he added, “On paper, this
development looks nicer than
some of the other areas in this
community.”
On June 21, Florence City Code
changes from Ordinance No. 4,
Series 2018, concerning Acces-
sory Dwelling Units (ADU) and
other housing amendments, went
into effect.
According to the code, an ADU
is “an accessory building specifi-
cally designed and permitted as
an additional dwelling, which is
incidental, appropriate and sub-
ordinate to a primary dwelling on
a property. ADUs may be part of
the same structure as the primary
dwelling as an interior dwelling
unit, attached dwelling unit, or
a detached dwelling unit on the
same lot. These are also known as
a secondary dwelling unit, gran-
ny-flat or in-law suite.”
Florence City Council also
voted this year to lower systems
development charges for new de-
velopments adding into the city’s
infrastructure.