Frisco Town Council Regular Meeting | September 28, 2021
Frisco Town Council met tonight to discuss possible workforce housing solutions, STRs were not a significant focus of the conversation. There was a discussion on conversion of STRs to LTRs and current long-term rental to sustainable LTR incentive programs, the latter being the focus of the conversation. The details will be flushed out by staff. All other proposed suggestions will be discussed at future meetings.
Public Comment
I tuned in during the middle of public comment (I think there was only one) – I think it was the man who led the petition, and he was strongly in favor of keeping the community culture, encourage the second homeowners to let the people decide, the council should let the people decide.
Workforce Housing Discussion Follow-Up 1) MAYOR OPENS PUBLIC HEARING 2) STAFF REPORT 3) PUBLIC COMMENTS 4) MAYOR CLOSES PUBLIC HEARING 5) COUNCIL DISCUSSION 6) MOTION MADE 7) MOTION SECONDED 8) DISCUSSION ON MOTION 9) QUESTION CALLED
Attached – Staff Report – Housing Follow-up
Attached – September 14 2021, Staff Workforce Housing Report
Ms. Henson, housing manager, comes forward and gives an overview of the topics discussed on the 14th and the staff follow-up document. Based on council’s feedback we prioritized the goals we discussed in short-term, mid-term and long term goals.
They start by discussing the 275 Granite Street or the Sabitini lot – with workforce housing covenant or requirement within the sale requirements. I want this to be turned into workforce housing rentals. We know we need more rentals. Challenging to hear but someone suggests increasing revenue stream off of STRs. We need to proactively work to stop what’s happening in other communities. Melissa chimes in on 275, I think it would be helpful to define the outcome that we want. Is it rental, do we want to own it, what is the perfects scenario? I think a deed restriction would be a good tool, what other tools do we want to use as well. I think we share the end result and ask Eva and staff to support us with the tools to achieve that goal. Someone else agrees that we aren’t ready to just sell we need to be thoughtful about our approaches.
They discussed the 275 Granite property sale until 8 pm. Staff will come back with a more clear vision.
Policy & Regulatory Measures
Ms. Henson brings forward the incentivization program for LTR, it could be STR to LTR or other folks who have never rented before to incentivize LTR. Councilor chimes in that the most immediate solution is likely a hotel conversion. If those rooms come to the long-term market rate, you don’t have to approach that from an STR perspective. I think we need to go back to the program FIRC ran years ago where they vetted the long-term renter. We can’t have irresponsible use, there has to be covenants for being in the program to qualify for the AMI rate. It has to be inspected monthly with some accountability, however if that person stays in the program, we need to have longer term plans for these folks. Incentivize good performance for renters to keep them in programs. That is why Vrbo works, you can’t rent if you have bad reviews. We need them to have skin in the game to be good renters and stay in the program. Municipalities across the west are leveraging these AMI programs.
Councilor chimes in that is we can incentivize a couple long-term conversions; people would be interested. Ms. Henson shares that there are people who have contacted her, they want to see what the incentive program will look like and they will list their property for LTR. We are open to 2-3 months even so that owners can use it. We need to articulate the details. Ms. Henson shared that in the survey they saw that people are concerned about getting the tenant out of the property, if they can’t find other housing, people are nervous about eviction etc. Councilor commented that hotel properties who are open to LTR conversions. We need liquidity in our 5A dollars for this use. Landing pad units for people coming in at hotel block, then move into a longer LTR then move them back to landing pad hotel when they need to relocate.
We will bring you something back on this next meeting because we need housing for the season. Centura has rented rooms at the Ramada with the adaptive reuse for some of their winter season employees. One councilor laughs at the circle of hotel and lodging being the target now. STRs should still be a target, we can put 1-month incentives where we support the incentive, but it takes them off the market of STR just for a month, we should include property management in that conversation. It allows for both STR and LTR. Ms. Henson shared that FIRC isn’t managing the program anymore, but they sent it to OMNI rentals and OMNI wants to do a partnership. They would only charge 6% to manage background checks, move in and move out, etc. through this long-term rental incentive program. Shifting between STR to LTR and back.
Ms. Henson asks if existing workforce LTRs in town who are housing locals can be eligible if they are already renting to locals. Councilor chimes in that they should enter the program with the lease and get the incentive. Ms. Henson shares that Big Sky Montana gave people a 6 month back fill of the new incentive program. One councilor asks why we would include people who can afford to rent, other comments that some folks may not be able to continue to keep LTR rates low but are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts for now. The criteria would be required to show local worker is the occupant, not a remote worker for example.
The council has a long discussion on a possible rent subsidy or LTR incentive program – all are supportive, but members of council seem to be in a lot of different places on how they would like to see the program implemented. Some suggest individual circumstances, others prefer a blanket dollar amount. Mayor comments that they should have two separate programs – STR to LTR and local long-term to sustainable LTRs.
Wary of this going to a rent control conversation, the legislature took care of that. They discuss federal and state requirements.
They ask staff to bring back more details on these possible programs.
The mayor asks if we can adjust prioritization on building permits. He suggests moving building permit submissions that include a workforce housing proponent, they would move to the top of the pile on building permit approval. Staff says that they can do that but would recommend a policy publicly in council meeting for them to implement. One councilor pushes back that we would like to really flush that idea out as we don’t want to pit people against each other. Another chimes in that during a crisis, some people need to take a backseat.
Funding and Finance
Ms. Henson brings up the real estate investment fee, which would allow council to direct revenues toward housing related project. This does exist in the code, if we made any changes, it would take ordinance change. There is a local’s exemption, would require 12 months living in Frisco proper, with a cap on income level. If someone was deemed eligible it takes money off the purchase price of a home. Update this code to percentage so it doesn’t have hard dollar numbers in the code. It will require an ordinance.
Ms. Henson shared that they are closing two Housing Helps assistance program chomes for locals on Monday.
There are other items on the list, we will bring them back in upcoming meetings. We aren’t just giving approval or denying them, we will bring that back at other meeting.
Public comment was allowed out of respect for the man who spoke at the beginning. They shared their disappointment in his disrespect and shared a few words on good renters incentivizing property owners to decrease their rental prices.
