Thread by @shayshinecastle

New thread, and sorry no presentation available. But council is going to discuss the Fruehauf senior housing project, which it has an opportunity to call up (ie review vote on).

Carlisle starts by asking city to define congregate care vs. senior living. She (and I) thought these were going to be straight up senior apartments, but they're actually congregate care units...?

106 perm affordable units (100 1BR and 6 2BR), to be clear.

Fruehauf: 1.6 acres at 1665 33rd St. Sister project to 311 Mapleton.

We're waiting on Firnhaber to answer Carlisle's q, so Brockett asks one: How do we know we're getting 106 affordable units?

Gary Berg, from The Academy (who will operate the senior housing/care facility project) is taking this one.

There's a legal document, created during the 311 Mapleton project, guaranteeing 106 affordable units.

Carlisle, who 5 min ago praised the project as well done: How do you maintain affordability?

Berg: I'm new to this, but I understand there's a document we signed committing us to follow your affordable housing guidelines.

"I appreciate the confusion when you also mix into that services for seniors."

Congregate care, we think of it as assisted living, Berg says, but it's a definition in the city's code. "It might be helpful to think of this as a community of seniors that's going to start as independent living."

Three units count as one, per city code, apparently.

The "congregate care" part of the project is that the services will be offered a la carte so seniors can age in place, as they need more services. So it will start out as just straight up senior living, but the services will be there if ppl need them.

Weaver q for city attorney Tom Carr: We have a legally binding document that ties approval of 311 Mapleton to approval of this and provision of 106 affordable units?
Carr: Yes. We have a signed covenant.

Rentals are affordable; anything else they choose to do outside of that is up to the operator.

Weaver: One potential issue I see is traffic. Left turns off 33rd, are those allowed?

A traffic consultant I think named Chris, taking this one.

From the packet: Traffic analysis: 1,059 average daily weekday vehicle trips will be generated from this
40 entrances / 41 exits during a.m. rush
51 entrances / 34 exits during p.m. rush

Left-hand turns won't happen often into the site, engineer says, bc old ppl don't generate much traffic, but a compromise has been made so that left turns aren't blocking traffic.
(I missed what it was; I'm not sure if ppl are talking faster tonight or I'm just thinking slower.)

Seems like a good time to do a council candidate check-in. Gala Orba left within an hour but Corina Julca got here like 10 min ago. Adam Swetlik, of course, is still here.

Brockett praising the car-free approach to Fruehauf's. Residents won’t be allowed to have a car. For transportation: van-share, electric car share and bike sharing. 9 spaces in a planned 69-space garage will be reserved for electric car share.

Young asking about the qualification process and waitlists, etc. Seems like a good time to share this story I did two years ago on our desperate need for senior housing locally: dailycamera.com/2017/09/29/min…

Who are the bike facilities targeted toward, Young asks?
Architect from Coburn is fielding this one: Trying to accommodate employees, residents, ppl coming to the restaurant that will be on-site (which has parking at normal rates).

Like normal for what restaurants are required to have elsewhere in the city.

Those spots will double as visitor parking, bc a lot of ppl coming to eat there will be visiting someone.

OK now he is getting to bikes.

A number of bike parking spaces are meant for bike trailers, which the transportation dept recommended. "The bike parking is more for" employees, residents and visitors.

Young: Will there be a fee for using the car share cars?
Berg: There will, but it will be way less than owning your own car.
Young: Folks living here will be 60% AMI or less, right?
Architect: E-car shares are not an income stream; fees just cover costs.

Young: How will you keep track of if ppl don't have cars?
Berg: That's why this is the project to try this with, bc we're going to offer a high-quality product for an affordable price, and they have to make a sacrifice.

"Yeah, ppl can park on the street. It's public." But we're going to ask ppl not to have cars in exchange for everything we offer. We understand that's legal; as it turns out, "car drivers are not a protected class"

Plus the fleet of car share can be adjusted based on use, Coburn guy says.

(Also, this is really close to transit.)

Berg: The concept is they're giving up a legal right they have, to own a car, to live here.
Young: And if they get caught owning a car?
Berg: I would say they get a warning and then we get to kick them out.

It appears Kurt Firnhaber went home, so we're going to skip those questions, maybe.

Morzel: The definition only requires that one person in each dwelling unit has to be over 65. So do you intend this to be 100% senior housing?

Berg: Idk that yet. It's certainly the intention. But in many cities, senior living has gotten creative and encourage inter-generational living (like young musicians in exchange for them performing for residents, as an example).

Units are fully self-contained (kitchen, bathroom, washer/dryer)

My hippie olive oil/garlic/tea tree oil drops are wearing off and it feels like I have cement in my ears.

We're talking about how residents will qualify for the project. There are many checks for that, just like every other affordable housing project in the city.

Jones: "If you guys get this right, this could be a great model to serve a population that's growing in our town."

Council is now talking about design, which reminds me: I have renderings!

Project is asking for extra height (54.7 feet) Five stories (four over 69 podium parking spaces). They are entitled to that bc they are providing more than 40% affordable housing.

26 units = Fruehauf IH units (IH = inclusionary housing, what is required by city for affordable housing on each project)
25.8 units = 311 Mapleton IH units
50 units are bonus affordable; no city funds requested to subsidize

Project will be three buildings around central courtyard

And I'm gonna include this little tidbit bc I read through a friggin tree analysis and, damnit, I need somebody to care!

33 trees on-site, 11 species
8 are poor or very poor; should be removed, including three ash trees at risk of EAB

On the project as a whole, "good job," Weaver says. "It's really neat."

Young concerned about who might get excluded bc they still have a car (like elderly folks who are still working). Wants operators to keep track of who they provide housing for and who they're NOT providing housing for.

Not sure how they'll do that.

Weaver has an idea!

It will be ppl going through the application process but opt out once they realize they can't have a car.

"I really do think it's the folks that are working who are the biggest exposure."

This was my point when I first heard about/wrote about the project, which I pointed out. (I'll try and find the link.)

Berg saying there may be hardship exemptions for residents.

Young: "If you exclude someone bc they have to have a car, bc they have to drive to a job, to which they can't get to a bus... not everybody has all of the means. I'm just saying we need to be careful that with this policy we don't put somebody out on the street."

I agree, Coburn guy says. We are excluding thousands of ppl bc we're not building the units we need. We need 2,000 more units of senior housing. I'm shaken by that.

(I'm sorry I missed his name earlier. Ears not working properly.)

Which his doubly embarrassing bc I'm 100% certain I know who he is (as in, I've seen him and talked to him and reported stories with him in before) but I just can't get my brain to function.

Anyway, back to council: They will NOT call this project up, meaning Planning Board's OK is the final go-ahead. It will happen.

Well, still a few steps left. But still.

Weaver: There were many ppl concerned with 311 Mapleton when we approved that this wouldn't happen. So thank you for the work on this.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Good night, #Boulder!