Authority to order, please.

Roll call.

Here.

Coleman.

Here.

Johnson.

Here.

Just here.

Commissioner Kim is excused.

Commissioner Naker is absent.

Excuse me.

Five present two at uh one is absent.

That is Commissioner Naker and Commissioner Kim is excused.

Item number one, resolution twenty-five dash fifteen thirty.

Reservation of the year twenty twenty-six low income housing tax credits for the Aerodon development, located at four seventy White Bear Avenue, District One, Board Seven.

Great.

And um, welcome.

I'm the vice chair of the HRA, Sorry.

Uh, and this item, uh, we've received a staff report and presentation on this last week.

So I will take a motion from Chair Johnson uh to approve this item.

Is there any discussion or any further questions?

I I did just have a one uh smart discussion item.

Um, I definitely want to say also to um to to uh I was gonna say Chair Jones director.

Um, just particularly around just like walking us through the tax credits.

Um, one of the observations I made that I did not get a chance to to talk about particularly around this process is um the uh uh the one of the factors particularly around is the project uh funding actually complete.

Um, I think one of the mention one of the um items he had mentioned is that this uh project will be coming back around next year.

Um and this will be a three-year request for these tax credits, and what I just wanted to just you know share with my colleagues as we're looking at where our these tax dollars should go towards.

Um it's really important that we know prioritize properties that are to its completion and ready to go, um, just so we can prioritize who's actually ready to sustain and build housing um in this situation.

Uh there this is a phenomenal um development, and I'm really happy to see that there's a hundred percent affordable housing.

Um, but we won't actually see that until years to come.

Um so as we're you know looking at how we can most utilize and maximize our tax credits.

I think that's something that you know will be worth exploring around our factors of how we are scoring um for projects.

So I just wanted to share that with my colleagues because I didn't get a chance to to mention that last time.

Okay, but I will be in support of this item.

Um great.

Thank you, Councilmember Bowie.

Any other questions or comments?

Chair Johnson.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

Uh that not a council member.

I think in this instance when we had three applications, it seemed like the only existing uh property was the Ramsey Hill uh application, but separately, they were also the lowest scoring um when it came to just the criteria and the review uh and I think that some of the other factors that weighed into some of the to the both of the other two that scored significantly higher than that particular project.

Um to me, that just was uh piece that I wanted to highlight was the affordability pieces, was the you know, the attention to um some of the equity measures too that are important to me.

I know I'm just really excited to see that um one, I think the Aragon development um needs to actually continue to have that investment in order to be successful in a space that has not um been utilized at this time for for several years now.

And I know that when we've gone through through the discussions with uh community members having different events in my ward to discuss the Aragon project, um, you know, one of the things that I think is really important is the continued partnership that it requires with the city, and um, so I'm looking forward to that as we go into the next couple of years.

Uh and I think that all of the proposed projects also had a line item of what they expected to come back to the city for additional funding on in this case, and so none of them were going to just be a one-time piece.

Um, but I think being able to have uh folks that are going to utilize this funds.

The one nod that I will put in, I think that these funding sources should continue to remain in investing in affordable housing.

And as we continue to talk about uh LITEC and our lower income housing tax credits, um, you know, one piece that I would share is that we have affordability, you know, 30-year affordability currently in projects like this that would require them to maintain their affordability for a 30-year period of time.

I know in the few in upcoming weeks we'll be discussing whether or not to change some of our projects to a 15-year requirement.

And part of my opposition to that is because I want to continue to see investments in projects this way.

And so um, you know, one of the things that I will just share with you is that this is uh currently a vacant lot that sits in my ward um that has warranted a lot of conversations locally.

We have had several um office hours about our community event spaces, um, you know, and Beacon Interfaith in particular has done meetings with community members to talk about um this project, why it's important, what their commitment is to our award, and I think that's part of the reason why I got pushed over the edge with the scoring modules.

And so I'm just really excited to continue that partnership over the next couple of years.

It's something that I, you know, I'm supportive of the project itself, and overall just um really supportive of our low-income housing tax credits continuing to go towards long-term uh affordability and communities that want it.

And so just genuinely uh overall supportive, and with that I'd move uh motion.

Oh, great.

Yes, thank you, Chair Johnson.

So we have our motion on the table for approval of this item.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.