26 August 2019 Dearborn County Plan Commission Meeting Notes
Present: Dennis Kraus, Jr., Chairman, Russell Beiersdorfer, John Hawley, Mark Lehman, Michael Lynch, Jake Hoog, Bill Ullrich, Jim Thatcher, and Eric Lang
Also Present: Mark McCormack, Plan Director, and Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.
ACTION ON MINUTES-none
OLD BUSINESS:
NEW BUSINESS: Terri Randall from One Dearborn founded mid 2018 and the board of directors is mainly private sector and they decide yearly what is prioritized. They needed a team to analyze the housing market issues that they heard were an issue. Realtors and homebuilders in the area were frustrated with what was happening with the housing market. This was also what the government officials were saying separately. They built a task force team builders, econ development, realtors, lenders, health care, planning and zoning and the building inspector and developers. The team selected Ratio Design to study it. The study was paid for by One Dearborn- NOT the government.
Matt Ruwe ( sp?) from Ratio spoke. They wanted to understand who was looking for housing and the availability of those types of units. Identify price points and household types by profiles.Long term projections look like the population is flattening out since 2010. they looked at the different geographic markets and demand from submarkets. NW side of the county has some demand for housing. They had 151 houses in demand for next 5 years. Looking at the western side of Cincinnati- then they could capture a larger share of that market…
Empty nesters is expanding in western suburbs and soccer moms with kids in schools are the 2 biggest markets to tap into. Escalating costs of 7% increases per year in home building can be an issue Sanitary sewer capacity is an issue. Building requirements can be too strict or limiting so that an increase cost. A lot of young families aren’t interested in a lot of acreage to mow. Especially in the river cities there are a historical homes and aging housing that need to be maintained.
If you are able to build more homes per acre then you get more revenue. 12 homes per acre as in town homes and zero lots lines can be built for $200,000. This would triple the typical density we have at 4 per acre.
Subdivision ordinance in the county- can we target some of it for higher density with 12 homes per acre?
Can we have some demolition and infill housing in other areas?
Housing rehab programs? Can we work with banks for loans in the cities for this?
Aurora is targeting the Hanover neighborhood- it’s a unique neighborhood to save.
Randall said there are a lot of existing programs that might be able to finance these goals. Historic Landmarks in Aurora for example to preserve those historical assets.
Matt Ruwe - Big one for unincorporated areas. - State legislature is trying to create a housing tax increment finance district to help finance this. Tax base is set at 100 and if you try to put in 200 homes you will have to look for some buy in. Interest would come from some unincorporated area that is near the infrastructure. Instead of trying to hammer landlords there may be other options and good landlord programs.
They wanted to investigate properties where people showed interest. Topography had to be considered. Talking about a fit with the neighborhood- not putting rentals next to single family homes. You may know people and farmers that might sell 20 acres of their land.
Chip Farrell looking at a property for some affordable housing for workers in Aurora near the Casket Company.
Section 8 housing gets vouchers to make up the difference between the $750 -$1000 a month rents. Teachers and police officers earning $45-55,000 might need this type of housing. These could be done with 4-9% tax credits.
Housing development could move to get economic benefits according to the charts.
Thatcher asked about builders in HVL. Matt said that the builders there were looking for a variety of price points and some leeway and flexibility in the regulations for building. Flexibility would be in the townhome portion of eta development. They provide a lot of fiscal impact and tax base.
Beiersdorfer asked about St. Leon area- with their sewer. Seems like they neglected it. TWO THIRDS of the county is not serviced by sewers. They noted that the discussion was not ready to happen there in St. Leon for density. There are some sewer capacity issues.
Ullrich- mixed use housing- see the Riviera Fisher homes for an example.
McCormack asked how empty nesters and soccer moms became the demographic that were signed out. They looked at the national averages of how they figured. Those two types were fairly affluent. The supplemental info explains these types and how we need more of them is figured. You could attract them with the proper housing types.
He also asked for the next 5 years- and our projection of 303 homes. They think they could double this number if we tapped into other markets. They said that it’s not necessarily the 12units per acre - more of a mixed use thing.
Beiersdorfer said people want to live closer to where they work. And this plan is trying to move them out from the city where they work???
Randall said the most important thing validated in the study. With the income distributions- people under $75,000 are gravitating near the cities. The average median incomes are gravitating to the cities. No one is saying you have to change your ordinances but maybe let is bring in some of the people in small groups quietly who build houses so you can see what their issues are. That way they can feel spoken to as well. Thatcher asked for s list of these people perhaps.
Cluster development is part of the subdivision ordinance.
Ron Sweeney was one of task force members who introduced himself to Terri Randall. He’s involved with Third and Main in Aurora. He was past of Aston Oaks in Cincinnati. To get to the 12 units its a stacked plat project. He worked with John Niehaus out there. The homes went from $200,000 to over a million each. The village of North Bend had an antiquated plan and they helped them rewrite the code with law firm. It took a long time. After that he worked for Drees Company after that. His job was to find the project with sewer, school districts, and municipalities that want development. They don’t want to go where people don’t want them. Sweeney said any project you work in the 275 loop… The big buzzword in affordable housing is affordable. You need to get the young people back - same as in the churches. Realtor and VP development were his previous jobs. Start the needle working.
End of discussion with Randall from One Dearborn.
Afterwards McCormack and the board talked about the sewer issues in the county and development.
ADMINISTRATIVE:
- New bond for Woodridge for both Phases 1 and 2 received. Morgan’s Ridge bond also and have to mid Sept to work out something with Maxwell.
- Have a GIS situation worked out in the county with Schneider and we have a staff person to be the point of contact with the county and the consultant.
- Ordinance is prepare on access to collector roads is prepared and in your packet. This also outlines where tech review will be handling some decisions. INDOT permits don’t need a county approval also unless you are creating a new street. Limits on access to a collector 1 roadway to tech review approval. Access points should be designated on land division plats. County Engineer is relied on mainly.
- Site plans and 10% changes was changed to 1000 sq ft. Wants to make it larger sq ft. Also parking expansions also have issues with waivers. 9x18 are parking space dimensions. Trying to get the language to be more realistic. Impervious surfaces need to be looked at for drainage.He’s thinking 2000 sq ft might be a better number. Erosion control plan. Soil and Water may still be required to review the plans. They are now working on different standards due to MS4 rules.
- Wireless telecommunications consultant agreement with CMS is out of date. He got a name from Ice Miller of someone who works on this as his area of expertise. They also have to consider the 5G towers in the future too.
- 950 sq ft is minimum sq footage for a manufactured mobile home in the Indiana Code. And it can’t be different for regular homes from mobile homes. You have to worry about Tiny Homes then… In reality it should be dropped to 450 sq ft. OR building inspector said it can be 290-400 sq ft. So we have to figure out what we want to put in our code. Bringing back next month.
Meeting adjourned at 9:15 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
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