From Mlongreene2 at aol.com Wed Oct 10 07:17:33 2007 From: Mlongreene2 at aol.com (Mlongreene2 at aol.com) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:17:33 EDT Subject: [yrhcworking] Tonight's Agenda Message-ID: Hi All, A reminder that we will be meeting at 7PM (in the large room at the Learning Center) to review where we are at and what needs doing! Hope you all can make it. Thanks, Mark YRHC Meeting Oct. 10, 2007 Working Agenda 1. Minutes of last meeting - 2. Old business Summary of working issues: Available parcels updates; 501c3 progress; Selection & Application Committee; Island Institute Grant; YRHCorp; 3. New business: a. Survey current housing needs b. Houses for Sale – what’s realistic? c. Housing conference – what should we tell legislators?? d. What else should we be doing?? e. Meeting schedule for Fall/Winter?? f. Peaks and Chebeague Housing starts – explore g. Your issues – open forum ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: YRHC Working Agenda Oct. 10, 2007.doc Type: application/octet-stream Size: 20480 bytes Desc: not available URL: From Mlongreene2 at aol.com Thu Oct 18 06:53:19 2007 From: Mlongreene2 at aol.com (Mlongreene2 at aol.com) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:53:19 EDT Subject: [yrhcworking] YRH Application/Selection Committee Meeting Message-ID: Greetings to the YRH App./Selection Committee: It seems that Wed. Oct. 24 @7 will work for the majority of you so I will post that immediately as the meeting date. (Brenda - is Town Hall available for that time?). This is your meeting, not mine, but I will be glad to do whatever you wish to get going. Suggest that the first meeting be an organizational one to determine what you wish to accomplish and what you need for resources (from YRHC and others) to accomplish it. As Housing Administrator and Advisor to our Island Fellow Alden Robinson, we stand ready to provide whatever resources we can to assist you in this important process. The major goal as I understand it is to develop a fair and open process for qualifying and prioritizing candidates for our Housing Initiative as proposed by the YRHC and passed at Town Meeting. Please feel free to contact me prior to the meeting (or at any time) with questions or requests for information and/or resources you might need. Thanks, Mark (Brenda - copy to Newell -thanks) ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Mlongreene2 at aol.com Fri Oct 19 07:41:30 2007 From: Mlongreene2 at aol.com (Mlongreene2 at aol.com) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:41:30 EDT Subject: [yrhcworking] YRHASC background info Message-ID: Good Morning, The attached (and opened document) was sent to all voters and is a good summary of the YRHC proposal which may be a helpful review for the Application and Selection Committee (YRHASC)??. Please request any other things that you think may be useful to get this process going. Brenda, Could you copy us all the exact wording of Article 47 as amended at Town Meeting? Thanks, Mark Brenda - copy for Newell - thanks Mark Informational Summary of Article 47 A Proposal by the Year Round Housing Committee (YRHC) to Lease Town Lands For Long Island Year Round Residents to build Homestead Housing Article 47. To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Selectmen to lease certain parcels of Town owned or tax acquired property for an annual fee of no less than, but not to exceed the amount that would otherwise be collected as tax revenue if the property were privately owned, for the purpose of allowing construction of privately owned homes under a criteria established by the Long Island Year Round Housing Committee “If the people who need to live here year-round, who do the work, who make it work, can’t live here, it’s all going to collapse. Simple as that. And this isn’t charity. Let’s forget that. This is reality. This is being members of a great community. And it’s emblematic of the oldest, simplest truth in the world: if you want to be happy, do everything you can to make other people happy.” You might think this is yet another great quote from the YRHC, but it is not. It is from historian and Martha’s Vineyard seasonal resident David McCullough speaking on that island’s housing crisis, which is not unlike the one brewing here on Long Island. We are not alone in our growing housing crisis; in fact we are late in coming to the table on this issue compared to other islands in Maine and elsewhere. But make no mistake - we are in no way exempt from the same forces that are at work undermining the future diversity and stability of our community like every where else on the coast and especially islands. The housing issue here is kind of like global warming – hard to see, hard to believe, and it may happen slowly enough that it can be doubted. But if it is true…then what? To this end, we of the YRHC have worked hard this year to put together a plan to begin to address this issue, which may be the most serious long term threat to our community of any that we have faced in the past. We think we have a proposal that is a real “win-win” for everyone. We hope you will take a few minutes to review what we have agreed upon as a proposed pilot project. This article comes very late in the Town Meeting agenda (#47), so we hope you will give us feedback and questions even before Town Meeting next week so that we can address them properly. Even better, if you find these proposals acceptable, please consider working with us in the future on our continuing efforts to refine the proposals and make them happen if we get a “ Yes Vote” at Town Meeting. Above all please stay long enough at the meeting to support these efforts with your vote. Why? The short summary of the Housing Survey, past articles in the Long Islander, and the Town Report is this: housing costs on Maine’s coastal islands have severely outstripped the income abilities of residents except the wealthiest, generally seasonal residents, to buy into their own communities. This is no ones fault, but is a result of an aging population nationwide with substantial resources in primary homes elsewhere looking for future retirement, investment, and/or vacation homes. We are fortunate to live in a place that is desirable towards that end, but it has driven up the value of the limited property here beyond the reach of most moderate income residents. Most impacted immediately are young people, young families and single individuals of all ages who are not presently property owners, but wish to remain a part of our strong, diverse, unique year round island community. The single biggest thing we can do to bring housing costs within reach of our own citizens is to control the cost (and availability) of the land, which is what this plan proposes to do. Equally threatened over the long term are all of us of all ages as the younger folks needed in any community to carry on the support activities are unable to find suitable, stable, year round housing, rental or otherwise. Their departure has happened on most other islands already and is happening here. We remain fortunate to have many younger folks still here, but uncertain of their future because they are in rentals that could change at any time. The lack of available, reasonable lands and houses to purchase is mostly of out of reach and getting worse. The potential loss of this part of our population will diminish the quality of life for all of us as our makeup becomes ever more seasonal and elderly. There will be fewer and fewer strong backs to help “ carry the load” and maintain the basic institutions and services we all need to safely and comfortably stay here. The Plan Allow the release of several parcels of Town owned land to be leased to qualified applicants upon which they will, entirely at their expense, build a home to suit their needs. We have crafted a plan that asks for no money, but rather brings in new full tax revenues on the (now untaxed) lands as well as the future improvements including the house at the same rates as if the property were privately owned. All costs of legal, survey, site plans, etc. on the Town lots being considered will be covered by the candidates and/or outside grant monies. At the same time, it allows the participants to build their own home as they see fit and be guaranteed that they can stay Long Islanders as long as the want without worrying about where they may have to move to next. Most significant is that it also gives hope and peace of mind to our young folks that there is a way to remain here if they want. Getting some of our present renters into their own homes, also potentially frees up very scarce twelve month rental housing situations for other folks to stay on or return to the island and maybe also become future permanent residents. Equally important we are conserving the future affordability of these properties by maintaining ownership of the scarce and valuable land upon which these houses will be built. We will be able to guarantee the repurchase of these relatively “affordable” homes in the future by the next generations. Details The devil is always in the details. It has been impressive how professionally the committee members have worked to craft the basic workings of the program. Getting the conditions of this proposal right so that is fair and attractive enough to the participants and acceptable to the voters has been very challenging. We offer the following as our best compromise so far and acknowledge that it is incomplete and will need more detail as we begin to implement the program. The list of “what if” questions is continuous but will make a better end product. Further resources, including the legal reviews and assistance needed will be committed to some of these questions if we get the go ahead to try this plan on several parcels with willing candidates. We need your “Yes” vote to move forward. There were seven major areas of the proposal that needed to be solved: 1 Who is eligible? 2. Who gets priority for the limited land available and who gets which parcel? 3. Who will make these difficult decisions? 4. What will be the transfer provisions if an owner decides to leave the program? 5. What will the lease provisions be? 6. What about financing? 7. Which land might be suitable? A brief synopsis of the plan for each of these topics: 1. Who is eligible? We boiled the basic eligibility to enter the program down to four major criteria: * Pre-approval for a mortgage * Year-round residence on the island for a period of time * Willingness to build a home in a set time-frame * Eligibility by income. 2. Who gets priority for the limited land available and who gets which parcel? We devised a point system to “rank” the most eligible candidates. It is important that: a) candidates who opt to lease the land have the greatest potential to stay long term on the island and be contributors to the community and b) it is in no ones best interest to have a house vacated and potentially be re-sold quickly, nor is it desirable to lose another year round family. The point system developed tries to keep those two points in focus and is as follows: * Not a current property owner: 10 points * Immediacy of need: up to 10 points * Involved in community life: up to 10 points * Employed on the island: 10 points * Number of people in household: 2 points per person, up to 10 * Family ties to the island: up to 10 points * Length of time on the island: 1 point per year, up to 10 3. Who will make these difficult decisions? It was proposed that an application process be used with an independent and diverse Selection Committee appointed by the Selectmen to review applications and assign points. This Selection Committee would develop the application and the application process and be given the authority to refine the criteria further before beginning the selection process. The qualified applicants with the highest number of points, as determined by the Selection Committee would be highest on the list for the next eligible lease property. 4. What will be the transfer price provisions if an owner decides to leave the program? Another important part of the lease is a formula that would determine the price the house could be sold for if the owner decides to leave the program. The YRHC, on behalf of the Town would have first refusal on the house at a price that would be equal to the replacement cost of the building, as calculated by insurance company standards and practices. Additionally, a complete home inspection for defects that might affect the value would be part of the final transfer price calculation. The additional value to the land and house due to the development of the property and improvements could also be added or split with the owner and Town. This price would give the first homeowners a potential return on their investment, especially if they used discounted materials and/or their own “sweat equity”. It would also make the house affordable to future eligible buyers, since they also would not have to buy the continually inflating land beneath it. The Year-Round Housing Committee, as noted, would have first refusal to buy the house, but first choice would normally be to broker a sale between the selling homeowner and the next eligible candidates on the waiting list. In the event that a house is not needed, the YRHC could opt to rent the property or ultimately the Town could opt to sell house and land outright and end the program if no longer in demand. 5. What will the lease provisions be? The YRHC is considering the use of a "ground lease" to allow eligible tenants to lease parcels of town land and build their own private houses. The committee is studying ground leases used on other islands to make them Long Island applicable. An important condition of the agreement would be that the tenants build an appropriate, year-round home on the site in an agreed timeframe, so the land does not sit unused indefinitely. Although the tenant would own the building, and could leave the value of the house to his or her heirs, the committee feels that the home should return to the program and its goals of keeping these Long Island properties as available, affordable, and year round as intended. (It was, however, agreed that an otherwise eligible offspring on the YRHC eligible waiting list should have additional priority on that list – an interesting example of some of the challenging “details” we have tried to deal with in planning this program). Significant legal assistance from grant monies will be utilized to fully develop and refine the model leases we are studying from other islands’ housing programs. 6. What about financing? Where this is leased land, many questions were generated as to how the financing would work. All financing for the building of the home on the leased land would be a private transaction between the lessee and a lending institution as with any other home mortgage program. Both Island Fellow Alden Robinson and Housing Administrator Mark Greene have attended numerous housing conferences and worked with the Genesis Community Loan Fund. We have been assured by lenders that this is a normal and straightforward situation that is gladly handled by many (but not all) banks. Camden National Bank, which has a Portland branch is an eager participant in these types of affordable housing initiatives up and down the coast of Maine. 7. Which parcels might be suitable? The Town has a modest number of land parcels – some in clear Town ownership, some in use by the Town, and others in the process of having their titles cleared for eventual Town ownership. All may be viewed on the Town website (townoflongisland.us). Most of the parcels are very small or very hard to get to or of uncertain title as yet. We are requesting some of the smaller parcels as a beginning to start the program modestly. We do not know if they are buildable at this time, but will undertake the necessary survey and site plan work to see. We will work with abutters and neighbors to see if they have concerns that we may negotiate. The parcels being requested for use by this program are: Lots 255/256 on Fowler Road across from the Transfer Station. These will not clear title to the Town until Nov. 07 and may be merged or reconfigured. They are minimum size. Lot 361 on Beach Ave. to the south of and behind Barter property. Minimum size and needs access via paper street work. Lot 344 at the corner of Beach Ave. and Fern Ave. Minimum size and uncertain ground quality. We hope the success of this program this year will encourage our fellow citizens to consider future releases of additional lands if needed to sustain this program in the future. Summary of the benefits of the YRHC proposal – Article 47 · Year round housing can be created by the private enterprise and efforts of the individuals involved in a time frame that can be as short as needed to keep folks permanently on the island. · The candidates selected can build a home to their liking, within broad guidelines, with their own financing and sweat equity. It will be theirs as long as they remain year round residents and meet conditions of the lease. Transfer provisions will be an agreed part of the contract to keep the properties as affordable and available as possible for future residents, yet give a fair return to those who have built and own the homes. · The affordability part of this is obvious as land does not have to be purchased, but will be leased by the Town and/or YRHC on a long term basis as long as conditions of the lease are met. · The Town still owns the land and it would be available for future year round housing needs if the original lessees leave or buy a different property. The value of the land and improvements can be sold at some future time should the need for this type of program ever disappear. · Lease payments would accrue to the community and be equal to the taxes that would otherwise be collected as if the land were privately owned. In addition, taxes would be paid on the home and improvements to the property the same as any other private residence. For all intents and purposes, the Town owned land is fully back on the tax rolls. · As our citizens build their own homes, hopefully the places they rent now will become available for others year round and contribute to the housing stock of the island by providing entry level rental housing options for young folks and others, and help maintain the future stability and diversity of our population. Please contact any of us with concerns or questions and hope to see you at Town Meeting. Year Round Housing Committee participants: Mark Greene, Chair Alden Robinson, Island Institute Fellow Ruth Peterson, Selectman Steve Train, Selectman Leah Doughty and Michael Maloney John Billings Will and Amy Tierney Mary Nanos Lorrinda Valls Tom and Tammy Hohn Jonothan Norton and Katie Wegner Cade and Melissa Brown ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Voters of Long Island.doc Type: application/octet-stream Size: 54784 bytes Desc: not available URL: From Mlongreene2 at aol.com Tue Oct 23 07:03:15 2007 From: Mlongreene2 at aol.com (Mlongreene2 at aol.com) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 07:03:15 EDT Subject: [yrhcworking] YRHASC background info - By Laws Example Message-ID: Good morning All, The following link will give you the Town of Long Island Planning Board By Laws, which modified and shortened may be a good outline of By Laws this Committee may (or may not) want to adopt as a guideline for the Committee's operation. I will bring a paper copy to the meeting if anyone has trouble accessing this. (All of this info is on the Town website-- townoflongisland.us _http://townoflongisland.us/uploads/File/Planning_Board/PlanningBoardByLaws_Re v-2007-0612.pdf_ (http://townoflongisland.us/uploads/File/Planning_Board/PlanningBoardByLaws_Rev-2007-0612.pdf) Mark ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Mlongreene2 at aol.com Sat Oct 27 13:12:23 2007 From: Mlongreene2 at aol.com (Mlongreene2 at aol.com) Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 13:12:23 EDT Subject: [yrhcworking] Fwd: Mortgage Pre-Approval Sample - Town of Long Island YRHC Message-ID: ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Mlongreene2 at aol.com Subject: Mortgage Pre-Approval Sample - Town of Long Island YRHC Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 13:10:59 EDT Size: 47870 URL: From townoflongisland at verizon.net Mon Oct 29 15:22:38 2007 From: townoflongisland at verizon.net (Town of Long Island) Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:22:38 -0400 Subject: [yrhcworking] Town of Long Island YRHASC In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <0JQO00F5GTTVQV00@vms044.mailsrvcs.net> Hi everyone, Just to keep everyone updated, today I've been working on the minutes from our last meeting, agenda for our next meeting, going through the Planning Boards By-laws and pulling out the basic text that we'd need for our by-laws, printing out minutes for Art. 47 from Town Meeting, called (left message) & e-mailed Islesboro to receive sample of their applications and with no luck tried to get blank mortgage app. from Camden National Bank, so I'll try Key Bank. They're probably all basically the same, just so we can get a good idea of what questions not to duplicate on our application/selection criteria. I hope to get your packets out to you so you'll have them no later than Saturday so there'll be sufficient time for you to review materials before our next meeting on Wednesday, November 7th. If I need to, I'll hand deliver them if I miss the mail on Saturday - will everyone be on island Saturday? Thank you, Brenda Singo - Secretary YRHASC _____ From: Mlongreene2 at aol.com [mailto:Mlongreene2 at aol.com] Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2007 1:12 PM To: bsingo at verizon.net; lucky7li at verizon.net; Townoflongisland at verizon.net; judyp at tpda.com; Sscheurman at aol.com Cc: yrhcworking at townoflongisland.us Subject: Fwd: Mortgage Pre-Approval Sample - Town of Long Island YRHC _____ See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: