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Election to shape future growth
By KATHY FERGUSON
| Article published on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006 |
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SEMINOLE – Successful candidates in the March 14 election will set the city’s course in residential development in such areas as defining affordable housing, structuring laws to allow negotiation with developers and dealing with the plight of mobile home dwellers.
That process is already moving forward. At its last workshop Tuesday, Feb. 14, current councilors approved a change to its Land Development Regulation code. The change would begin “an affordable housing plan framework,” according to the ordinance. A formal vote is still required.
The idea is to let city staff negotiate with any developer who wants a permit to perform property work. Incentives would be given to developers to encourage affordable housing construction. Incentives might include a faster permit processing or the waiving of some fees.
A specific density provision would mean developers could build more structures if some of those units were offered to qualified residents. A density bonus of up to 33 percent might be permitted. Residents could move in if they met income level guidelines that would be the same ones the county uses. The groundswell efforts of mobile home dwellers faced with losing their homes to redevelopment no doubt sparked this priority.
This affordability ordinance is viewed as just the beginning by some councilors.
“This is a valuable first step,” said Bob Matthews, an incumbent running for reelection. But he wants more upfront involvement. “We need to improve our community by directing its growth.”
He is concerned that people see the recent city image project as just a way to improve the appearance of Seminole. “It’s not just to change the look but to control how the city moves forward. We need to do it instead of leaving it up to developers to do,” said Matthews.
Matthews takes a longer view about redevelopment. “Fads change and economies change,” he said. “Will the next level of people want to buy there? Do we want to end up with a community of empty condo buildings?”
To protect residents from surprise sales, Matthews thinks a written contract should be signed between property owners and mobile home owners who rent about the possibility of selling the land. “A verbal promise is a waste of conversation,” Matthews said. “We need to make sure people are prepared, not snickered like fools.”
Vice Mayor John Counts, who is up for reelection, agrees with Matthews. “It is an atrocity what mobile home owners are being offered to leave,” said Counts. With his banking background, he worries about those who still have loans on their mobile homes and are told to leave.
“Not only will they no longer own their homes,” said Counts, “but banks aren’t going to forgo loan payments. The owners’ credit could be adversely affected that would further impact their ability to get affordable housing. That’s the part that bothers me the most,” he said. Setting up a separate trust account between developers and the state may help with those issues, he added.
Counts doesn’t like the answer that people are just going to have to rent.
“Maybe the city and government can aid in programs,” he said.
He pointed to St. Petersburg’s programs to attract and assist teachers with housing benefits.
Counts said increasing the density of developments might be part of the answer because displaced homeowners want to stay in the same location. But giving concessions to developers is a fact of life.
“If incentives aren’t given, I don’t believe anything will happen,” he said.
Thomas Barnhorn, a new candidate, said affordable housing is a hot issue for many reasons, not only because of mobile home dwellers. Businesses also will feel a punch.
“The Seminole community is one of small businesses that can largely only afford to pay employees close to minimum wage,” said Barnhorn. “That workforce will disappear if the housing isn’t affordable. With the price of gasoline, they aren’t going to be able to come here.”
He said a lot of people he knows cannot afford even what was once known as a “starter home.”
With residential developments popping up, Barnhorn is concerned about the impact of increased traffic and water usage on the community.
Currently, a review of development showed that six condominium/townhome projects are under way in the Seminole area that would bring almost 50 new high-rise buildings with more than 800 individual units.
Candidate Ed Parker said “redevelopment is necessary to keep an area alive.”
But, he thinks, people should be treated fairly. Parker grew up in Palm Harbor before the growth boom. His sister was recently served with an eviction notice for her apartment, to be redone into condos. No one is truly safe from developers, he said.
“People, especially the elderly and vets, should be severely compensated when their homes are taken,” Parker said.
On the plus side when more condominiums are added, he said, it can help surrounding businesses prosper.
He doesn’t like to see what’s happening to residents in mobile home parks but has concerns that some parks may not be up to code or are outdated.
“We’ve danced around with four hurricanes,” Parker said. “Look at what one heavy day of rain downpour did to many mobile homes in the area.”
Simon Montag, another new candidate, lived in a mobile home park for a while and has a recreational vehicle for sport. As a part-time loan officer, Montag said affordable housing could be a deceiving term. For instance, if a home costs $100,000 to $150,000 and the mortgage is $800 to $900, that could be a problem.
“Add electricity and other utilities on to that,” Montag said, “and that’s affordable to who?”
He thinks making sure that displaced residents get housing in the same location is important, even if subsidies are needed. Montag is also concerned about mobile homes and the hurricane season that brings escalating insurance costs and safety issues.
He wonders “why the city can’t step up to the plate, buy the land and negotiate on the front end” before development begins.
“We need to be innovators, not imitators,” Montag said.
He thinks city leaders could learn a lot about building a sense of community by understanding the lifestyle of mobile home parks.
“They really look out for each other,” Montag said.
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Article published on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006
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