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HRA Meeting <br />Minutes Tuesday, April 16, 2013 <br />Page 7 <br /> <br />1 <br />that year, and possibly the next year, becoming very problematic. Mr. Kelly expressed his <br />2 <br />astonishment with the proposed expense, opining that in their dealings with 12-13 different <br />3 <br />municipalities, they <br />4 <br />City of Brooklyn Center as a benchmark, rather than cities such as New Hope or Bloomington, <br />5 <br />that he further opined were far more representative of Roseville. <br />6 <br /> <br />7 <br />Mr. Kelly expressed his support for the tiered approach, and guaranteed that their properties <br />8 <br />would be classified as type A properties. However, Mr. Kelly expressed his fear that different <br />9 <br />third-party inspectors would have different interpretations with the same checklist and each has <br />10 <br />different interpretations. Mr. Kelly anticipated that this would cause some buildings to be <br />11 <br />12 <br />themselves in Class A based on those interpretations based on the inspector. Mr. Kelly opined <br />13 <br />that he was dubious that the City would get a level of consistency among those inspectors. <br />14 <br />Since staff and the HRA had mentioned that they were simply trying to address several <br />15 <br />problematic properties, Mr. Kelly questioned why it would be necessary to then apply this <br />16 <br />process to everyone, and asked that they consider the burden this would place on apartment <br />17 <br />communities. Mr. Kelly further opined that the proposal frightened him; and noted his <br />18 <br />difficulties in printing out Section 906 online for a more detailed review. <br />19 <br /> <br />20 <br />Mr. Kelly recognized that the City has a stake and desire to ensure the quality of its rental <br />21 <br />housing stock, he cautioned that, while not the intent, the City would ultimately sock those <br />22 <br />good properties with additional expense to address a few problem properties. Mr. Kelly <br />23 <br />opined that the cost of the initial fees were outrageous. Mr. Kelly noted that their firm was <br />24 <br />doing its best and wanted to do so in this market and provide a good product, not because the <br />25 <br />City wanted it to do so, but because it was how they succeeded in business. Mr. Kelly spoke <br />26 <br />in support of the City coming down hard on problem properties, but not everyone else as an <br />27 <br />unintended consequence. <br />28 <br /> <br />29 <br />In recognizing that the HRA was struggling with how to structure this program, Chair <br />30 <br />Maschka questioned how Mr. Kelly would address the 10-20% problem properties while <br />31 <br />meeting equal protection law requirements. <br />32 <br /> <br />33 <br />Mr. Kelly advise that his firm had no problem with the tiered proposal, but noted that their <br />34 <br />property, as well as others, would require significant additional overhead for them to manage <br />35 <br />it, suggesting that the proposed re-inspection fees were out of balance and the HRA needed to <br />36 <br />find a way to identify the problem properties while not forcing the fee on those properties <br />37 <br />already doing a good job. Mr. Kelly had no ready response for Chair Maschka on how to <br />38 <br />39 <br />all the time with other municipalities, and understood that the issue was one that every <br />40 <br />municipality struggled with. However, Mr. Kelly opined that the cost borne by those trying to <br />41 <br />do a good job seemed excessive to him. Mr. Kelly further opined that the Brooklyn Center was <br />42 <br />not the only one, even though they liked the tiered part to recognize those properties doing a <br />43 <br />good job or trying versus those ignorin <br />44 <br />the annual inspection fees as a good incentive. <br />45 <br /> <br />46 <br />Chair Maschka noted that Mr. Kelly supported tiers, but questioned how he would address and <br />47 <br />fund a reasonable initial inspection fee. <br />48 <br /> <br />49 <br />Mr. Kelly responded that there was no need for 100% inspections. <br />50 <br /> <br />51 <br />At the request of Member Masche, Mr. Kelly provided the median rent at Palisades for 1-2 <br />52 <br />bedroom apartments at $800 and over $1,000 respectively, which he thought was comparable <br />53 <br />with other complexes of the 1971 vintage such as the Palisades complex. Mr. Kelly reviewed <br />54 <br />some of the other recent costs, including updating elevators. At the request of Member <br />55 <br />Masche, Mr. Kelly also addressed their occupancy rate at approximately less than 3.5% <br /> <br />