Dear Friends,
I hope this finds you enjoying the holiday season and looking forward to the New Year. 2024 will be a year of transitions on the County Board.
Christian Dorsey gaveled out his last meeting as Chair on Tuesday. We, and many others, bid him a fond farewell. We also thanked Tannia Talento for “pinch hitting” and filling Katie Cristol’s seat after Katie stepped down early this summer. It has been a pleasure to work with both of them. January 2 will be our organizational meeting when we will welcome Susan Cunningham and Maureen Coffey to our Board team, elect our chair and vice-chair, and make appointments. We also will each make remarks about the coming year.
During this month’s meetings, we continued to move forward on several items.
Barcroft Apartments
We approved the Barcroft Apartments program-wide affordable housing financing plan. Jair Lynch purchased Barcroft in 2021. They have committed to keeping the current number of apartments (1335) affordable up to 60% of average medium income (AMI) for 99 years. 134 units are affordable up to only 30% AMI. Advocates wanted us to insist that at least 225 units be affordable for those at 30% AMI because that is the number of current tenants reporting that income. While understanding the good motivation, the Board did not agree. The financing for this multi-phase project is very complex and interest rates have soared since the Barcroft purchase making it difficult to get financing for the project. Also, Jair Lynch has committed to no displacement of tenants, not raising rents more than 3% per year for tenants and less than that if a tenant can show they are unable to pay more. I believe Barcroft will be a model for affordable housing. I continue to be impressed with the work and commitment Jair Lynch shows to providing both affordable homes and a high-quality community.
Stormwater Management
We approved the new stormwater management fee structure which aligns bills with properties’ contribution to stormwater runoff. Starting in June, homeowners and businesses will see their bills reflect how much impervious surface they have. Property owners can get a reduction in their bill by diminishing their contribution to rainwater runoff with improvements like rainwater collection and conservation landscaping.
Forestry and Natural Resources Plan
We adopted our Forestry and Natural Resources Plan which has many recommendations. Two of the more important and controversial are: 1) a recommendation to look at the lot coverage we permit which often incentivizes clearcutting trees as large new houses are built which cover lots to the maximum, and 2) a recommendation to control the number of deer which continue to grow and destroy young trees and forest habitat in their search for food. I support both these recommendations.
Rank Choice Voting
On Tuesday we approved Rank Choice Voting (RCF) for primaries. Next year I expect we will also approve RCV for the general election. I am in favor of RCV for elections with one seat up. I continue to have major concerns about using RCV when there are 2 seats up and the method called “single transferable vote” is used to determine the winners. As I have written before, this means that those who vote for the person with the most votes never have their second votes fully counted. Or, in effect, the losers determine the second winner.
Budget
Finally, we gave budget guidance to the Manager as he develops his budget. Among other things, we asked for a tiered budget that will help show the trade-offs between program cuts and increased taxes. I expect next year’s budget process to be difficult. Our needs are increasing and our revenue decreasing due to the large office vacancy rate. Remote work has drastically changed the value of office buildings. We will adjust as buildings are converted to residential or other uses, but the transition will take years and be difficult financially.
As always, I hope you find this newsletter helpful and welcome comments and suggestions.
With all best wishes for happy and healthy holidays and New Year,
Libby
