Special Board of Aldermen 10-27-2020 Page 14
Alderman Lopez
We may have different expectations of what people will need to manage housing.
Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development
If | may Alderman Lopez, could you kind of define wnat you mean by amenities? Just so | have a better
sense?
Alderman Lopez
| was thinking of core amenities for people in order to maintain their housing, for example, maintaining a
clean and safe environment. Having proximity to places that they can feed themselves or seek medical
care, those kinds of things. But again, it doesn’t look like it’s the focus here so | was wondering what
constitutes a need to put it downtown?
Mr. Halverson
| guess when we were looking at the downtown, you know, | think on the human perspective of lower
income households | think many of the things, Alderman Lopez, that you mentioned, are probably things
that those folks are looking for in addition to transportation potentially to jobs especially if they are located
in the City. And if they don’t have a personal vehicle that they have access to, for the 18 to 34 year old
population, | do agree with what Sarah said about the alignment of preferences for sort of more active
living, downtown environment, but is that 100% true. | think what those folks are looking for is probably a
bit different, they are probably looking for a nightlife, they are probably looking for in-building amenities
such as pet washing spa or doggy daycare or covered parking, in-home Wi-Fi and really good internet
service, cable packages, in-unit laundry, elevator buildings, those kinds of things. And when | was doing a
review of different apartment complexes in the City it seemed like the newer developments, River’s Edge
for example, that has so many of the new amenities that | think the younger folks are looking for. But | also
think that the older residents are also looking for very similar amenities as well. | don’t know if that helps
answer the question or not.
Alderman Lopez
| think | was just looking for more of an understanding of what areas are we going to see friction between
the two populations because their needs start to diverge.
Mr. Halvorsen
| see. | mean | think downtown is probably the answer from my perspective. | think that the growth potential
in the downtown, especially with potential to accommodate greater density in the core, has the potential to
— you know those units are likely to come with higher price points, whether it is a rent unit or a condo unit.
And what you might see is that the new investment can then start to trickle out into some of the
neighborhoods that have your older units that are your sort of naturally occurring affordable units, but not
necessarily deed restricted. And if those prices start to creep up, people start to invest in those units. On
the one hand that’s a good thing because they are investing in units; on the other hand, if they put that
money in, they are likely going to want to get that money out of it either through rent or sale. So | just think
that’s something just to consider as new investment takes place in downtown, sort of balancing new
investment, which on one hand is terrific, with trying to maintain some level of affordability in the downtown
as well as taking the affordable housing approach and also putting it out into other districts around the city
which | am sure will also be identified throughout the Master Plan, where some of that future growth is and
the ability to apply inclusionary housing or inclusionary zoning, some other places to spread out affordable
housing round the City.
