Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 11-12-1968 Regular — reading text

the City' s bird dog on this for over a year nOH. PUBLIC Residents of Park Circle HEA. IlING Hayor Drow-rl announced that a hearing had been set to answer any questions by residents of this neighborhood in relation 1 to the proposed Urban aenewal area. The City Hanager introduced Tom Ryan, Urban Renewal Coordina- tor for the City Hr. Ryan explained the 22lD3 housing program which is developed by private developers. He explained it was very similar to normal FHA financing on individual homes. He said units built under this program vTere built for private use and were rented to private individuals, normally for around $ 125 a month. He said some units would rent for that anount and some for less, depending the incmne of the occupants. on He emphasized that the rent vIaS not determined in any , vay by race, but by earnings of occupants. He said the hearing had come about as a result of the request by private developers for rezoning property to allow construction of apartment units. He mentioned in reply to some statements made that the apart- ments would decrease the value of surrounding property. He said the units would have to meet City codes and that should take care of that problem. He mentioned that low rent housin2" is often confused and that in addition to the 22lD3 program, City the as the local Housing Authority had received allocations for 12L!, units of low rent housing which could either be built in apartments or individual units. He said there HaS a problem with land. He outlined the general area of the planned Urban Hene. Tal area and said Fort Halton Beach waS running out of land to build houses on and . lith grmvth, apartments were the only alternative. He stated it waS a logical plam1ing move to plan apartments near existing shopping areas and it was on that basis that the zoning was approved. The question vias rai$8d if frame houses Nould be allowed to remain in the Urban Renewal area. I Hr. Ryan said if the framE: houses met existing building codes, nothing 1<Tould be done to them. He said if the houses ,,- ere deteriorated so that they didn' t meet the codes, Urban Renewal loans at low interest could be made to make repairs to bring them up to existing codes. He said if the house Ivere so deteriorated that it would cost, more than it is worth to bring it up to the codAs, the owner would be offered a fair market price for the px' operty. If the ovmer accepted the price, the land could be made available to build a new house at lOH interest on the said if the owner didn' t same ground. He accept the price, then it went to court and the court gives a price. He said intensive efforts are made to keep them from 238 going to court. Hrs. Atkinson presented a IX ti tion of her neighbors against housing area behind this property. but Er. Ryan said he , JOuld be happy to .ans',wr questions peti tione HO:l d IOU :' 0 Council. iie answered hGr question about Lhe Urban Rene\~al area staLing that her property 1.Jas in the area. Ers. Atkinson asked how i 1.. " wuld help her nt-Jighbors, 1, 1:'. " would be yall said it - c16aning up all the bad ! leusing to the east of her property; and that if there were any sewer and Via LeI' problems, they could be taK611 care of. Davenport said they lJere not concerned" li th 1925 and I'll' s, didn' tl. Jant an instant ghetLo. She explained again to Council that they had gotten home improvement loan to repair their house. Sr18 asked why they should give Council per- mission, or 1-lhy should the land L8 rezonE,d in back of their property, and that area cleaned up around dicln' t need to be that part. ant this behind She reiterated that they didn' t '.~ them. She said this was only boad for senior citizens and didn' t solve people' s problems. hr. l" 1yan : said he made no al) olobies for being Irish but would attemptLo anS'iJer her questi0ns. Ers. Davenport said they didn' t Hant the property rezoned. 5he said this \~aS a small city and they dicln' t need hous ing, one on top of another. Hr. Ryan said He wanted to accommodate the peoplE:) -", illO are alrGady here a:od the people ", ho are on the , Jay in. Ers. Davenport said they had been hE:l'G 15 years and didn' t want to see it, and in h- io Y6ars Jould be it -, a slwT1. repeated his conunents that 22lD3 housing is not I'll'. Ryan poverty housing, and liaS no different from the average per- son' s Luyidg a house. Faul DavGnport asked if the County Hero asking their per- mission or what ' NaS expect8d. ITr. Ryan said he ~ ms just there to try to explain some of the terminology that had peop18 confused. Layor m said tr! ls;-. Bro\: ras just a public hearing to discuss the relationships be tween the property Oi-mers and the City, and It/ hat is planned he to (, eppsn ini- area. : Ie said Council  239 was not asking foX' permission, but the hearing' das to give them an opportunity to discuss plans for the area. Davenport said it would help people pay their rent and nobody helped them pay theirs to make their house liveable. Ryan repeated that some people who would live in this housing vwuld not qualify for rent supplements due to their salary range. 1 Irs. since Atkinson had further conunents but the another hearing would be glad to scheduled 1-laS allOiT-. HI's. second hearing if she so desired. for 8: hayor called time 30. ; 1e said he Atkinson to speak after the I1r.Rigdon commented that it sounded; if this particular rezoning were being done by the City, and it was not, that the property developer had merely petitioned for rezoning. NORTH HILL The Hayor Qpened this public hearing to hear comments on the GARDENS PUBLIC proposed assessment roll for piping the drainage ditch in HEARING ill Gardens 3ubdivision, First Addition, and Oak Ridge ortlli~ Subdivision in the total amount of $ 21, 431.82. DHAINAGE ASSESSNENT Er. Sconiers said he had several phone calls concerning this and he moved that we abandon the assessment and look at a different way of closing this ditch-- abandon the project for the time being. The motion was seconded by Hr. Rigdon. Hr. Ryan cOhIDlEmted to Council that it was entirely possible with the Urban Renewal application coming up the next week that this could be taken care of during the first year of the Urban Renewal plan providing the application is approved. The City Manager corr~aented on the total cost of the project, He said if it could be included in the Urban ReneHal area that it Hould cost the City srune t5, OOO. The Hayor commented that the project was abandoned and asked if any citizens would like to comment anyway. James Banks said he had 165' on a side and at one time there was no ditch, but the City came in and put a ditch in. He said he had spent quite a bit of money hauling dirt in to keep his property from washing aHay. He objected to being I charged for