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affordable housing to move here and they were not going to bring prosperity with them. The <br />people who are already in the county will not be living there, because it will be taken up by <br />out of county people who want to get out of the jungle down there. <br />Commissioner Macht inquired whether a priority list could be established for local <br />people only, and Director Keating thought that could not be done. <br />Donna Pepper advised that the Board had given her a portion of the County's tax <br />exempt bonds about 18 months ago in order to build affordable housing. Her development <br />consists of 172 units currently under construction on Walker Avenue. This was one of the <br />first properties she purchased and it took 4 years to develop it. She advised that she also <br />currently operates units in Ft. Pierce and Orange County. The reason financing is so <br />competitive is because more and more developers are drawn into this financing to satisfy the <br />need. She pointed out that there is no incentive for a developer to build affordable housing <br />other than the Federal government's tax credit program and the tax exempt bond program. <br />The only profit made on these projects, after the tax credits are sold to provide the equity, <br />is a developer fee which has to cover overhead, costs, and operating deficits including the <br />full lease up of the property. She encouraged the Board to obtain from the Sheriff's office <br />the number of runs made to not only the affordable housing units, but also to any <br />condominium project or rental project in the county. She thought that percentages will run <br />a minuscule percentage larger than any other project. There are domestic problems in every <br />economic strata. She complimented staff for their in-depth and very comprehensive report. <br />She hoped that in the next two years she would be able to develop another affordable <br />housing project in this county which is very difficult to do because of the high cost of the <br />impact fees, which must be paid out of equity. She paid $872,000 for impact fees on 172 <br />units. She does not quibble about paying impact fees that the project can economically bear. <br />The reason for the 25% discount on impact fees, which is not on all the fees, is to give an <br />February 13, 2001 <br />113 <br />117PG125 <br />4I 4 <br />