Dear City Manager Ferguson:

As you know, our consortium of community organizations dedicated to affordable housing has closely followed the City's effort to redevelop the 505 W. Chapel Hill St. property.  Consistent with the RFPs for the site, we have advocated for the inclusion of a significant number of residential units affordable at 60% AMI in perpetuity at 505.

We appreciated your suggestion at the December 4th work session that the City investigate more fully the feasibility of moving ahead now to build affordable housing at 505. We are supportive of your thought to include affordable housing experts and interested community members in that process.

We hope you might consider a more proactive approach. In short, we ask that affordable housing receive the same level of in-depth investigation at this point that Staff has recommended for the Milton Small Building (MSB). 

Staff is recommending a thorough plan to explore the feasibility of renovating the MSB. It is relying on a proven partner, Preservation NC, to: a) select a potential developer; b) explore possible renovation approaches; and c) return to Council with a proposal that would include a financial plan and estimate of needed City subsidy. This should give Council the facts it needs to consider whether the building should be renovated and at what level of subsidy. 

This Council and previous Councils have consistently and repeatedly made affordable housing a top priority at 505. Given this, why shouldn't we proceed now to use a similarly thorough approach to explore using a portion of 505 for affordable housing?

Respectfully, we would ask that rather than just seeking to validate or improve HR & A's report -- which was developed without significant input from affordable housing developers -- Council and staff could undertake the following process:

1. Identify several qualified developers to prepare proposals to build a significant number of affordable housing units at the 505 site. There are highly capable affordable housing developers who are interested in working at 505.
2. Each developer would be asked to develop a rough site plan which shows building elevations, building footprint, and placement of surface parking.
3. Developers would be asked to present along with the plan a financial proforma outlining preliminary sources of funds, with a funding range of required City subsidy needed to make the deal work.
4. At the developers' option, they could also propose uses for the remaining portions of the property, which might include a structured parking facility.
5. In the interest of retaining City ownership, the plan would assume the City would offer a ground lease for the affordable housing portion of the site. Developers have told us that they can make a project work with either a long-term lease or a land purchase.

Thank you for your consideration of this request. Our groups would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you at your earliest convenience to discuss this proposal in more detail. 

Sincerely, 

Rick Larson

For the 505 Consortium:

Coalition for Affordable Housing and Transit

Duke Memorial United Methodist Church

Durham Association of Educators

Durham Chapter, NAACP

Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People

The People's Alliance