April 5, 2025
Date: March 13, 2025
Location of meeting: Via Zoom
Time meeting was called to order: 7:02pm
Attendees: Kristin Berg, Nan Parson, Melani Kaplan, Jeanne Wells, Marilyn Novak, Kathy Rolsing, Kate Kerin
1) Housing Plan – Implementation
Melani and Kristin will look into how to put the letter/petition about AH online and report back. A couple of other names were suggested if needed to help. The timing will be such that signatures can be gathered and then presented to the new City Council after the April elections.
a) Monitor City Council/COW agendas for any Housing Plan discussions/actions/proposed multifamily and senior housing development
i) There was nothing to report on here.
b) Monitor PZC Agendas for any Housing Plan discussions/actions/ proposed multifamily and senior housing development
i) There was nothing to report on here.
2) Comprehensive Plan
a) The PZC met on March 11th to review and approve the Final Version of the Uptown Master Plan. Kristin will watch the video of the meeting to hear of any changes or discussion.
3) Reaching out to Alderperson Candidates about implementation of the Housing Plan
a) Kristin emailed the AH Survey to the 7 Mayoral and Alderperson Candidates and we received 5 responses. The responses were distributed to the AH email list and will be put on the Action Ridge website for the public to view. We considered 5 responses as very positive as we have the candidates thinking and talking about AH.
4) Kathy told us about an event that the Center of Concern is planning about helping seniors age in place. This is a topic that our current Mayor is interested in promoting and may help to jump-start a city program.
5) We discussed an article about how the City of Rockford addressed their need for AH and the good ideas and great success they had. We may try to connect the Mayor with Rockford’s Mayor and/or some of the agencies that aided Rockford. One of the ideas in the article was to register rental and vacant properties to monitor them to be sure they are incompliance with local codes and rentable or, if vacant, have a plan in place to develop or sell. It’s an idea we can discuss with the city. The article can be found here:
https://www.enterprisecommunity.org/blog/improbable-turnaround?utm_source=mc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nationalnews&utm_term=20250212-00Q3n00001d5fa4EAA&utm_content=national-12feb2025-improbable-turnaround&sfmckey=bWthcGxhbkBob2RjLm9yZw==&j=384889&sfmc_sub=40472605&l=30_HTML&u=16357546&mid=10965565&jb=3006
6) Melani told us about how funding for some nonprofit agencies that support AH had been withdrawn by the Trump administration as part of the HUD cutbacks. One of the agencies, Enterprise, offers grants to local AH developers nationwide. HODC, a local nonprofit developer of AH has received grants of $50,000 in the past, but the grant is now unavailable for this year.
7) Melani told us that HODC will be having a grand opening of Zion Woods in Deerfield, a 25 unit AH property, in mid-June and a move-in event in mid-July. HODC is seeking donations of household goods for the new residents. More information will be given when available.
8) Time meeting adjourned: 7:50pm.
9) The next meeting will be Tuesday, April 22nd at 7:00pm on Zoom