10/24/2007: "Council Hesitantly Selects Trust/Buck Project"

The County Council has voted to recommended the San Juan Community Home Trust (Trust) proposal for a one million dollar grant from CTED (Department of Community Trade and Economic Development) be awarded to the Trust to help off-set some of the cost to install utilities/infrastructure in their proposed development on the Buck property. (Link to previous stories) .

This does not mean CTED will grant all, or any, of the request, since the request will now stand in competition from other recommendations from other counties in the state. What it does mean is that the Homes for Islanders (Islanders) group, the competing group for funding, will not receive any funding from CTED.

The Council was clearly uncertain which way to go on making a recommendation, and at the last meeting they had asked for additional information from staff to help them make a decision. At the Tuesday meeting Councilman Gene Knapp said the new input had made if even more difficult to decide which one should go forward with a council recommendation. He was joined by other council members in finding that both applications were worth funding, but CTED will only accept one recommendation.

The two programs are not the same, even though some of the council members repeatedly confused the two. Islanders ( ) is a “sweat equity” program that provides on-hands assistance in constructing the homes; help with down payments, and group participation in building the homes. The home owners retain the right to sell their home later for a limited profit.

The program the council went with was the San Juan Community Home Trust , which “acquires land, builds homes, qualifies applicants, packages mortgages” and leases the land to the applicant. The house -not the land- can be sold, but the price is strictly controlled by the trust, and the purchaser must meet the buyer criteria of the Trust.

Representatives from the two groups made presentation to the Council, and both stated the homes are kept affordable for future buyers; although they use different means to do so. Much of the Islanders’ presentation was spent in correcting what they said were incorrect statements made to the council by the Trust as to how the Islanders program operated.

After both sides had made their presentations, and after additional questions were asked, the council went into deliberations. A motion was made by Councilman Alan Lichter to recommend the Islander’s proposal, because, he said, the Islander’s proposal was more likely to be approved by CTED due to the “readiness” requirement by CTED (the project is already under site construction), but Lichter’s motion failed to receive a second. Myhr had said that “I have serious concerns on the readiness of the Home Trust project.. the county would be well served by Homes for Islanders.” Councilman Peterson had also seemed to favor the Islander’s proposal, but said he was concerned that the motion would result in a split vote.

Kevin Ranker made a motion to support the Trust proposal, a second was received, and the motion passed with Lichter opposed; and Myhr -as Chair- refusing to vote. This resulted in Lichter making a motion to force Myhr to take a position, which he did by joining the majority in voting for the Trust.

After the vote, one of the spectators said “Go figure”!