Town of Chapel Hill header
File #: [22-0309]    Version: 1 Name:
Type: Consent Status: Passed
File created: 4/11/2022 In control: Town Council
On agenda: 4/27/2022 Final action: 4/27/2022
Title: Endorse the County-Wide Coordinated Manufactured Homes Action Plan.
Attachments: 1. County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan, 2. Manufactured Home Community Map, 3. Council Questions with Staff Response, 4. A RESOLUTION ENDORSING THE COUNTY-WIDE MANUFACTURED HOMES ACTION PLAN (2022-04-27/R-2)
Related files: [18-0576], [21-0006], [21-0254], [22-0247], [22-0265]

 

 

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Endorse the County-Wide Coordinated Manufactured Homes Action Plan.

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Staff:

Department:

Sarah Osmer Viñas, Director

Affordable Housing and Community Connections

Nate Broman-Fulks, Assistant Director

 

 

Overview: The County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan is designed to provide a plan to address the redevelopment threats facing manufactured home communities in Orange County.  The Plan is a collaborative effort between the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, and Orange County that outlines specific objectives, strategies, action steps, partners and resource needs to address the redevelopment threat facing manufactured home communities. 

 

Recommendation(s):

That the Council adopt the resolution endorsing the County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan. 

 

Background

                     In 2016-2017, the County, Towns, and local housing partners formed a manufactured homes work group to begin to discuss and evaluate opportunities and obstacles to addressing the needs of manufactured home community residents.

                     There are 100 manufactured home communities in Orange County housing over 2,000 households.

                     As development pressures increased for the northern part of Chapel Hill, in 2018, the Town began creating a strategy to proactively engage residents and owners of the four manufactured home communities in Town to develop a plan should future redevelopment occur on any of these sites. 

                     There has been extensive progress in implementing the Strategy, as outlined in the attached Strategy Report to Council - January 2021.

                     In 2021, staff from the Towns and County came together to form the Manufactured Home Staff Working Group to create a plan to address the redevelopment and sustainability threats facing manufactured home communities in Orange County.  This plan used resident engagement and the Town’s existing Manufactured Home Strategy as its foundation.

                     On April 6, 2022 <https://chapelhill.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5542615&GUID=F94D2489-F350-4809-AE76-C684340451EA&Options=&Search=> the Town Council reviewed and provided feedback on the draft plan and directed staff to bring the Action Plan back to Council for their approval at a later meeting.

                     The Carrboro Town Council and Hillsborough Board of Commissioners endorsed the plan on April 5th and April 11th, 2022, respectively.

 

Action Plan Overview

The Action Plan is a collaborative effort between the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough, and Orange County that outlines specific objectives, strategies, action steps, partners and resource needs to address the redevelopment threat facing manufactured home communities to:

1.                     Preserve manufactured home communities.

2.                     Minimize resident displacement due to redevelopment

3.                     Create a Relocation Assistance Package to provide meaningful relocation assistance options for residents facing displacement.

 

This Action Plan establishes four guiding principles:

1.                     Use engagement findings as foundation for strategy selection and implementation.

2.                     Include a variety of strategies to fully address the different issues.  There is no silver bullet. 

3.                     Manufactured housing is an important source of naturally occurring affordable housing serving diverse populations, including vulnerable community members.

4.                     The Plan is a living document and should be adapted based on changing conditions and resident input. 

 

The Action Plan is designed to provide a comprehensive approach to a county-wide challenge.  Each jurisdiction has the flexibility to determine the best strategies to meet the specific needs of their community.

 

Next Steps

Many of the strategies outlined in the new Action Plan are already underway. Additionally, staff have identified the following immediate next steps:

1.                     Continued engagement with residents

a.                     Distribute new Resource Guide for Residents of Manufactured Housing

b.                     Collaborate with community partners to carry out ongoing engagement to build leadership and sustained involvement of residents

2.                     Continue work already underway

3.                     Pursue priority strategies not yet underway

4.                     Continue collaboration efforts with government and nonprofit partners

 

 

Fiscal Impact/Resources: There is no fiscal impact related to endorsing the plan.  Each strategy identified in the plan has a fiscal impact, most of which require Council or Town Manager approval before implementation, including ongoing engagement efforts.  The Action Plan includes preliminary, high-level estimates of resource needs for each strategy. 

 

 

Attachments:

 

Resolution

 

County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan

 

Manufactured Home Community Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A RESOLUTION ENDORSING THE COUNTY-WIDE MANUFACTURED HOMES ACTION PLAN  (2022-04-27/R-2)

 

WHEREAS, Orange County and the towns of Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough have a long history of collaboration on housing topics; and

 

WHEREAS, manufactured housing is an important source of naturally occurring affordable housing serving diverse populations and vulnerable community members; and

 

WHEREAS, in 2016, several manufactured home communities in our County were identified for redevelopment by property owners triggering the potential displacement of current residents; and

 

WHEREAS, the towns and county formed a work group with local housing partners to understand the risk, and potential remedies associated with this redevelopment issue, and strategies for improving and maintaining the quality of the manufactured home communities; and

 

WHEREAS, the work group generated a report on their findings and an inventory of manufactured housing communities in the county; and

 

WHEREAS, the environment for redevelopment has not abated and remains a constant threat for manufactured home parks in our community; and

 

WHEREAS, an updated, county-wide strategy, based upon prior findings and the current environment, is needed to preserve manufactured home communities, minimize resident displacement due to redevelopment, and provide meaningful relocation assistance options to be in place moving forward; and

 

WHEREAS, the Manufactured Home Staff Working Group with staff from the Town of Chapel Hill, Town of Carrboro, Town of Hillsborough, and Orange County came together to develop this coordinated plan; and

 

WHEREAS, extensive engagement with residents in communities at risk was conducted to understand their concerns and preferences to guide the creation of the strategies included in the plan; and

 

WHEREAS, service providers, advocates, residents, and other stakeholders were consulted on development of the plan and staff incorporated feedback from the Orange County Local Government Affordable Housing Collaborative, the Carrboro Affordable Housing Commission, the Chapel Hill Housing Advisory Board, the Orange County Affordable Housing Advisory Board, the Orange County Affordable Housing Coalition, the Manufactured Homes Committee of the Orange County Affordable Housing Coalition.

 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the Chapel Hill that the Council endorses the County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan and commits to work cooperatively with the County and other towns to implement the strategies both within Chapel Hill and the County at large.

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council authorizes the Town Manager to make adjustments to the County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan, as described in the April 6th and 27th, 2022 meeting materials, based on Town Council input during the same meetings and as needed as the Towns and County move into implementation.

 

This the 27th day of April 2022.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Agenda will reflect the text below and/or the motion text will be used during the meeting.

 

presenter

By adopting the resolution, the Council endorses the County-Wide Manufactured Homes Action Plan.