Agenda - Planning Commission - 09/04/2014

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Last revised July 24, 2014 Comprehensive Plan Plans prepared by cities, townships and, in some cases, counties, for local land use and infrastructure. Comprehensive plans provide guidelines for the timing and sequence of the adoption of official controls to ensure planned, orderly, and staged development and redevelopment. Construction Loan A short-term loan used to finance the building of housing or other real estate. Developers or builders take out a construction loan in order to begin the project while they obtain long-term funding. Because there is no guarantee that the builders will be able to obtain long-term funding and a construction loan is not intended to fund an entire project, construction loans are fairly risky, and, as a result, have high interest rates. Credit Enhancement Credit enhancement in general terms can be defined as a measure taken with the goal of reducing credit risk and boosting the credit rating of a security. Through credit enhancement, the lender is provided with reassurance that the borrower will honor the obligation through additional collateral, insurance, or a third party guarantee. Credit enhancements play an important role in asset securitization as they are particularly important to credit rating agencies. Density The Council measures minimum net density across all areas identified to support forecasted growth by taking the minimum number of planned housing units and dividing by the net acreage. Net acreage does not include land covered by wetlands, water bodies, public parks and trails, public open space, arterial road rights -of -way, and other undevelopable acres identified in or projected by local ordinances such as steep slopes. Density Bonus Density bonuses are a zoning tool that that permits developers to build more housing units, taller buildings, or more floor space than normally allowed, in exchange for provision of a defined public benefit, such as a specified number or percentage of affordable units included in the development. An affordable housing density bonus program can be designed to allow developers to contribute to a housing fund in lieu of building the affordable units. Developer A developer is an individual that builds on land, thereby increasing its value. The developer may be an individual, but is often a partnership or a corporation. Developers are extremely concerned with providing useful buildings and structures. Useless buildings have no value, which means they can't be sold or rented. However, the building can only sell if it's in the right location, has utilities (defined as the availability from adjacent public roadways and with a sufficient capacity of water, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, electrical power, natural gas, telephone and cable) construction costs can be managed, and the project completes on time. Typically this involves retention of a professional engineer who specializes in supervision of construction and an architect to design an attractive, welcoming development. Many developers retain long-term ownership of profitable rental properties. Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program The Metropolitan Council receives funding for projects and procurements from several sources, including federal funding from the United States Department of Transportation (US DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Both the US DOT and the EPA require their fund recipients to have a DBE Program. The DBE program is a project for increasing the participation of women and minority owned businesses in the 2040 HOUSING POLICY PLAN I METROPOLITAN COUNCIL DRAFT RELEASED FOR PUBLIC COMMENT Appendices I Page 82