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<br /> <br />Item No: EDA-7B <br />Meeting Date: April 9, 2007 <br />Type of Business: EDA Business <br />City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Mounds View Economic Development Authority <br />From: Jim Ericson, Community Development Director <br />Item Title/Subject: Review Housing Replacement Program Guidelines <br />and Criteria <br /> <br />Introduction: <br /> <br />Created in 1995, the Housing Replacement Program is a voluntary program that allows <br />the City to purchase blighted residential properties from willing sellers. A secondary facet <br />of the program involves providing demolition assistance for property owners who would <br />like to remain in the community rather than building new elsewhere. Due to concerns <br />raised by the Office of the State Auditor (which were resolved in 2004) the program had <br />seen little use until recently. This report will serve as an opportunity to review the <br />program guidelines and funding criteria and make changes deemed appropriate. <br /> <br /> <br />Discussion: <br /> <br />Purpose: The purpose of the Housing Replacement Program, as stated in the attached <br />program summary, is to reduce the social costs of blight, improve residential <br />neighborhoods and increase the tax base. <br /> <br />Objectives: There are three stated objectives for this program—replace deteriorated <br />lower value housing with larger, higher valued housing; eliminate blight; and increase the <br />availability of quality housing for families. <br /> <br />Criteria: The home will likely be substandard in some way or exhibit some level of blight. <br />This is defined as follows: <br /> <br />1. Substandard as to condition, property value, size or usage. <br />2. Obsolete and having a faulty design for block and area in which it is located. <br />3. Deterioration which has caused blight to other adjoining properties <br />4. Detrimental to the safety or health of abutting properties in the block. <br /> <br />Participation in the program is voluntary. To acquire a property for demolition and resale, <br />the parcel must be represented on the list created in 2004 to satisfy concerns raised by <br />the Office of the State Auditor. The City is under no obligation whatsoever to acquire a <br />property. <br /> <br />Demolition: The program has a second funding option for property owners who desire to <br />remain in the community by providing demolition assistance. (See attached article from <br />the Dec 14, 2000 edition of the Focus.) The house must still satisfy the “blight” criteria <br />but there is no requirement that it be represented on “the List”. As the EDA has become <br />aware, there are no criteria that apply to the demolition assistance.