At a glance
The Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency walked through a draft RFP to redevelop a vacant city-held lot Thursday — and made a call: keep the scope broad, but state a clear preference for affordable housing, tie affordability to Columbia County's area median income, schedule a site visit, and frame the deal as a development agreement, not a sale. Members also approved bills and heard updates on the emergency rental assistance fund ($13,000 of $20,000 spent this year) and the newly expanded Hudson Housing Trust Fund.
010:15
Opening and routine business
A quorum was reached and the meeting was called to order.
Key points
- Roll was called; one board member was absent.
- Minutes from the previous meeting (prepared by staff) were approved.
A note on the transcript
This page is built from YouTube's automatic captions. The transcript has no speaker labels and garbles many names, so this summary describes speakers by role. Check anything important against the city's official minutes.
021:21
The draft RFP: how to invite proposals for a vacant city lot
Most of the meeting was spent walking through a draft Request for Proposals for redeveloping a vacant city-held parcel — with substantive comments from the board's attorney about scope, price, site access, and the legal structure of any eventual deal.
Key points
- Counsel advised describing the parcel as **vacant and zoned**, not as a 'developable lot,' since the agency has not paid for the diligence that would back up a developability claim.
- The RFP references an old appraisal; the board agreed to make clear that a copy is available on request, while noting the appraisal is dated and does not represent current value.
- A site visit will be scheduled and offered to all serious proposers at one common time, rather than one-off — that mirrors what the Housing Authority does.
- On scope: members confirmed they want the RFP to **remain broad** to see what proposers come back with, but to clearly signal a **strong preference for affordable housing**. Commercial or creative mixed-use proposals would not be rejected, but housing — and specifically affordable housing — is the priority.
- The board discussed bracketing affordability by Columbia County's area median income (AMI). For context, 100% of county AMI is about $113,000; 80% is about $90,000; 50% about $56,000. Members floated a 60-100% AMI range, to be tightened in revision.
- Counsel pushed the board to be explicit that the conveyance will be **under a development agreement** with conditions tied to producing an approved project — not an outright sale. The administrator agreed to add that language.
What's next
Staff will revise the RFP with these changes and circulate to the board for comment between meetings. The board will review the next version at its June meeting and discuss dates and a final application timeline before publishing the RFP.
0316:51
Bills and financial reconciliations
The board approved a small list of bills and noted that monthly reconciliations had not yet been completed for April.
Key points
- Two bills were approved: an outside firm and the administrator.
- The administrator and the mayor plan to complete April's reconciliations the following Monday.
0418:05
Old business: emergency rent help and the new Housing Trust Fund
Members heard updates on the emergency rental assistance program and the recently expanded Hudson Housing Trust Fund.
Key points
- **Emergency rental assistance**: four households received help this past month, awards ranging from about $900 to $1,300. Three were people who had lost jobs and needed bridge help. About $13,000 of the $20,000 fund has been spent, leaving roughly $7,000.
- **Housing Trust Fund**: the newly expanded trust fund — now six members, with a possible seventh — held its first meeting this month. The session was an introduction walking through the city's housing goals in the comprehensive plan and how the trust fund typically works.
- The next Housing Trust Fund meeting is its regular date — the second Wednesday of June (June 10) — with members discussing whether to move the start time earlier.
- Members asked staff to send the board, in writing, the list of new Housing Trust Fund members and their meeting dates so the board can track that committee.
0516:34
Title search outstanding, and adjournment
A title-search inquiry was still pending; the administrator agreed to nudge.
Key points
- The administrator reached out to an outside firm about a title search on remaining HCDPA properties and will follow up next week.
- No new business; the meeting was adjourned.
Read the full transcript
0:15Okay. All right. Looks like I got our quarum. >> Yep. >> We're online. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Call for the HCDPA meeting for 28, 2026. Uh, roll your call, please. >> Yeah. Uh, board member Ferris is not here. Board member Bogle >> here. >> Board member Moranti >> here. >> Board member Smith >> here. >> And am I missing anyone? Oh, board member Ronnie. >> Great. Okay. Quarend uh minutes. Can I get a everybody get a chance to read the minutes Logan provided for us? I did. Thank you so much, Logan. I'll make a motion on that. >> Can I get a second? All in favor? >> I >> Thank you.
1:17>> Thank you. >> And now we're in RFP draft. >> Yep. >> So, that brings it to my admin report. Um, I sent everyone kind of my basic RFP draft, which I just wanted to get all my bullet points in. Chris has uh provided me with a good amount of feedback, but first I wanted to open it up to say see if other people have feedback. I thought it looked lovely. First of all, thank you guys for working on it. It looked great to me. I don't have any feedback besides thank you for working on it. >> Yeah, of course. Um, yeah. Yeah, I got some resources from Michelle and, you know, just kind of looked at what other talents and people did. This is my first time making our RFP, so any >> fun? It was fun. It wasn't too bad of like they did this. I don't know if we need that, but you know, so I'm open for any feedback. You're not going to, you know, hurt my feelings. So, um, did we do the changes that were recommended by Chris? >> I didn't change that document just because I didn't want to start changing the document before. Okay. >> In between everyone else seeing it. That
2:19makes sense. >> So, Chris has has some suggested, so we're okay to talk about it, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. These are generic, I think. So, >> so just just a few things. I think that, you know, I had some specific language I want Logan to include. you know, this is under contractor and an offer to sell. You know, it's just just bait stuff that should be in there. And then um just again, these are just nets, you know, I don't want to imply that it's a developable lot. So, I just want to say that it's a vacant lot and then it's zoned, but it's zoned and then it's up to the, you know, proposer to decide what's what they're able to do with it. Right. Because you have decided not to spend the money trying to do diligence on all of that. Right. Right. So, um you just should be clear about that. And then if you're going to reference appraisal in the in the document, I think that you can expect that people are going to ask for a copy of it. So, you're have to decide if that's something that you want to share even though it's old and even though it's, you know, relates to other documents or other properties.
3:22>> Yeah, that's a question. >> I don't know if we should because it's bold appraisal and >> has it already been made public? It has. So yeah, it's part of the meeting materials at some point. >> Yeah. So I mean that's fine then as long as you know it's available if somebody wants to see a copy. I think we just be clear about that. Okay. >> Um and for what it's worth, I mean it's not it's not a representation of value or anything like that. It's just a document that you have. >> All right. Um and are you going to schedule a site visit, which would be typical if you're trying to sell something like this. if they can't access it or see it. Is this, you know, are people going to want to get to the property or can they just look at it from the street and that's fine? >> Um, we can schedule site visits with it's not fast. Yeah. Yeah. It's just >> that open property right there. So, if someone wants to go there, I'm happy to meet them. >> If you're going to have a site visit, you should do one and have it visit otherwise. >> Yeah. Schedule one time of all the potential
4:25>> the same thing. Got it. Okay. >> So, I'll just leave it to you to decide if you think that's helpful or not helpful to the potential. >> Um, >> I think that's very helpful. That's what we did at HHA. >> I think we could do it. >> Yeah. So you would just set a date for that and a time and then you know you be meet say where you're going to meet them or whatever and that's part of your >> um and then you know I think if the the what you're trying to do here is a little unclear because you've it it reads almost as if you're still open to lots of different you know mechanisms here whether that's sale or whether that's lease or whether that's you know I want you to develop this and it's a development agreement with a you know you get a deed but you have to do x y and z right so it's it's it's a little bit unclear I think what you're expecting of the proposal so do you want to narrow that at all or or are you
5:28still intending to make it fairly broad question for you >> I thought we were sticking to making it broad to see what they were interested in doing Um, so you also have not asked for a price in the in the proposal. >> So is that something that you want to clarify? >> Would that be like listing a minimum price or a >> just if you're going to compare proposals, >> you know, think you should be clear about whether or not >> Oh, that we expect a price from the applicant. whatever you expect. I think it's it's better if you're clear because you're going to be trying to evaluate this and and you know, you did the RFI, but that was kind of a mushy, you know, what's out there, but you're supposed to be in a position to make a decision at the end of this process. And so, you know, if you're not going to say, I'm going to sell it to the highest bidder and if there's something else that you want, I think you need to be really clear about
6:29what it is that you want, right? Because right now it's not even clear if you want housing or if you want something else there, right? So it could be something else that someone wants to do with it. And then you know I think it's good if you can signal I'm going to prefer this over this if that's the case if you know what you want. >> I thought that that was a part of us agreeing that we wanted it to follow our mission. Is that not are we speaking on something outside of that just so I could be on the same page? Well, I'm just looking at what the RFP says right now, and you do say here's uh it it's very broad. It says contribute to N the goals say contribute to neighborhood stabilization, affordable housing production, and long-term community benefit. Um I'm not sure that means you're intending to >> secure housing. So, if that's not the case, if you're open to things other than housing, then that's okay. But if you really expect to see housing there, then maybe it would be well to say that
7:31is all I'm saying. >> Okay. >> Um that that's your preference or at least that that's your preference. And then so anyway, let's start with that. >> What if we do broad right then when you propose it, right? They they can do both poses, right? In terms of housing and so >> do you have a preference? We we could add at the end with like strong preferences given to housing rather than close it off completely see what they can come up with but also say that we are targeting housing right if you >> housing or affordable housing >> affordable housing yes strong given okay I don't think that would be a bad thing to do because I think that's what I was hearing from you so I think maybe that's what you want to say um and then at least it lets people know that that's what you're attention is okay question there. If we're measuring we're targeting affordable housing, would it be appropriate to bracket that bracket
8:34that by AMI bracket that by >> um >> you know put metrics there or is that something you leave open and then you use whatever they say to judge their >> I think usually affordable housing is a bracket right isn't that is it's usually an understood Sure. I guess there is different tiers, right? There's >> believe it or not. I mean, there's been a lot of discussion about affordable housing, right? And so there are different levels of affordable housing, right? Absolutely. Modern income housing and there's >> everybody is looking for affordable housing no matter if you're a multi-millionaire. No, everyone is looking for affordable housing for sure. For certainty, >> right? So, um I mean I think generically something less than market, right? >> Yes. ask I was talking to them by section by >> um I don't not in the mission statement it's uh low to moderate income I know um
9:42>> yeah how how I mean that location is essentially in the same neighborhood as um the high-rise development which is >> kind of kind of like an index for what we can say we can you know we could cap it maybe like uh no higher than I don't know what's the upper limit like 100% of AMI or something like that >> and could we do if we bracket it can we specify whether that's Hudson itself or um county because That's the basis on which we have to evaluate you know I mean we don't have numbers for Hudson right so yeah counting it you can you can do percentages off of that if you're trying to take that into account right but that's but as a benchmark isn't that what you want% okay >> yeah maybe maybe 60 to 100% of MI or something like that I don't know whatever you guys think is appropriate >> um
10:47then you have in your scope. Um so if the idea is that you want to say clearly that the expectation is you're not just going to you know sell it to them or convey it to them. Your intention is to enter into development agreement and convey it to them on certain conditions that are great that are going to requt convey it to them under a development agreement to require them to develop >> you know a project that is consistent with your uh mission plans is that >> that is that is the intention that is the goal but we don't know if our um our what would you call it would agree upon that. So, we want to see what they're willing to offer, but that is our intention. That is our goal. But we know one of the RFIs um the feedback was she wanted to have it as like her one of the 238 as like her warehouse or something like you know what I mean?
11:49>> Yeah. I remember they that was the party who was interested in both 238 and the other one down on a state front basically. Um, >> and one of them she wanted to make it like her main >> office commercial, >> right? Like commercial space. >> So, I mean, are you open to commercial use? It just maybe not as preferred as something else. Is that >> I mean, I'm not saying I'm not open. I will say when I first started this off, the goal was really to go by our mention commission, get as much housing as we can, but we don't really know with these properties what we can actually get out of that. And so that's why I was more o open and more broad. Yeah. >> So what I'm hearing is we should put something about the preference for building affordable housing at whatever AMI we decide on but are open to >> like if they come to us with something really good. >> Yeah. I mean it might be something in that area that really needs something commercial for
12:51>> but whatever it is the intention is to have development agreements. So you're not going to say here's the deeds, give me 100,000 bucks, we're done here. Right? It's not the intention. >> No. >> So I think I can help you with some language, but I think even better to be more clear that it's intention to enter into a development agreement for the production of, you know, the project proposal that's approved. So >> Okay. So just for clarity, we're kind of on a binary where sellup is one thing and then conveying at that language. >> Well, it is it is it will be a conveyance, but only conveyance conditions. Right. >> Got it. >> Right. The only thing I would think is is you may have a creative developer out there that has some really interesting mixed use idea >> and your comment kind of opened that thought up for me. >> Is that you like the oldfashioned store on the lower floor and the carpets or some kind of a interesting combination that brings services and and talking opportunity so forth into the neighborhood.
13:53>> Yeah. It would be nice to have a little bit of flexibility in that regard. >> So, so we're looking at revisiting was the changes next meeting, right? Because we're not ready to do anything now. >> Well, unless you want to just direct Logan to make the changes that were discussed and, you know, proceed let you take a last look at it, you know, as a you know, administratively and get it out my street. We could do that if you want to if you I mean you've been waiting for another meeting and have another meeting look at another version. It's too >> I'm looking at uh I'm looking at area median income for Columbia County right now. It's uh looks like 100% is 113,000 80% is 90,000 and 50% is 56,000. So if it gives you guys a context >> is that four person. >> What's that?
14:54>> Family of four or is that >> is that I assume that's family of four. Okay, Michelle. >> Yeah. Okay. >> You comfortable making a change now? >> Yeah, I can make the all the changes that I'm seeing, but I do want some oversight. So, I do want to send it out and make sure that I'm not misinterpreting anything or anything like that. >> So, would it be safe then just to say we can revisit next with with a the changes because >> Yeah, I think that's probably >> how can we, you know, do this, you know, publicly. So, the best thing to do is Logan make the recommended changes and then we can revisit it next month. Right. >> Yeah. And then the the other thing we'll want to think about is dates, time frames for application, that sort of thing. Um, >> yeah, Logan can make the changes and send it out to us and then we can offer suggestions but not finalize anything until the next meeting, right? That way it's an ongoing conversation rather than
15:58waiting until next meeting to make more changes. >> That sounds >> Is that okay, Chris? You think that does that work oral? You can Yeah, you guys can give your comments back to Logan if I could suggest that then conduct a conversation outside of the meeting would be good. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Perfect. >> Okay. So, that sounds like the plan. >> Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Um, I'd like people to kind of think about the dates, think about the timeline. Um, I'm sure we want everything to happen as quickly as possible, but we want the best results right now. Um uh the other thing I reached out to Conquer about the um title search. They said they're going to look into it and get back to me. So I'll nudge them next week if I don't hear um back from them. But they're they're pretty good about stuff like that. Um so that is where that is at. Um and our next category is financial report. We just have two bills, RCMP and me.
17:03Everybody get a chance to see the bills? >> Yes. >> Can I get a motion to pay the bills? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you. One favor. >> And the other thing for financial report, I should mention um me and the mayor did not have time to go over um reconciliations. So, our plan is to do that Monday for the previous month of April. Um just so everyone's aware. >> Now, has further engagements on remaining remaining properties That's kind of what I put in there for the conquer thing, the sort of title search and getting more more stuff there. >> He's just waiting for I I thought they did one at one point. So, but I'm not sure. >> Yeah. Yeah. He said he'd look into it. They've done a couple things like every year when we go through our um go through our audit, they have to get us a letter saying that I think in Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. So, no resolutions, a motion just to pay the bills, right? Yeah. Old business,
18:05Miss Michelle. >> Um, so there's two things. First one is, um, we have questions. Did they receive the second check? I mean, >> yeah, they cashed in. >> Great. So, this past month, we had four households received assistance. They are all between 900 and 1300. Um, three situations where people lost their jobs and needed help with that until they get a new job. Um, and then one in a situation similar office. Um, we've spent or about um 13,000 of the 20,000. So you've got 7,000 remaining um in the funds for now. So 4,000 250 is that much. Um, second thing is that the housing trust fund, the new members had a really nice meeting this month. Um, haven't gotten the minutes together yet, but I'll spend those when
19:07I have them. The general meeting was just kind of an introduction and walking through um, kind of the housing goals and our comprehensive plan and talking about how the trust fund usually works. And uh, yeah, it's a it's a good group of people. So excited to uh, have seen with Energy. Um we'll be meeting again this June at our regular date. Um second Wednesday of the month. Um people want to move it up. Is that 6 pm to So we're going to figure out if we're going to move it. I'm not going to >> move move up the timing. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um because we meet at 6 I believe or 5:30. I think it's 5:30. But there's the problem moving at 5. So, can you give the board um in writing um with the the can you just send them the list of the new members and the dates of the meeting because the board there's the committee of the board that the the board is responsible for. So, they need to understand what's going on
20:08with that board. Okay. >> Yeah. We posted the minutes and everything like me board. It just was outstanding. >> Yeah. But it also the the new compliment of the board members Yes. Yeah. I look at their bios and stuff and you got to nominate them at the last meeting. >> The whole >> that was part of the report last month when >> I didn't get it. So, um Oh, but you have to meet them, right? >> The letters of interest have a little at the bottom of the HTML report. >> Yeah. >> Okay, we did. >> But send it send it again so Chris can see it. And we're back at six on the board. >> Six members. >> Yeah. But one more potential appointment is seven. >> Cool. And when's your next meeting you said? >> Uh second Wednesday in June. I think it's the 10.
21:14>> Thank you. >> Okay. Let me just look at me one second. We got Michelle. >> Yeah, I don't have anything after that unless there's any new business. >> Any new business? Any public comment on agenda items? >> Everybody hand up online? >> No. >> Okay, >> I'll make that motion to adjurnn. >> Thank you. Second >> here. >> All in favor? >> I >> thank you everyone. >> Well, you're still here. Bye. >> Have a good night everyone.
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