A recommendation that would streamline the county’s potential role in housing issues didn’t go far with commissioners last week.
Administrator Jim Dyer presented the board with a three-part package during the board’s July 8 executive committee meeting.
“The cost to live here or to buy a house here is prohibitory expense f or anyone trying to move into the county and it has become a very significant problem in recruitment for the county itself, particularly in the Sheriff’s Department, and simply burying your head in the sand and saying it is a problem for someone else to solve or to not solve at all is counterproductive,” Dyer said.
On background, county commissioners have long recognized the importance of addressing housing challenges facing residents. To that end, the board previously established a Housing Action Committee (HAC) to study housing needs and recommend strategies. More recently the Leelanau County Housing Collaborative (LCHC), a multi-stakeholder group working regionally to advance practical housing solutions has formed.
Dyer’s first recommendation was to disband the HAC which has met infrequently over the past year.
“The committee’s primary tasks — assessing local housing needs and recommending board strategies — have now been substantially addressed and incorporated into the work plan of the (new housing collaborative),” Dyer stated in a memo to the board. “Retiring the committee avoids duplication of effort and clarifies the county’s current structure for housing work.” The second part of the threeprong plan, to assign coordination of housing inquiries and requests for information to the county administrator’s office.
“There are numerous potential points of contact between the county and the developers of both affordable and attainable housing,” Dyer said. “Contacts with the county Planning Commission, Land Bank Authority, and Brownfield Development Authority current occur, and are expected to continue in the future.”
Given that Dyer supervises the county planning director and sits as a voting member on both the Land Bank and Brownfield Authorities, he said it makes sense that housing responses should be coordinated through his office.
District 4 Commissioner Ty Wessell supported the move.
“It is about using the resources and using the administrator’s skills to continue on the house progress,” he said.
But some questioned whether this would usurp authority of the county board. And the questions continued at Tuesday night’s regular session.
“It’s been four years since the ‘clerk disaster’ … trying to fix that move,” former District 1 commissioner candidate Tim McCalley said during public comment. “Here we go again going down the road into the housing issue. “Where that will end up? Leelanau County has a housing issue. But so does the rest of the country. Once the government gets its hands into something, it usually does not end well.”
And the third component recommendation is to endorse strategies prepared by the LCHC.
After several failed efforts to recommend action on the proposals as a whole and separately, board instead opted to take up the issue at their August meeting.
“Simply burying your head in the sand and saying it is a problem for someone else to solve or to not solve at all is counterproductive,” — Jim Dyer, county administrator.
