Stimulus Surprise for Plainfield? (1)

Plainfield's Census Tract 393

Should you be alarmed by the odd notice which appeared on Plainfield's website Tuesday night (see here)? Read on...

City of Plainfield
NEIGHBORHOOD STABILIZATION FUNDING

The City of Plainfield is considering an application with US Department of Housing and Urban Development for Neighborhood Stabilization Funding in amount of $15,250.00 through the federal stimulus program. The Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2), authorized under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, provides through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding to be awarded on a competitive basis to states, municipalities, nonprofit organizations or consortia of nonprofits, to stabilize neighborhoods whose viability has been and continues to be damaged by the economic effects of properties that have been foreclosed upon and abandoned.

For Information purposes, below you will find the project description. Public comment on the application is encouraged.

The notice points to a PDF file (see here).

What caught my eye was the grant amount: $15,250. Odd that such a small amount would be so important it would be posted to the website after normal work hours (apx 6:30 PM), but it says it's about President Obama's ARRA (Stimulus) money being used to stabilize neighborhoods damaged by the effects of foreclosed and abandoned properties.

Fair enough.

The PDF document though, contains some interesting surprises --

• First, the application is for $15 MILLION plus, not $15 THOUSAND plus;
  
  
• Second, it is targeted for Census Tract 393;
  
  
• Third, it proposes development of 168 housing units (rehab and new);
  
  
• Fourth, more than 85% of the units will be developed by Landmark Developers.

Additionally, we learn that 100 of the proposed units are new construction on a single site already titled to Landmark, the 68 units are to be rehabbed in nine existing buildings.

My guess is the 100 new units would be in the parking lot on West 2nd Street behind PNC's main branch (see below).

Landmark sites.

The applicant (evidently) is the City of Plainfield, whose for-profit partner is to be Landmark, which in turn has partnered with the politically juiced nonprofit CityWorks (not Citiworks as Plainfield's document has it). To see just HOW JUICED the nonprofit is, check out its Trustees page (see here).

This is a nice piece of change, and should help Landmark make some money in Plainfield.

There will be strings attached, of course, and that is where you come in.

Those strings are that the project will be designated for AFFORDABLE HOUSING, and that will require the City to grant a PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) arrangement. An unspoken assumption is that the units will be RENTAL, not CONDO.

The affordability requirement means that NO HOUSEHOLD will be eligible whose income exceeds 120% of the AMI (Area Median Income -- see here) which for Union County is $74,600 -- meaning a household income ceiling of $88,730. And AT LEAST 25% of the units would have to be occupied by households whose income CANNOT EXCEED 50% of the AMI -- or $37,300.

The PILOT requirement means that the state's formula for determining the payment to the City will be in place. While that may mean the City could receive as much as or even slightly more than it would under actual taxation -- the SCHOOL DISTRICT would RECEIVE NOTHING, even if families with school-age children occupy the units.

Which means, dear taxpayer, that you-know-who would have to pick up the slack.

Is the ARRA Stimulus Plan going to have the unintended consequence of miring Plainfield even more firmly in being a relatively low-income ever-increasingly rental community?

Will ARRA's help mean Plainfield taxpayers will face even higher property taxes?

Will the newly developed affordable housing just be a newer and more presentable Connolly-type absentee landlord asituation waiting to happen?

The Robinson-Briggs administration and the City Council would do well to evaluate the success of Plainfield's most recent affordable housing rental redevelopment -- Horizons at Plainfield -- in assessing the positive and negative potential outcomes for this use of Stimulus money in Plainfield.

Or would that be too inconvenient?

(Note: This is the first of two Stimulus stories; I'm still working on the second.)

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-- Dan Damon

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