The city is moving forward with a redevelopment plan for the Telephone Hill neighborhood in the coming years. How should the Assembly balance the need for more affordable housing downtown with the costs the city may have to shoulder to get those requirements in place?

Dorene Lorenz

Candidate for District 2 Assembly

This is a really sad example of where we’re not looking at added value. We’re not appreciating what we have, and we’re not really investing in the assets that the city currently has. If you look at the feasibility study for this, it says the minimum investment is going to be $50,000 per unit to get those Airbnb units put in on Telephone Hill, over 35 of them. That’s the feasibility study telling us that we — that’s the only way we can make it pencil out. If we took, for example, the Gross Building that has, from what I understand, 32 units that have some water damage, and we put $50,000 in per unit as a subsidy on that building, we would have 32 units for $1.6 million that don’t have issues with parking and snow removal, don’t need utilities and streets put in. And then we’re going to more likely to have local workers working on that and those dollars circulated in our economy. Why wouldn’t you support local?

Emily Mesch

Candidate for District 2 Assembly

I think affordable housing is paramount – that’s been one of my rallying cries. I think Telephone Hill is a great opportunity. I think, and this is a little bit radical, but we’re in a crisis, and all options should be on the table.

I think the city should start engaging in city-owned and city-managed housing that we can provide at cost without a profit motive. I think that’s like the new building by Fred Meyer, that’s what happened. The profit motive got involved in affordable housing and the developer’s interests were in conflict with the city’s. If the city is in charge, the city can set the prices so that we’re not losing money, but we’re not gaining money either, and we’re providing affordable housing for our residents. And Telephone Hill is a great place where we can do that. 

Nano Brooks

Candidate for District 2 Assembly

So, this has been a hot topic in the community. There are a lot of mixed feelings and emotions on it, and the sentiment that always seems to shine through is that people want and need affordable housing. And it’s a very subjective term. You know, what is affordable? And, how can you ensure that that is what’s available when a project is started?

With Telephone Hill, it’s something that is in the most prime real estate of downtown, one of the most historic areas of downtown, and to try and force affordable housing into there is a really hard thing, especially when monies have already been exchanged for the development of these plans, even before community input.

So work is already being done on it, but the focus should definitely be a lot more on how to get more units quicker and more affordable, as opposed to refining something so much that it’s a flawless diamond, because then nothing will ever get built.

Mary Marks

Candidate for District 2 Assembly

I was born and raised here and Telephone Hill’s been there for as long as I can remember. Being up there, it doesn’t demonstrate a lot of parking needs. So if we’re going to put affordable housing up there, are we going to meet those needs and those requirements for our people?

And who is that being built for? Is that going to be somebody that’s a family of four, or is this going to be for veterans, or our seniors that are needing more housing? What does that mean? So I think it’s important to really understand where we’re putting up housing because I know we have a severe shortage. We have people that are being hired from out of state for positions, and because of low shortage of housing, they leave the state.

Maureen Hall

Candidate for District 2 Assembly

I think it’s definitely a need of more affordable housing downtown. However, with so many empty buildings, is Telephone Hill really the place that we want to try to achieve affordable housing? I think it would be a very expensive place to develop, and I think that there are probably many other properties that we could achieve having that balance with more affordable housing.

Neil Steininger

Candidate for District 1 Assembly

That’s a great question. My time since I moved back to town in 2012, there have been many, many housing units lost downtown. The Gastineau apartment building burning down — we’ve lost a lot of density in the downtown district, and that’s something that we really need to figure out how to replace.

The Telephone Hill project, I walked through the neighborhood yesterday actually, and there is space available for additional dense housing that could be built if it’s gotten into the hands of a developer willing to do that work. But there’s also that question of, ‘how do we balance those buildings that are currently occupied in the space that’s available?’ And that’s really going to be a sticky challenge because it is a group of residents there that have been living there for quite some time.

Connor Ulmer

Candidate for District 1 Assembly

I think one of the things the city should look at is more of how different ways of developing Telephone Hill for it. I know affordable housing is a big issue, so my thought would be, I would love to maybe see the city get into developing housing for that more mid-tier range, but also bringing in other partners who would want to develop up there. So there’s kind of like a mixed use of Telephone Hill – some low income, maybe some of the higher income for those more desirable lots that are kind of on the front overlooking town. So, kind of making sure you get everybody involved in the development of Telephone Hill.

Beth Weldon

Candidate for Mayor

I have a little different viewpoint than probably most of the Assembly members, and I’ve stated this on the record. My personal feeling is we should just let an outright bidding war happen and get as much money we can from Telephone Hill. It’s prime real estate. We would get prime costs. And then I believe we should turn around and then subsidize the heck out of Second [Street] and Franklin [Street], and do more affordable there. I know the Assembly won’t go that way with me, so the last I knew that we were looking at 20% of 80% AMI [Area Median Income], which is probably more likely, although we did have conversations of ‘can that just be in one building rather than every building?’

But I think we should get the most bang for the buck, and if we go that route of getting the most bang for the buck, then we don’t have to put any money into doing any project development or any landscaping or anything like that.

Angela Rodell

Candidate for Mayor

I think what’s interesting in this question is that you’re focused on affordable housing downtown, and I think we need to be more open to affordable housing throughout the community, and think about our transportation network and how we move people throughout the community, and not focus on one particular region as to where affordable housing should or should not be located.

I think that Telephone Hill presents an interesting opportunity for housing of all types, for people who may be empty nesters and want to downsize and maybe move out of homes that then would be affordable for families to move into.

And so I would encourage that we be really open-minded, allow developers to come with ideas as to what they think would be best, and really promote affordable housing throughout the community.