Two affordable housing developments, one focused on homeless veterans, to be considered by city

Tallahassee City Commissioners will consider whether to approve the first steps in opening up two housing projects that could create close to 200 apartments.

Commissioners meet on Wednesday when they will decide whether to sell more than four acres of land in Northwest Tallahassee for a homeless veterans complex and whether to waive fees associated with a plan to convert a motel into studio apartments.

The veterans housing complex is being proposed by the Big Bend Homeless Coalition which wants to buy 4.5 acres of city-owned land at 1665 Capital Circle Northwest.

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BBHC wants to build between 60 and 95 housing units for formerly homeless veterans on the site.

The land, which the city bought from Talquin Electric Coop in 2004, was appraised at $2.37 million but a second appraisal is in progress.

According to city agenda materials, the BBHC has also looked into property on Stuckey Avenue for the project but the city parcel is their top choice for the housing development.

In a letter of intent, BBHC Executive Director Holly Bernardo wrote that the organization would be partnering with Birdsong Housing, a Maitland, Florida-based company with statewide experience, in developing affordable housing.

Bernardo wrote that BBHC is hoping to tap into state funds being dedicated to affordable housing.

“Our mission is to end homelessness in the Big Bend through leadership, education, advocacy, and the provision of quality services and affordable housing. This land would be used to build multifamily affordable housing units,” Bernardo wrote. “We understand the City of Tallahassee is strategically focused on affordable housing as is the legislature with the Love Local Act which is likely to increase vital funds for affordable housing projects in the coming year making this request particularly timely.”

At the same time, city commissioners will decide whether to waive traffic concurrency fees for a proposal to turn the Motel 6 on Monroe Street into 105 studio apartments.

Atlanta-based developer Hamentbhai Patel is behind the $1.2 million project to convert the building into affordable housing. In recent years, the city has approved several projects to reuse old hotels in its goal to grow the housing stock.

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Concurrency fees are money based on the impact a development could have on existing infrastructure.

City officials tallied the traffic fees for the Motel 6 development at roughly $40,000 because it would have “a significant impact on an existing roadway segment in the vicinity.”

But because the project was certified as affordable housing, the fee was reduced to $19,000 due to other available incentives associated with affordable housing.

City staff is recommending waiving the fee by supplementing it with American Rescue Plan funding already in hand.

Commissioners get Real Time Crime Center update

Commissioners will get an update in the involvement of the Tallahassee Police Department in the Real Time Crime Center.

TPD, along with the Leon County Sheriff’s Office and Florida State University Police Department began test runs in the facility on Feb. 16 and will begin staffing it full-time by the end of the month.

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The high-tech center, in Florida State University’s Sliger Building on Paul Dirac Drive, will tap into data, such as cameras, license plate readers and criminal intelligence databases to investigate crime in real time. LCSO has already operated a similar real-time crime center at its headquarters for several years.

TPD will have one dedicated supervisor and three full-time analysts. LCSO will staff the center with one supervisor, four full-time analysts and one part-time analyst. FSUPD will employ one supervisor, one full-time analyst and one part-time analyst at the center.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: City of Tallahassee to consider two affordable housing developments