AGENDA
Sweetgrass Non-Profit Housing Cooperative
General Meeting: June 22nd, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Location: Firehall
In Attendance:
Members’ List
# / Name / X /#
/Name
/ X /#
/Name
/ X1 / Weir/Griffis / 22 / Park / X / 44 / Gamblin/Rough / X
2 / Tiesenhausen / X / 23 / Wong / X / 45 / Parisien
3 / Beauchamp/Erb / X / 24 / Schmidt / X / 46 / Wilson / X
4 / Breau / 25 / Nunes/Small / X / 47 / Sutherland
5 / Bolduc / X / 26 / Hart / X / 48 / Booth/Uyeda / X
6 / Duchoslav / X / 27 / Arseneau/Roy / X / 49 / Bussieres / X
7 / Druyff / X / 28 / Damota/Walliser / X / 50 / Branch / X
8 / Walker/McKeeman / 29 / Kerrivan/Baker / 51 / Wallace / Prockiw / X
9 / Pickle / X / 30 / King / 52 / Matei / Barber / X
10 / Sherlow / X / 31 / Nelson / 53 / Harkema/Cameron / X
11 / Rowlandson/Anderson / X / 32 / Brochu / X / 54 / Harkema / X
12 / Wills/Duguay / 33 / Sommers / 55 / Dolhan / X
13 / Wadsworth / 34 / Findlay / X / 56 / Nayak
14 / Standing / X / 35 / Kennedy / X / 57 / Gilmet/Prail
15 / McIsaac / X / 36 / Rudnicki / 58 / Kalamoutsos / X
16 / Ruddy/Murphy / X / 37 / Sieben/Haug / 59 / Fawcett
17 / Storms / 38 / Turcot/Nicolle / 60 / Bartziokas
18 / Wasylyk / 39 / Tio-Tio / 61 / Groth/Armstrong
19 / Habib-Neufeld / X / 40 / Ball/Kowalski / X / 62 / McCarthy
20 / Vissers/Goyvaerts / 41 / Campeau / 63 / Dallaire / X
21 / Ederle / X / 42 / Brake / 64 / Pending…
43 / Kozacikova
Meeting called to order @ 1632
1) Confirmation of Members in Attendance
2) Approval of Agenda
Motion by: Lalenia Neufeld
Seconded by: Paul Kowalski
3) Approval of Minutes from June 17th, General Meeting
Motion by: April Harkema
Seconded by: Melissa Kennedy
4) Business Arising from Previous Minutes
4.1) vote on Transfer of all deposited funds from both Sweetgrass Bank accounts to the newly formed numbered company: 1475053 Alberta Ltd. Formed on June 16th, 2009. The Sweetgrass Non-Profit Housing Corporation will manage this account. All members who have funds deposited under the Sweetgrass Non-Profit Housing Cooperative and Corporation must sign the attached form allowing the transfer of these funds as recommended by the Executive Committee to further safe guard our invested funds from litigation as it pertains to the Oakmont Construction invoice which will not be paid in its present form.
Motion to transfer the funds to the numbered company:
Motion: Eddie Wong
Second: Travis Anderson
All members in favour, motion passed
4.2) results from the Ballot vote regarding the recommendation from the Architectural Committee to proceed with contracting Rockliff Pierzchajlo as the Architectural firm that will produce the drawings for our proposed non-profit housing development.
Ballot vote results: all members in favour of proceeding with Rockliff Pierzchajlo as the architectural firm.
4.3) vote on accepting our Bylaw package as attached which has been presented to and been accepted by Parks Canada.
Motion to approve bylaws:
Motion: Manon Dallaire
Second: Paul Schmidt
All members in favour, motion passed
4.4) vote on accepting the wording of the Lease package as attached and presented by Parks Canada for the 3 parcels of land FW, FX and FY.
Motion to approve wording of lease package:
Motion: Manon Dallaire
Second: Lalenia Neufeld
All members in favour, motion passed
4.5) vote on hiring an accountant firm that will oversee financial transactions and produce year-end financial information as required by the Alberta Government and our financial institutions.
Ed: an accountant would handle the bills, do the annual year-end statement, etc.
Hjalmar: recommends Eleanor Bye who does other coops and has been reasonable to talk to. No accountants will do an audit but will make annual recommendations. Doesn’t know what fee would be – depends on hourly rate. Annual statements are a requirement for many funding institutions.
Motion to proceed with hiring Eleanor Bye as our accountant.
Motion: Don Pickle
Second: Travis Anderson
All members in favour, motion passed
4.6) vote on the recommendation from the Executive Committee regarding the hiring of a project management firm to oversee the Architectural and Construction phases of this project.
Ed: asking a lot to have volunteers manage a $12M+ project. Up till now we have been stomping out bush fires to make sure we satisfy Parks and deal with Oakmont. It’s come to the point where we’re on the verge of hiring an architect and we need some professional help. We can’t screw up from here on in. We are getting into serious contracts and serious money, and we need to make sure we do it right. We’ve always had JCHC/Keith’s offer and kept that in the back of our mind. We contacted Communitas but they were very expensive. Rico recommended the firm assisting the Muni on projects in town. As well, we had some members step forward and say they would be willing to do it. We’ll have each of the groups present and ask them to leave and have a discussion about where we want to go.
Also, somehow we have to pay for our architectural and land costs out of the money we’ve given to Sweetgrass. With the design/build, Keith was trying to get by with not having to put any more money in. Right now, our money from a lender doesn’t come in until we have a fixed-price contractor, but we still have to pay Parks for the lease and proposed architectural fees. We can still sit down with the architect re: deferring costs, etc. But one of my objectives is to see someone help us manage that one large hurdle. I don’t think we’ll have any significant problems once we have the lease and a builder. I’m reluctant to go back to the membership for more money, and it’s a challenge I present to the prospective project managers to develop a solution to.
I’ll let the proponents speak to what they can provide to us.
1) Suresh Singh, StaffRes
Started working for Tridel, condo developer in Ontario, masters in Math 1985. Left Tridel and worked for financial institutions, banks needed an expert who could wrap up troubled projects. Some projects were successful, others were liquidated. Some were partially-built and we completed construction on them and they were absorbed by the marketplace. Good experience for me. Lots of latitude, worked on 18 diff. Projects. After that, the real estate market in ON was dead (early 90s). Province gave a 20 allocations for non-profit housing. I worked for a company that eventually became president of. Negotiated allocations with Province and built the 3 high-rise projects from beginning to end. Worked with community groups in conjunction with Province. Had to stickhandle NIMBYs that what we were doing was appropriate, and in the end it proved that they were. After that, housing market moved up.
Grew up in public housing during childhood. Connection with modestly-priced housing – how do we get there. Projects with Tridel were $130K/unit and even today are only $250K. In mid-90s started own company to develop entry-level housing. Up to 2003, Built about 600 entry-level homes $130K-250K in various ON communities. Acted in same capacity as for Sweetgrass. In 2004, came up with business model to build employee housing in resort communities. Started in N. ON. More NIMBYism. Buildings are successful and fully-occupied, Mayor, council, neighbours are very happy. Took business model to the mountains. Started in Canmore with Can. Comm. Hous. Corp., who was very supportive. Land was very expensive for that type of development. Suggested a joint venture with CCHC to use their land and go 50-50. Got council approval after 14 months but got approval in Dec. 2008. Goal is to develop 300 beds over next many years in CCHC lands. Residual lands would be developed for people who have been blocked out of marketplace by recreational homebuyers. Are also working in Columbia Valley – Fairmont Hot Springs (1700 acres), building 60 beds for their employees, working with municipality in a P3 relationship for attainable housing for community employees throughout the Valley. In Fairmont, want to introduce attainable housing and senior housing, certain # of units every year, and rental units for seniors. Lands under contract in Fairmont and Canal Flats. Fewer challenges in Canal Flats, trying to reach $175K/unit.
Deliver product efficiently and understand contract well enough to deliver instructions to design team to ensure high-quality but affordable housing, have to reach that balance. Want a product that is as good as the rest of the marketplace, with help from Province of BC and municipality. Pilot project in Invermere. Overall development in Columbia Valley will deliver 30-40 units/yr. Will also look into Golden and Revelstoke.
Got a call from a Jasper councillor about what our model was for employee housing. Came to Jasper and had discussions, muni doesn’t have land, but they have an opportunity for land. I was retained to do area development plan and stickhandle process w/Parks to obtain lands and get blocked densities. Will not be doing design and development like here; those lands won’t be developed for several years. Want to be ready for trigger for release of those lands. Met w/Parks earlier today for briefing on this development, work well with them so far.
I can be calm but can be a bull in a china shop, which is required at times. Lots of exp. Managing architects, design, engineers. Experiences that I’ve had will disallow free reign and design concepts that aren’t appropriate for the marketplace. Can tell what is realistic and what is not, can come up with recommendations on all levels. This is the type of housing we do every single day, from land acquisition and affordability ratios, understand what banks require. Engineers will find solutions for technical aspects, anyone can supervise, but developer comes into play when you need a device and vision to tie all these things together, and make sure they stay on track. We are professional negotiators and will negotiate hard but fairly. Finance component can be very challenging, we lend lots of money prudently, and understand what banks need WRT reporting, etc. Accounting diligence. Given experience w/non-profit groups we understand democracy associated with design that needs to meet a membership’s needs compared to simply designing for an anticipated marketplace. Can get ideas onto paper and designs and tell you what won’t work if it can’t be possible. This may mean speaking to construction or cost consultants to see what is important. Pushing arch. Harder to meet needs of the group.
When you are used to building at this price point you know how to get there and which buttons to press, from the smallest details to the biggest ones. We have to figure out how to make things look appropriate for the community and the homeowner but also affordable enough. The biggest part of the job today is to take it from here to closing finance, having all permits, getting contractor. After that it gets easy. Have to make sure you know who all the builders are who can deliver your product and be bonded. I have some creative ways if we run short of contractors to source other ones by approaching the project a little differently, so we get 5 bidders and not 1 or 2 or 3. We will work with them during the bidding process to help them understand how to deliver our product. Once we sign a contract(s) and have bonding in place and construction begins, it’s up to the engineers and architects that what gets built is what’s on the drawings. When changes need to be made, someone needs to negotiate that. With all due respect to the arch, no one will be tougher than a developer. Look at every $ as our own and if we have to pay for a change for whatever reason (membership changes wants, designs have errors), we hold contractor accountable. The other thing we have the ability to do is if there are contractors out there that may be a little smaller than would be appropriate financially (e.g. bonding, can only do a certain number of units), we can support that contractor by helping to arrange letters of credit, etc.
We make sure projects are built and budgets are met. We need to look at arch fees in a very careful way to ensure our goals (design and price) are met. Must have both. May be a mechanism that will allow cash to get flowing that I have broached with Parks. Need to make sure early enough that the designs are appropriate and not too costly by structuring the arch contract appropriately. Need to look at budgeting and cash flow and take all steps that are necessarily on a timely basis and not over-commit. I am a very conservative person, 99.9% certain that by looking at what you have and the Oakmont situation, very confident that we will be able to deliver the product you’re looking for but that needs to go to 100% before we put your money at risk.
2) Kalamoutsoses
G’s background is in civil engineering, focus on structures and construction, R was in same program. After that G worked as a project manager for DND, Syncrude, ATCO. What G did was this but on a diff scale in a diff env’t. On the base they have diff issues than what we have here but lots of rules nonetheless. Basic process is similar – design something then build it. G made that happen. Design on small projects but sourced out for big projects. Rep. For gov’t that what got built was what taxpayers were paying for.
Our proposal is to do the same thing here. We wrote the RFP, have support from arch firm. They know what challenges are better than we do. We know the town, are on the list, vested interest. Worked on small projects in town. Own Palisades Restaurant, applying for renovations/expansion, hoping for parking variance. Given G chance to look carefully at Jasper’s rules/regs, permit processes, etc. Not nearly as vast knowledge as Suresh but knows the town and believes that between G and K and the support of the arch we can make this happen with in-house project management.