Housing measure passed ... what next?

SUMMIT COUNTY - With projected funding of up to $3.4 million the first year, the new Multi-jurisdictional Housing Authority (MJHA) hopes to gear and build up to 50 units of affordable housing per year.

Voter approval for Measure 5A will kick the county's program into high gear, said Bonnie Osborn, still celebrating the day after the election with an early morning bike ride in the sun.

For starters, the new board, consisting of elected town and county officials, will meet Nov. 15 with the board of the old Summit Housing Authority in a transfer of authority. The SHA board will serve in an advisory role.

Osborn, along with her entire staff, will step over to take the same executive director position with the new organization, sanctioned by a formal Intergovernmental Agreement.

"We'll talk about accountability first," said Osborn, explaining that the public has high expectations that the organization will deliver as promised.

Second on her preliminary agenda, she said, is the idea of inclusion - that all stakeholders are represented in the decision-making.

Osborn said if there is land available right away, some projects could conceivably begin in the summer of 2007, but that's her most optimistic outlook. More realistically, she envisions the first few projects coming to fruition late in 2008.

The sales tax increase of 12.5 cents per hundred dollars will raise about $1.4 million. The graduated impact fees start at zero for smaller units and go up to $2 per square foot for units bigger than 5,000 square-feet, generating an expected $2 million the first year.