City planning for land acquisition

The city’s acquisition of land for low- and medium-income housing will get a funding boost from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) action plan that the San Marcos City Council approved Tuesday night.

Council approved a plan for the allocation of $649,948 of funds handed down by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The city’s CDBG award is 15 percent greater than it was last year, according to city staff. Before the staff made recommendations on how to best spend the funds, City Manager Bert Lumbreras requested a risk assessment of the three potential public service recipients: Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Central Texas, the Blanco River Regional Recovery Team (BR3T) and Southside Community Center. CASA and Southside Community Center were found to be low risk recipients. However, since the executive director of BR3T will be leaving the organization and the performance capacity of BR3T’s 2017 contract for CDBG funds is unknown, the organization was deemed high-risk and was excluded from 2018 CDBG funding. Instead, staff recommended that $164,898 of the funds be used for the city’s acquisition of property for low- to medium-income (LMI) single family housing.

CASA will receive $29,810 of the CDBG funds, and Southside Community Center will receive $100,000 to help with its LMI housing rehabilitation projects. Council member Saul Gonzales had asked if some of the funds could be taken from the city’s LMI allocation and given to Southside, but there were questions about Southside’s ability to take on more work at this point.

“I had thought about that, too,” council member Melissa Derrick told Gonzales, “but I wonder about Southside’s capacity.”

Mayor John Thomaides said that the $165,000 fund for the city to invest in LMI housing “sounded like something we would try to do on a regular basis, at least for a while,” and asked if more funds for Southside might be worked into the CDBG program next year, “unless the council wants to cut the acquisition number.”

Thomaides asked if there were four members of council who would be willing to change the LMI fund amount and give the funds to Southside.

“I know it’s a tough situation, but the question is do we want to continue with the staff recommendation as is, or to modify,” he said.

Council member Ed Mihalkanin said he would be willing to vote on Gonzales’ suggestion, but no other support could be found. Council member Melissa Derrick said she would support giving more to Southside if the city had more funds in place for the LMI housing.

“I really think we need to give Mr. Lumbreras what he needs for the workforce housing,” she said. “I really would like to (support Gonzales); I’m sorry.”

The rest of the CDBG funding will go toward the city’s Summer Fun scholarships ($10,500), the city’s homebuyer assistance program ($80,000), improvements at Anita Reyes Park ($125,000) and tree planting in the area near the new playscape ($9,750).