|
|
 |
Meeting Detail
| |
| Meeting Title |
 |
PUBLIC NOTICE OF A REGULAR HACEP BOARD MEETING - Minutes |
| Meeting Date |
|
04/28/2010 |
| Meeting Location |
|
5300 EAST PAISANO, EL PASO, TEXAS |
| Meeting Agenda |
|
PUBLIC NOTICE OF A REGULAR BOARD MEETING
TAKE NOTICE THAT A REGULAR MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE
HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF EL PASO, TEXAS
WILL BE HELD AT
5300 EAST PAISANO, EL PASO, TEXAS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010
COMMENCING AT 5:30 P.M.
TO CONSIDER AND POSSIBLY ACT ON THE FOLLOWING:
1. CALL TO ORDER.
2. INVOCATION/MOMENT OF SILENCE.
3. ESTABLISHMENT OF A QUORUM.
4. RECOGNITION OF COMMUNITY PARTNERS THAT ASSISTED WITH THE HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER (SECTION 8) PROGRAM ONLINE PRE-APPLICATION PROCESS FEBRUARY 22 – MARCH 7, 2010.
A. ADVOCACY INCORPORATED.
B. EL PASO AFFORDABLE HOUSING CUSO.
C. VOLAR CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING.
D. EL PASO PUBLIC LIBRARY.
F. CENTRO DE SALUD FAMILIAR LA FE, INC.
5. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON PRESENTATION BY UTEP GRAPHIC DESIGN DEPARTMENT OF NEW PROPOSED LOGOS FOR THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF EL PASO, TEXAS.
6. RESIDENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENTS TO BE HEARD.
7. CITIZENS TO BE HEARD.
Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, Texas
April, 28, 2010 – page two
8. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF A REGULAR BOARD MEETING THAT TOOK PLACE ON MARCH 24, 2010.
9. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF A PUBLIC HEARING MEETING THAT TOOK PLACE ON APRIL 7, 2010.
10. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF A SPECIAL BOARD MEETING THAT TOOK PLACE ON APRIL 7, 2010.
11. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF A SPECIAL BOARD MEETING THAT TOOK PLACE ON APRIL 13, 2010.
NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC
ALL MATTERS LISTED UNDER THE CONSENT AGENDA WILL BE CONSIDERED BY THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS TO BE ROUTINE AND WILL BE ENACTED BY ONE MOTION IN THE FORM LISTED BELOW. THERE WILL BE NO SEPARATE DISCUSSION OF THESE ITEMS UNLESS MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OR PERSONS IN THE AUDIENCE REQUEST SPECIFIC ITEMS BE REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA TO THE REGULAR AGENDA FOR DISCUSSION PRIOR TO THE TIME THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS VOTE ON THE MOTION TO ADOPT THE CONSENT AGENDA
CONSENT AGENDA:
12. PURCHASING AND CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT AWARDS:
A. RENEWAL OF CONTRACT NO. WH 09-C-0079 FOR FURNACES.
Recommendation: Site: Estimated Renewal Amount: Increase:
Cunningham Distributing, Inc. PHA Wide $70,821.15 one-year
B. MODIFICATION TO CONTRACT NO. WH 10-C-0019 FOR ADDITIONAL MATERIAL REQUIREMENT FOR FOUR LARGE PROJECTS.
Recommendation: Site: Estimated Additional Purchases:
Continental Flooring PHA Wide $204,470
Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, Texas
April 28, 2010 – page three
REGULAR AGENDA
13. DISCUSSION AND ACTION REGARDING RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PUBLIC HOUSING AND HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAMS OPEN ENROLLMENT POLICY.
14. DISCUSSION AND ACTIION REGARDING RESOLUTION APPROVING AN INTERLOCAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT WITH THE COUNTY OF EL PASO ON BEHALF OF THE EL PASO COUNTY JUVENILE PROBATION DEPARTMENT FOR THE 2008 RESIDENT OPPORTUNITIES AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY (ROSS) SERVICE COORDINATORS GRANT AND AUTHORIZING THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER TO EXECUTE THE AGREEMENT.
15. DISCUSSION AND ACTION REGARDING LETTER BY THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS TO THE CITY OF EL PASO (“THE CITY”) REQUESTING AN EXTENSION OF THE COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF EL PASO, TEXAS WAIVING THE CITY’S PORTION OF PAYMENT IN LIEU OF TAXES (PILOT).
16. DISCUSSION AND ACTION REGARDING RESOLUTION SETTING THE DATE AND TIME FOR THE JUNE 2010 REGULAR BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING.
17. DISCUSSION AND ACTION REGARDING AWARD OF A&E CONTRACT FOR THE PAISANO GREEN DESIGN COMPETITION TO WORKSHOP 8 AS RECOMMENDED BY THE DESIGN REVIEW PANEL.
18. SECRETARY’S REPORT.
A. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER.
• ADMINISTRATIVE RE-ASSIGNMENTS.
B. CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER.
(1) FINANCIAL SERVICES.
(2) PROCUREMENT.
(3) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.
Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, Texas
April 28, 2010 – page four
C. INTERIM CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER.
(1) PUBLIC HOUSING PROGRAM.
(2) SECTION 8 PROGRAM.
• VOUCHERS UNDER LEASE.
• VACANCY RATES.
• VOUCHER PORTABILITY SET-ASIDE.
(3) DEVELOPMENT & CAPITAL PROJECTS.
• ARRA UPDATE.
• CFP UPDATE.
D. HUMAN RESOURCES.
E. NEWS ARTICLES.
• EL DIARIO DE EL PASO.
19. THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MAY RETIRE INTO EXECUTIVE SESSIONAT ANY TIME UPON THE MOTION OF ANY COMMISSIONER PURSUANT TO THE TEXAS GOVERNMENT CODE, SECTION 551.071-551.076 TO DISCUSS ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
SECTION 551.071 CONSULTATION WITH ATTORNEY
SECTION 551.072 DELIBERATIONS ABOUT REAL PROPERTY
SECTION 551.073 DELIBERATIONS ABOUT GIFTS AND DONATIONS
SECTION 551.074 PERSONNEL MATTERS
SECTION 551.076 DELIBERATIONS ABOUT SECURITY DEVICES
DISCUSSION ON THE FOLLOWING:
(A) DISCUSSION AND UPDATE BY LEGAL COUNSEL ON PENDING LITIGATION MATTERS. (SECTION 551.071)
Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, Texas
April 28, 2010 – page five
(B) DISCUSSION REGARDING JOB PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FOR THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AS PER EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT. (SECTION 551.074)
20. ADJOURNMENT.
THIS NOTICE HAS BEEN POSTED AT THE CENTRAL OFFICES OF THE HOUSING AUTHORITY, 5300 EAST PAISANO DRIVE, AND NOTICE HAS BEEN PROVIDED TO THE EL PASO COUNTY CLERK MORE THAN 72 HOURS IN ADVANCE OF THE ABOVE MEETING, AS REQUIRED BY CHAPTER 551 OF THE TEXAS GOVERNMENT CODE.
UPON REQUEST THE HOUSING AUTHORITY WILL PROVIDE AUXILIARY AIDS AND SERVICES SUCH AS INTERPRETERS FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED, READERS, LARGE PRINT OR BRAILLE DOCUMENTS. THOSE REQUESTING AUXILIARY AIDS OR SERVICES MAY NOTIFY SERGIO VASQUEZ, EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COORDINATOR, AT (915) 849-3820, OR SVASQUEZ@HACEP.ORG AT LEAST 48 HOURS PRIOR TO THE MEETING.
SIMULTANEOUS ENGLISH/SPANISH TRANSLATION IS PROVIDED AT ALL REGULAR MEETINGS OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE HOUSING AUTHORITY.
|
| Meeting Minutes |
|
MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING
OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
OF THE HOUSING AUTHORITY
OF THE CITY OF EL PASO, TEXAS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2010
Item # 1. Call to Order. The Vice-Chairperson called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m.
Item # 2. Invocation/Moment of Silence. Invocation by Rev. Lisle H. Davis of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Item # 3. Establishment of a Quorum.
PRESENT: Vice-Chairperson Sue Pratt, Presiding; Commissioners Lynn Coyle, Raul Chavez, and Kevin Quinn. The Vice-Chairperson declared a quorum with four Commissioners present. Chairperson Joe Fernandez joined the meeting at 5:50 p.m.
ALSO PRESENT: Gerald Cichon, Chief Executive Officer; Bob Blumenfeld, HACEP Attorney; Michael Spurlock, Corporate Attorney; Satish Bhaskar, Chief Financial Officer; Roman Velasquez, Interim Chief Operating Officer; Juan Olvera, Director of Development and Capital Projects; Karen McCluskey, Interim Director of Public Housing; Fred Baca, Director of Finance; Yolanda Dion, Director of Budgets; Lorena Rivera, Director of Section 8 Program; Gary Knudsen, Director of IT; Shane Griffith, Public Information Officer; Glo Dore, Finance Executive Secretary; Connie Dominguez, Contract Specialist; Maria del Rayo Rodriguez and Aracely Saenz, Executive Secretaries.
Item # 4. Recognition of Community Partners That Assisted With the Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) Program Online Pre-Application Process February 22 – March 7, 2010.
A. Advocacy Incorporated.
B. El Paso Affordable Housing CUSO.
C. VOLAR Center for Independent Living.
D. El Paso Public Library.
E. Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe, Inc.
Shane Griffith, Public Information Officer, stated that from February 22 – March 7, the Housing Authority opened the Section 8 pre-application process through the internet. Due to the nature of the challenges, we reached out to the community asking for support. We have representatives from some of the various community partners that are with us today for us to publicly thank them because without them and their assistance this initiative would not have been possible. Mr. Griffith stated that there is no representation from Advocacy Inc. but they helped us and opened their doors to their computers to allow applicants to submit their application on line. He introduced Ray Sarabia from El Paso Affordable Housing Credit Union, Luis Enrique Chew and Pauline Lozano from Volar Center for Independent Living, Jack Galindo and Carol Brey-Casiano, Director of El Paso Public Library, and Tony Santos and Victor Rodriguez from Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe.
Luis Enrique Chew thanked the Board and Mr. Cichon for the recognition. He said that Volar is an organization that provides independent living skills, advocacy, counseling and information referrals. They also relocate people out of nursing homes hoping to provide people with safe, sanitary, and affordable housing. Mr. Chew requested to consider and guide Volar in making disability one of the Housing Authority’s preferences. He added that Volar has been working with the Housing Authority for more than twenty years and are delighted to continue the partnership.
Carol Brey-Casiano, Director of El Paso Public Library, said that they are very happy and pleased to accept the certificate. She thanked the Board for the recognition. This is really part of what they do at the library on a daily basis. They provide library services and access to computers for all kinds of purposes. She added that they were happy to do it and hope that it was profitable for all the residents of the Housing Authority.
Mr. Cichon said that we realized that our procedure was a disservice to those people who could not seat outside and wait in line for two or three days, specifically that of the disabled or working families. So, our push was to put the application on line to allow everybody equal access to Section 8 funds and into the program. Since we have very limited space and access to computers, we realized that we could not do it ourselves. We were luck that these organizations, who had access not only to the general population but also to disabled, took the time to come down and receive training and opened their doors to allow this to be successful. It is with our hearts that we want to say thank you very much because 3,500 families did not had to stand in the rain or in the sun to be the first on line. There is no way that this could have been done without your assistance. On behalf of the Housing Authority we really want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Item # 5. Discussion and Possible Action on Presentation by UTEP Graphic Design Department of New Proposed Logos for the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, Texas. Mr. Cichon said the Housing Authority has been working on an image change-over for sometime. We have been discussing different ideas of what we could do to increase the image of the Housing Authority. One of the things that came-up was to maybe change the logo. With Mr. Griffith’s help we approached the University, specifically the Graphic Design Department, and asked them to turn over their students brains to us for a limited period of time to come up with the creativity necessary to examine this. It is in that light that we reached out to UTEP and that is why they are presenting this today.
Shane Griffith, PIO, introduced Clive Cochran, Professor at UTEP’s Graphic Design Department, who has been instrumental in nurturing his students to come-up with these beautiful designs.
Clive Cochran, UTEP Graphic Design Professor, thanked Mr. Cichon for inviting them here today. A few months ago, Shane went to the University and asked if their Art Department could help the Housing Authority with some graphics of other things. It was decided to start with the logo. He said that he wanted to give us an idea of the criteria they used when they work on a logo design. It is essentially what they call “graphic identity: making the grade.” He will show the criteria and the students will present their individual idea. Each of their solutions tries to fit within the general criteria. They have five criteria point and that it how they grade the graphic identity. Any graphic standard needs to be distinctive, so, you want your logo to stand out from the crowd. You want it to look different from other logos. You want it to be descriptive. And you want it to say something about the Housing Authority. These designs may suggest something about the Housing Authority, the way the Housing Authority works, and the services that the Housing Authority provides for the people of El Paso. The logo should be durable. You do not want to re-do your logo every couple of years. You want a logo that is going to work. To do this we make a design that is simple avoiding novelty type faces or tricky gimmicky effects. We also try to make it simple and easy to recognize. We want it to be flexible because we understand that the design needs to work on stationary, letterhead, vehicles, uniforms, advertising, or on the web. Lastly, we want it to be appropriate. A logo for an amusement park is very different than how you design a logo for a funeral home, hospital, bank, or the Housing Authority. Professor Cochran introduced Lisa Chavira to present her work.
Lisa Rich Chavira, Graphic Design student at UTEP, thanked the Housing Authority for allowing her the opportunity to design a possible logo for the agency. When she read about the Housing Authority something that stood up was that when our customers achieve their dream of finding their home and owning their home it opens the door to several opportunities in life. Therefore, she felt that the most appropriate logo would be an open door. She incorporated the open door into a star shape because the star represents the City of El Paso and it also sends a message to our customers to always reach for the stars. She presented the proposed logo in different colors and in a horizontal configuration. She also showed how it would look on letterhead, business cards, envelopes, and vehicles. Ms. Chavira offered to answer any questions.
Paula Moreno, Graphic Design student at the University of Texas at El Paso, thanked the Housing Authority for giving the students the opportunity to work with our logo and for the experience to work with an actual client. Ms. Moreno said that to her everything starts with a plan. When she thinks about the Housing Authority she thinks about a family. She thinks about our mission of providing families with a place where they can gather. That is the reason for her design. She incorporated the “E” and the “P” in the floor plan to show how everything starts. She presented a black version, as well as a vertical and horizontal configuration of the logo. She designed the stationary allowing us to see how it would look and presented the proposed logo on the vehicles. She offered to answer any questions.
Jesus Arturo, UTEP student with Professor Cochran, said that he too would like to thank the agency for allowing them to get experience in the real world. After researching the Housing Authority, what comes to his mind is community, diversity, and home. Keeping that in mind and also what Professor Cochran talked about that a logo needs to be distinct, descriptive, durable, flexible, and appropriate, he presented his proposed logo. He presented several configurations and formats. He also presented a business set consisting of proposed stationary and business cards as well as how the logo would look on the different type of vehicles owned by the Housing Authority. Mr. Arturo offered to answer any questions.
Mr. Griffith stated that it has been a pleasure working with all the students at the Graphic Design Department at UTEP. These students are three of about twenty that have been working on this project over the course of this semester. It has been a class project to come-up with these very creative designs. On behalf of the Housing Authority he thanked them for their work.
Professor Cochran said it is them that want to thank us because this provided their students with the opportunity to have a practical experience and putting the things that they have learn to work.
Mr. Cichon said Professor Cochran has graciously agreed to help us in our annual report that will be coming out. Their work is actually ongoing and it has been fantastic. He asked that no action be taken on this item because he wants to present to the employees, have further discussion, and then present to the Board with our recommendation.
Item # 6. Resident Association Presidents to be Heard. Antoinetta Licon, resident of Machuca, said there are some issues regarding her community that she would like to inform the Board. A lot of residents do not want to speak-up because they are afraid. They are afraid of retaliation and because they are being told that their leases would be terminated. She said that in her community no legal elections for council representatives have been held. The CFR rules and the Resident Association bylaws are not being followed. The residents were recently informed that there is no more resident participation fund money. Since they have been without programs for the last three years, they would like to request an audit on these expenditures. The JWRC and the Resident Councils have been negligently worki8ng under invalid bylaws. The Sports Program was announced at the monthly meeting on January 2010. On April 20, 2010, it was announced that the Sports Program had been canceled. She said that they have been without programs for their kids for three consecutive years. Since January 2010, the residents of Machuca asked Ms. Garcia for a special meeting to recall the Resident Association board members. As of this date, the meeting has not been scheduled. Ms. Licon added that another problem is that the manager does not want to do the ground checks. Maintenance employees are the ones doing the electric meter readings. They would like more involvement and input from the manager. She thanked the Board for their attention.
Sandra Ramirez, President of Eisenhower, thanked Mr. Cichon and the staff for the ongoing site improvements in her community. The community is looking very good. She hopes that we can do the same with the other communities. She thanked the Board for their attention.
Item # 7. Citizens to be Heard. Rev. Lisle Davis of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church invited everyone to join them this coming Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at the Chamizal outdoor area for an international day of prayer to address the issue of violence in Ciudad Juarez. He said that they are inviting all faiths. It is an interfaith, intercultural, and intergenerational event. They are asking for prayers, and are asking everyone to join them Saturday morning in offering prayers. He asked everyone to take a white handkerchief because color white represents universal peace. He thanked the Board for their attention.
Item # 8. Approval of Minutes of a Regular Board Meeting That Took Place on March 24, 2010. Commissioner Pratt made a motion to approve item # 8. It was seconded by Commissioner Chavez. Motion carried unanimously.
Item # 9. Approval of Minutes of a Public Hearing Meeting That Took Place on April 7, 2010. Commissioner Coyle made a motion to approve item # 9. It was seconded by Commissioner Chavez. Motion carried unanimously.
Item # 10. Approval of Minutes of a Special Board Meeting That Took Place on April 7, 2010. Commissioner Coyle made a motion to approve item # 10. It was seconded by Commissioner Chavez. Motion carried unanimously.
Item # 11. Approval of Minutes of a Special Board Meeting That took Place on April 13, 2010. Commissioner Coyle made a motion to approve item # 11. It was seconded by Commissioner Chavez. Motion carried unanimously.
Consent Agenda:
Item # 12. Purchasing and Construction Contract Awards:
A. Renewal of Contract No. WH 09-C-0079 for Furnaces.
Recommendation: Site: Estimated Renewal Amount: Increase:
Cunningham Distributing, Inc. PHA Wide $70,821.15 one-year
B. Modification to Contract No. WH 10-C-0019 for Additional Material Requirement for Four Large Projects.
Recommendation: Site: Estimated Additional Purchases:
Continental Flooring PHA Wide $204,470
Karen McCluskey, Interim Director of Public Housing, said that item # A is a renewal of the furnaces contract that we have with Cunningham. They did hold their prices and we are asking the Board to renew this contract for one more year. The contract was bid out last year.
In reference to item B, Ms. McCluskey said that originally when she presented this item to the Board for award it was at $116,000. Since then, we have had four large projects to modernize in different complexes which would increase that contract amount by $204,000.
Commissioner Pratt made a motion to approve items # 12-A thru 12-B on the Consent Agenda. It was seconded by Commissioner Chavez. Motion carried unanimously.
Regular Agenda:
Item # 13. Discussion and Action Regarding Resolution Approving the Public Housing and Housing Choice Voucher Programs Open Enrollment Policy. Mr. Cichon said that this policy would allow the Chief Executive Officer to open and close the wait list as needed. Right now Section 8 is closed. As you know, we opened it for a short period of time and we now have 3,500 families on the wait list. The wait list for Public Housing has been open for almost two years. Right now we have over 14,000 families on the waiting list. It would take about 4 – 5 years for an applicant to get on public housing. It does not make any sense to continue to populate that list. So, we are asking for the ability to allow the Chief Executive Officer to make the decision to open and close the wait list as needed. Mr. Cichon asked Mr. Velasquez to elaborate.
Roman Velasquez, Interim Chief Operating Officer, said that we are asking to amend a policy that was established by the Board back in 2006. That polity outlines the steps the Housing Authority can take as far as opening and closing the wait list. It restricts the operational needs of public housing and Section 8. The proposed amendment gives the authorization to the Chief Executive Officer to open and close those wait lists as needed based on operational and housing needs. We are asking for approval of Resolution No. 1650.
Commissioner Coyle said that she can’t imagine the need of opening and closing the wait list very often, therefore, she does not understand why it is burdensome to come to the Board.
Mr. Cichon said it has not been but it could be depending on how quickly we move through the list. Our policy since Mr. Kramer came on board was to leave it open all the time and that is why it has been that burdensome. Right now, we need to close the public housing list just to try to depopulate that list. We are about ten months behind in just the data entry. This would the flexibility to move quickly if needed.
Attorney Blumenfeld explained that the prior Board wanted to keep the list open to see what the demand was. It was brought as an experiment. They thought that they would be able to measure the demand for public housing by leaving it open for an extended period of time and then use that data to show policy holders the need in the area.
Mr. Cichon said that the rationalization was that because we only had 3,000 on the list that there wasn’t much demand in El Paso. Based on that, there was a fear of losing federal dollars and that is why we opened it up. But in response to the question as to why you would need to give that power over to the CEO, it is just a policy decision. We are still mandated by the CFRs to maintain the list and that list is checked by the federal government every single time that they come down here to do an audit or review our files. We cannot play with that list. All this would allow us to do is to open and close it as needed.
Mr. Velasquez added that our own ACOP policy mandates that we do not close the list unless we establish that we have enough applications that would cover a minimum of one-year. We are now over 14,500 applications.
Commissioner Quinn said that the way it was presented to him was that there were several problems. One of them was that there was an extensive list and that it was difficult to stay in touch with these people because they did not had a permanent address. It was a difficult process to try to locate these applicants two years later.
Mr. Velasquez said that is exactly the type of problems that we are having today. He added that in numerous occasions once a name in reached on the list we find out that either they are no longer at the address provided, they no longer need the assistance, or there has been duplicates or as many as three applications for the same family. We need to step and get control of the list.
Mr. Cichon said the ultimate goal is to create a list that will be functional and move in a strategic manner so that you don’t have this old populated list that is unmanageable and completely inefficient.
Commissioner Pratt asked if this could be connected to computerizing everything and how all that would cut down on person/power time.
Mr. Cichon said that we are working on that diligently. We are trying to generate that and work with the technology to address exactly this problem, but it is a huge project that is going to take years. We are trying to move to the point that we can contact everybody through email. Emails are free and you do not have to have a physical address. It would be much more efficient to use emails instead of mailing out these notices. The item before the Board today is just to allow us flexibility. If the Board wants, it can be postponed for further discussion and address it at a later time.
Commissioner Coyle said she is not questioning the judgment of closing the list but she would like to table the item if there is no urgency at this time.
Commissioner Coyle made a motion to table item # 13. It was seconded by Commissioner Pratt. Motion carried unanimously.
Item $ 14. Discussion and Action Regarding Resolution Approving an Interlocal Cooperation Agreement With the County of El Paso on Behalf of the El Paso County Juvenile Probation Department for the 2008 Resident Opportunities and Self-Sufficiency (ROSS) Service Coordinators Grant and Authorizing the Chief Executive Officer to Execute the Agreement. Mr. Cichon said that this is a self-sufficiency model that we are running in conjunction with the Juvenile Probation Department. This is the agreement to allow the grant match and the work between the two departments.
Commissioner Coyle made a motion to approve item # 14. It was seconded by Commissioner Chavez. Motion carried unanimously.
Item # 15. Discussion and Action Regarding Letter by the Board of Commissioners to the City of El Paso (“The City”) Requesting an Extension of the Cooperation Agreement Between the City and the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso, Texas Waiving the City’s Portion of Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT). Mr. Cichon said that the waiver for the payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) is set to expire. We have been using these dollars to support child care with the YWCA and also for the development of properties towards multifamily use and affordable housing. In discussions with the Mayor, he informed him that, with the Board’s approval, we plan on doing some construction on the west and east side properties. He added that to have any type of sustainable development we need to make sure that this amount is not taken off our coffin. This amount is almost $700,000 per year. We are requesting that a letter be sent to the City asking that they continue to waive the payment in lieu of taxes so that we can continue our mission of safe, affordable, clean, and decent housing for the citizens of El Paso.
Commissioner Pratt made a motion to approve item # 15. It was seconded by Commissioner Coyle. Motion carried unanimously.
Item # 16. Discussion and Action Regarding Resolution Setting the Date and Time for the June 2010 Regular Board of Commissioners Meeting. Mr. Cichon said there is going to be a very important CLAPHA meeting set to start the day of our scheduled regular Board meeting. He is respectfully requesting to move the regular meeting for a day or two to allow him to attend the meeting.
Commissioner Coyle made a motion to schedule the June regular Board meeting on Monday, June 21, 2010 at 5:30 p.m. It was seconded by Commissioner Chavez. Motion carried unanimously.
Item # 17. Discussion and Action Regarding Award of A&E Contract for the Paisano Green Design Competition to Workshop 8 as Recommended by the Design Review Panel. Mr. Cichon said that he was happy to report that we have gone through the national competition and we have come down to one particular selection. He asked Mr. Olvera to review the process that we went through and to introduce the architects to present their design.
Juan Olvera, Director of Development and Capital Projects, said that we started with the preparation of this design competition six months ago. It was to design a cutting-edge social housing for El Paso. We structured this competition in two stages. Stage I was an open competition allowing anybody to make bids and proposals. Stage II consisted of an interview of selected architects. Everything started with the advertisement of the project. It was advertised in all the major newspapers throughout the United States because, as stated before, this was a national design competition. Besides the newspaper advertisements we also established on our web page the e-Procurement. We sent over 1,200 letters to members of the American Institute of Architects. We also sent over 300 personal emails to all major architectural firms in the nation. And we published it in the PR Newswire which is an international outreach. We also created a web page on our website with a green design competition logo where all the solicitation documents were posted including questions and answers. On February 17 we held a pre-proposal meeting which consisted of a local meeting and conference call. We had 32 companies from different parts of the county participating. The deadline to submit proposals was March 8. The request was issued on February 5th requiring a lot of work for such a short turnaround. It was a major undertaking for the architectural firms. The criteria that was used to evaluate the proposals for Stage I was broken down as follows: qualifications of the firm with 35 points, examples of their design work with 15 points; their design with 20 points; video movie of their design with 5 points; LEED outline which is related to the green community and how they were proposing to achieve the green community criteria had 10 points; energy efficiency with 10 points; and construction cost and making sure that it is within the budget was worth 5 points for a total of 100 points. We asked different architects from the nation to participate on this panel. We were lucky to get Mr. Robert Herman from the firm of Herman Coliver Locus in San Francisco, California. Mr. Herman is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. The Fellow is given by this association to architects that are recognized by their standing work. About two percent of the registered architects are Fellows. Mr. Herman also has over 35 years of experience designing affordable housing. We were also able to recruit Mr. François Lévy. He is an architect who teaches at the University of Texas in Austin and in San Antonio. He has a master in science in engineering and his specialty is in sustainability and energy efficiency. These two individuals were key in the evaluation of these design proposals. The other two members participating in the evaluation panel were Mr. Cichon and Mr. Olvera. We received eight design proposals and after the evaluation we selected Lord, Aeck, Sargent from Atlanta with a score of 77 points. We also selected Van Meter, Williams, Pollack from San Francisco with 75 points. And the third one was Workshop 8 from Boulder, Colorado with 73.75 points. Mr. Olvera showed some pictures of the day when the architectural firms were presented with the award of $25,000. The evaluation criterion for Stage II was for a total of 50 points and it was broken down as follows: design with 25 points; sustainability with 10 points; elderly needs with 10 points; and overall with 5 points. After the interviews the panel’s recommendation is to select Workshop 8. Mr. Olvera offered to answer any questions.
Mr. Cichon said that he would like to comment that if you saw the original scoring the scoring for Workshop 8 eclipsed the other scoring based on the design and those criteria. This is a truly superior design to eclipse those other numbers and to truly come the winner the way they have. He introduced JV DeSousa and Joseph Vigil Architects from Workshop 8.
JV DeSousa and Joseph Vigil said that they were honor to have the opportunity to be here to present the design that they put together for the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso. They really care about this design, the project, the City of El Paso, and the Housing Authority. They will be talking about HACEP’s goals for the project, their core values at Workshop 8, and how congruent they felt they were with the goals for the project. They will talk about the site conditions and the organization of the site for the project. They will discuss the living units that they designed, the gardens, the community buildings. There will be a discussion about some energy and LEED information and about a potential Phase II. Mr. DeSousa said that HACEP’s scores for the project were that HACEP asked for something spectacular and different. Something sustainable that shows responsibility and a wise use of resources in a way that lessens our impacts on the world today and makes for a better opportunity for people in the future. HACEP asked for something that was bold and innovative. It has to be something that can be constructed and buildable within a budget of $10 million. The program asked for 64 units of accessible senior living with the requisite of accessory uses, office, lobby, and things like that. A windmill was required to be included in the project. There was a requirement for some decorative LED lighting. At least one living roof somewhere within the community, and they needed to provide a project that could be certified LEED platinum, and be certified for enterprise green communities. There was also a very brief amount in the program about a potential use of perhaps some retail or other future development of the site. The slides will have visual references and they represent both their key values and some other things that they were trying to include within the project. The blue square is representative of an iconic design element. The red heart is a design element that responds to quality of life, the livability of the site. The green sphere is about design elements toward sustainability and LEED, and the final little orange chain link is their symbol for what they call viability, practicality, and the ability to deliver a project on budget. In regard to the site, Mr. DeSousa said that it has a lot of interesting things that in their estimation make it a site that demand a great architectural solution. Immediately to the west of the site is a large truck/trailer facility related to the customs at the border crossing. You can see the Bridge of the Americas with all the cars waiting to get from Mexico into the United States immediately to the west of that. Immediately to the south of the site is a large retention pond related to the truck facility. Out to the southeast is a water treatment facility. Immediately to the east is the Coliseum and to the north is the Zoo. So, environmentally what happens is that during the winter we get a lot of wind across that truck facility coming into the site, and during the summer we get a lot of breezes that come off the southeast. We also want to take into account the fact that the sun, an ever present element here in El Paso, is strong all day long but particularly in the afternoon hours and the early evening hours. This diagram explains our environmental response to the conditions of the site. There is a blue line that represents a built element along the western edge of the site that both deflects the winter wind and also blocks the late afternoon sun so that they can create some livable spaces within the center of the site. The arrow represents the summer breezes coming off the southeast. They specifically designed a series of courtyards that open to those breezes to enhance the opportunities to natural ventilation of those buildings as a passive cooling strategy. What they have done with their site plan is that they have organized it in a way that they put the vehicle circulation out at the boundary of the site so that they don’t have seniors having to cross vehicles circulation. The north entrance is off Paisano and there is a small lobby building here that controls the access into the site. There is another entrance called the south entrance that is off of Boone. This is the existent curb cut that also has a security gate that allows residents, and no one else, to come in and out. Then they have a large central portion of the site. If you remember the image of the area photograph, the context of the site has no immediate adjacent neighborhoods. It is all commercial and industrial space that surrounds the lot. So, their intent was to keep all of the vehicles at the perimeter of the site creating a very contained neighborhood within the interior of the site, and developing enough of a sense of community that this felt like a complete neighborhood. It does not need to plug in into a larger urban fabric. They are trying to make it so that it is self-contained as a complete community space for the people that live on the site. This represents that large blue element that you saw on the previous diagram. It is a built element that deflects that wind, shades the courtyards, and has a number of other uses that they will talk about during their presentation. There is a series of four main wings that contain residences called the flats. And there is a series of townhouse units that form a wall along Boone so that all of these elements create this large central space. This is a primary garden that they have called the Tapestry Garden and then a series of courtyards with small and more intimacy spaces between these rooms of buildings. The community center is located at the north end.
Joseph Vigil said that these are the buildings that they feature as the flats. There are four buildings. They are represented by the orange blocks. They are sited east/west. It was very important to this project that each unit had adequate south facing sun, and solar access that also helps the energy efficiency. There are a total of 44 flats. They are single bedroom units 622 square feet. They are all designed to be type B meaning that they are fully adoptable for ADA type A use. Here is a quick view looking down into the units, the proposed variety of materials, and color schemes.
Mr. DeSousa pointed out that they have combined the kitchen, the dinning space, and the living space into one large area within the units rather than dividing them into separate small rooms. And even through the units are small it created a more gracious and open way of living.
Mr. Vigil said that he spoke earlier to the access to sunlight. He said he wanted to comment about the way the building units are situated on the south side of the building. They have large windows to bring as much natural light into the units as possible. The bedrooms are on the south side so that those spaces also have access to that south light. They tried to keep more public uses to the north side of the building so that there will be a common walkway to the north.
Mr. DeSousa said that it was important for them not to ignore the fact that for a lot of the senior population the bigger issue is staying warm in the winter. Therefore they felt that it was important to have the primary living spaces, the living room, and the bedroom both having large windows that admit a lot of the south light in the winter.
Mr. Vigil said there are three courtyard units. They tried to create a diverse unit type. So this gets them more product types and helps define into your courts with some special things at the top. This is a look at the typical flat floor. You can see how the units relate to each other. You can see the common unit floor plan, two-bedroom unit at the end, and the courtyard unit up above.
Mr. DeSousa added that it was important to them that although the units are modular because they needed to build the units in a cost effective and efficient way, that at the same time they wanted to have some variability to them. They wanted to be able to turn them in different directions so that there was an opportunity for some vitality in the elevations of the buildings and not making them look institutional. He said that they also felt that it was important for each of the buildings to have a distinctive color not only as a way of finding it for the people that live on the site, but also to give people a sense of individuality.
Mr. Vigil said one exciting thing about computers being involved in the design is that they are really able to study how the sun plays across the building. They can set the overhangs such that they protect all this glass so that it does not over heat in the summer yet you still get a lot of great heat in the winter time. It helps to keep it more private, more personal, and gives them a platform for their living roof, the roof garden here. The exciting thing is that if you are on the third floor of these buildings you can literally walk out and have outdoor space. So, from a livability point of view they have made the third floor units more like ground floor units. They have loaded these units with PVT panels; that is one of their strategies. They will be talking about their strategy to get this project net zero meaning it will produce as much energy in a calendar year as the residents would need. In this view you can see the walkways that are on the north side of the building.
Mr. DeSousa said the walkways are open air so they are not conditioned space that was also a key strategy to try to limit the amount of condition space that was necessary. This is just another strategy to make the community as energy efficient as possible.
Mr. Vigil showed the canopy wall. They will talk about it in a little bit and show its relationship to the buildings and the courtyards. This is a simple view from the gardens looking into the flats and courtyards.
Mr. DeSousa pointed out that in the front you can see what they call the Tapestry Garden. It runs throughout the length of the site north to south and connects to all of these buildings that contain individual living units. And again opening off of them are a series of courtyards between the buildings. This is one building and you can see that they have very little glass that faces east or west because that is another important part of maintaining the energy efficiency for the units. The glass that does face east has a shade over it to protect it from the morning sun. This is the courtyard unit it provides the living roof up above but the unit is also lifted off the ground providing a shaded cover space underneath it for family activities, for people to be outside, interact, and enjoy the gardens without being on the sun.
Mr. Vigil said the four flat units are connected by what we call the canopy wall. The canopy wall runs north south and is really the backbone of these structures. It runs pretty mush the full length of the site, separating the interior private areas from the more industrial use to the west. Within the wall we have a lot of our accessory functions, the elevators, the access, the flat units, and the laundry facilities are located within there so there is one laundry between each two sets of the flats buildings. They also included on the extreme south end of the site a small maintenance facility. The concept of the canopy in their minds was really a stand of trees. They build this wall to help shade the buildings, to keep them cool in the warmer months, block the wind in the cooler months, to protect the inside, the courtyards, and the residents themselves. From a conceptual point of view they lifted up the wall off the ground, there is a slight screening wall behind that that separates the pedestrian public space from the parking area.
Mr. DeSousa said the wall is scaled to the scale of the spaces beyond it. This architectural element is really scale toward that large open land in front of that and the speed at which people go by on the freeway to the west. They believe that this is really going to be a very iconic element for the development. This will define and give a very strong identity for this property for HACEP.
Mr. Vigil said that from a very functional level there is a portal associated with each building which will also be color-coded. So, a resident could drive-by park right by their portal and then walk right into their unit.
Mr. DeSousa pointed out to the circular forms on the top of the wall. He said that the wall serves as the armature to support the windmills. So those windmills are mounted at top the wall and face west across from the truck facility and the freeway. He said that one primary purpose of the wall is that it helps to deflect the afternoon sun and create a nice shaded area on the east side of it within those courtyards between the blocks of flats. And again this serves as an armature for a lot of their renewal energy sources. The windmills are mounted on it they are both solar hot water and solar PV panels mounted to the top of it and it also serves as circulation between the buildings so that residents can go from the third floor of one building to the third floor of the next building without having to go down to the ground floor. And also it protects these courtyards that are open to those breezes in the summer to make some wonderful livable space on the exterior of the buildings. Mr. DeSousa noted that the wall colors were kept very cool – blues and greens. In their opinion, it is important given that it is going to take the blunt of the afternoon sun not to use red or yellow colors that would make the heat feel even more intense. These are the portals that will allow you to go into the complex. Each one color coded to your building and you will know where to park and where to go through this structure into an elevator and up to your unit. There are also two small balconies. They call them sunset balconies that come through the wall to allow people on the third floor to stand here and be able to see out to the west and see the sunset across the City of El Paso. Another thing that is shown here is that they have a difference in the pavement in the parking as part of their sustainability. They want to try to make sure that the storm water does not leave the site. So, this is the permeable paving that will allow us to put most of that storm water back into the ground. And there are some red bands that you see across the wall that is a decorative LED lighting. The bands are long and linear expressive of the speed and the context of the site to the west. They are fairly confident that this will also be an iconic element, something that you will be able to see in the evening from scenic drive.
Mr. Vigil said that on the east side of the property they had a slightly different situation. They have Boone which most times is quiet but there are times when there is a lot of traffic and cars. It was a slightly different scale that they were working with on the east side. So they developed some townhouses on that side running north-south along Boone. This is the fundamental unit along Boone a resident could enter off Boone to the east and then move in through that space. This is something that most likely will be modify due to some feedback that they received today, but, this really is a fundamental part of their plan.
Mr. DeSousa said that in each of these units that they call a townhome you have a large open living space that contain your kitchen, your dinning, and your living area. These units also have a private outdoor terrace off of each of the units, and down on this end of the structure you have your bedroom and your bath facilities. These are actually lifted up, this is the upper floor plan of the building, and this is the lower floor plan. They had originally presented the idea that there would be a private garage for each of these units, but, after some discussions with staff today they are considering some other alternatives.
Mr. Vigil said that they felt appropriate to lift the living space off the street so that during those times when there are a lot of people walking around that the residents are not impacted. Having the houses up along the street really helped define their site and created the privacy within the interior gardens.
Mr. DeSousa said that they thought it was quite important for people to feel safe and secure in their homes. And rather than having people living at grade level along Boone that it was important, by lifting them up, to give them the opportunity to survey the street, feel safe, and not worry about people walking along Boone or vehicles headlights from traffic coming in and out of an event at the Coliseum. It was a key central design feature or design element within these units.
Mr. Vigil pointed out that the nice high ceilings help keep the units cool and comfortable. They have south facing windows up high with this when the sun angle is low in the colder months we get direct sun light that comes right into the units to help keep them warm. There are absolutely no windows on the east or west face. Here is a shot looking from the interior Tapestry Garden you can see once again the cover space down below and then no west facing windows. They are avoiding that late afternoon sun. You can see in the upper left the private balcony, the interior courtyard side is an open rail so that there is a sense of community, and more solid on the east side giving them as much privacy as possible. Now we are looking at the units from the Boone street side. Once again helps protect and define the site; keeps things private, people still have a sense of the community and individuality as they enter from the street. This is a view looking from the corner at Paisano and Boone to the south.
Mr. DeSousa said this is the street escape that they present to the public along Boone. And you see there is a series of these units aline one next to the other so that each one of this represents one individual living unit.
Mr. De Sousa said that they will now talk about some of the more communal and common spaces within the site. Although nothing in the program specifically asked for landscape schemes or anything about community space, they felt that it was quite important as a part of creating a vibrant and active community. So, the area in green is the garden area of the site and the large band of green that runs north south is what they call the Tapestry Garden that connects all of the buildings and all of the gardens together. A large central park, if you will, for all of the residents to share and then a series of smaller courtyards that open off of that primary garden between the individual winds of the blocks of flats. This image shows what they call the Tapestry Garden. They specifically call it the Tapestry Garden because they think of the community like a fabric. Something that is woven out of many different individual lives all together into one larger social fabric. So, the intent and the name here is to give both some design direction but also to express they feeling about these outdoor spaces being community spaces for people and their families to enjoy throughout the year. The Tapestry Garden has bands of grass, turf grass planted for play. It also has xeriscape planting in different areas and again color coded to the courtyards next to them. Small private seating areas, a playground that is adjacent to the community building. This large central walking space that we call the Boulevard goes along with the buildings and beneath the buildings at different locations so that there is a pattern of light and shade and protection. Pass the common ground through the site all of which are pave so that it is easy for people with limited mobility to get around. And a large grass area that we have label the pitch for families to play soccer and do other things outdoor that require a large open space. This is a terrace at the south end of the Tapestry Gardens that both completes it and blocks the view of the large dirt detention pond to the south. They showed some concepts that they have for the gardens, xeriscape planting, and walls that make small seating areas. Knowing that water is precious here they may try to find one or two small locations where some water can be introduced. They are very sensitive to try to minimize water use here in El Paso. He pointed to an outdoor fireplace that they plan for the community building again as a center heart for the neighborhood to come together. Here are some images of plants most of which are xeriscape plans with silver and grey leaves colors. Then there are a series of gardens that open up to the Tapestry Gardens each of them with a theme. This one is called the celebration garden and within each garden there are specific elements. This one again as a place of celebration; this one has a small outdoor fireplace a paved area for people to gather to eat and enjoy. This is where that courtyard unit creates that shaded space so that during the day residents can gather under here. There is planting throughout the garden to create a wonderful natural environment for people to be in. Each of those gardens has a color theme that goes with it so that they bloom at different times of the year and bloom at different colors creating a pattern of living on the site. This is a courtyard up on the northern end of the site that they call the entry cord. This connects that little lobby building or the office building out to the Tapestry Gardens. This is the northern most blocks of flats. They are pulling the circulation away from the front doors. They expect a lot of people to move through this space. They don’t want people walking pass everybody’s front door. They are going to give them as much privacy as possible. There is a covered walkway over here that takes you out to the Tapestry Gardens as well and then a series of small additional units. They have some roof gardens on top of the courtyard units. They are mostly turf, some ground covers, and some opportunities for some color and other plants up there as well. They talked about the outdoor spaces and now they want to talk about the structure that kind of completes the site on the north side. The Community Building is basically two winds. There is a wind in here that alines with the blocks of flats and there is a second wind that serves to end that long access of that long central park of the Tapestry Garden. This is the office building that is immediately adjacent to the vehicle entrance into the site. This is that covered walkway that you saw coming into the entry cord and this is the Community Building. It has a large activity room for the residents to share, a series of doors that open up to a plaza in front of it for lots of indoor and outdoor activities. These doors can be open for large portions of the year and allow those activities to spit out into the place in front of the building. It also has some smaller accessory spaces for people to meet in and have activities in. It has a full kitchen within the building for activities that call for cooking and eating together. And then this is our portal that goes through to Paisano on the north end of the site. This is the way that a lot of people would come through coming out of public transportation and into the center of the site.
Mr. Vigil said that is the end of what they are calling the Boulevard.
Mr. DeSousa said that on the second floor there is a special community room. That room stands at the corner of Boone and Paisano. This community room is open to the entry plaza below and it also opens up into a large cover patio that is shaded by panels connecting them over here to a series of small units.
Mr. Vigil said they call these units guest suites. They thought that it would be a nice amenity for residents living in these units, most of which are one-bedroom units, that if they had family coming in from out of town visiting for a couple of days that they could check out one of these units and have a place to stay. It could also be used for residents who are waiting to get into a unit and just need a little bit of time for somebody to get out.
Mr. DeSousa presented a view of the community building from the end of the Tapestry Garden. The garden is here and this is the large plaza for activities and outdoor living as well as for community events. These are those three doors that go into the activity room they are shaded by an overhead. This is the door that goes into the entry that goes to the lobby and takes you up to the second floor of the community room. There is also an outdoor stair that goes into that second floor outdoor roof terrace. These are those transitional living units that Joseph just spoke about.
Mr. DeSousa pointed to Paisano looking to the south. He said they enclosed the site so that there is a sense of security for the people who live here. This is the end of the Boulevard that allows the view down through; there will be a gate here. This window opens into one of the activity rooms and this is that special community room on the second floor that comes out onto the site creating something bold and something spectacular for HACEP. This is a share space for all of the community to use. It is lifted off the street both for reasons of security but also to create a nice outdoor space underneath of it shaded from the sun. They expect to have a lot of people that are coming and going via public transportation and this provides a place for everybody to wait for the bus in the shade underneath the structure.
Mr. Vigil discussed some of their thought about energy use on the project. They already talked about the window placement. They really dial in the amount of south facing glass and tried to reduce the north facing glass. The north facing glass provides good daylight opportunities but the south is where we can really get a lot of benefits year round either through daylight or passive heating. And then they really tried to reduce the amount of east and west facing glass. They provided the canopy wall to protect the units and for those on the east side they tried to protect them as much as possible. This is a simple diagram looking through one of these units. They have high ceilings, they have placement of windows to really optimize air flow through the units to keep them cool and comfortable. You can see some of the sun angles up in the summer months when the sun is very high in the sky they have overhangs to protect the windows as that summer sun angle drops down they can get direct gain through the south side. Here is a similar look at the townhouse units. They are proposing to use a product called structure insulated panels (SIP) that creates a tight energy efficient living units which allowing us to really keep our heating bill down. The efficiency goes up dramatically by not having a lot of outdoor air going into our units on a regular basis. Because they are so tight, we have to really be concern about indoor quality. So, they are proposing using heath recovery ventilators in every unit. Those ventilators will provide fresh air constantly coming into the unit. It uses indoor conditioned air to heat indoor cool fresh outdoor air it goes through a filter and then keep the indoor quality as high as possible.
Mr. DeSousa said they thought is was very important, given the proximity to the border crossing and all of the vehicles that are on the road, that they address indoor qualify indoor quality for senior citizen who may have respiratory ailments as part of their living conditions. And like Joseph said the ERV units are really meant to filter the air. We are getting fresh air but it is filtered and all of that particular matter that may exist because of the location proximity to the border crossing is eliminated.
Mr. Vigil said this is a look of the SIP which is a giant slab of insulated Styrofoam sandwich in between two layers of plywood. In reference to their LEED based design, they could reduce CO2 missions by 496 pounds per year. That is based on the fact that the units are so energy efficient. For the Housing Authority that means savings of $26,000 per year in utility cost. They also proposed net zero energy option with savings of almost $50,000 per year in utility cost. He provided a quick analysis of capital cost of a build to code building over the lifespan of fifty years with a cost to construct and cost to operate of over $5 million. Now with the implementation of the LEED Platinum requirements, you can see that it dropped for a total of construction, maintenance, and utility costs under $3 million over a span of fifty years. And if we go with the net zero option, we can see that they are at about $1.5 million.
Mr. DeSousa said that this is a very important diagram. The brief asked very specifically to assess life cycle costing in terms of some of the decisions made about the design and the scheme that was presented. What this show is that we can do things when we spend very little money upfront but over the long run it means that the Housing Authority spends a lot of money both taking care of and paying for energy. And so the built to code says we don’t need to spend a lot now but we will spend a lot later vs. our design in which we will be spending more now and receiving some very significant benefits vs. what we presented as our net zero option. If we do go in and we put in the extra money to build the entire PV system, at that point, you can see all of the additional cost to operate the units is reduced considerably. The message is invest more up front but with some significant savings down the road.
Mr. Vigil presented some quick cost analysis of the project.
Mr. DeSousa said that the budget listed for the project was $10 million. They can achieve a LEED Platinum design for under that budget, for $9.4 million. If we opt to go for the net zero energy option and we need to pay for all of the PV panels the price would come in at $10.4 million. He said they wanted to point out that there are a lot of federal tax-credits available for PV panels and if we can take advantage of those that would reduce $400,000 off that total number. If we can access those federal tax credits we can meet our $10 million project budget and be net zero and you would have no energy use that you would be paying for in the future. Because as Joseph noted earlier, you will be generating as much energy on the site through your PV panels, your solar hot water system, your wind mills that would equal the amount of energy that all of your residents would use living on the site. Just briefly LEED is a program that is design and aim permanently toward sustainability. And again their responsibility toward the future and a wise use of resources and it was stipulated as a requirement of the project. And they are taking advantage of LEED for neighborhood development, although it is challenging because we don’t have much of a neighborhood around the site, they are also able to achieve Platinum for LEED homes and they are able to get the enterprise green communities certification stipulated as part of the project brief.
Mr. Vigil said that what is exciting here is that you look at green communities and you need 35 points; their design reaches 95 points. Obviously, they have well exceeded out requirements. He provided a simple breakdown of the overall cost to the project. He said that because of their design the cost to get to that LEED Platinum level is only $200,000.
Mr. DeSousa said that he would briefly now talk about Phase II. They planned for some potential second phase development of the site in three ways. Down over the top of the piece of ground now called the pitch is the opportunity for another twenty-four to twenty-eight units of additional housing space. Down at the south end of the Tapestry Garden you see that it says pool and fitness area. Most of the housing authorities that they have dealt with are reluctant to swimming pools because of liability issues but for residents’ health and opportunities, for multigenerational activities a small fitness building and outdoor pool would be a wonderful way to end that outdoor garden. And then space reserved at the northwest corner of the site for some future development that may contain some form of retail. They would like to leave you with this image of the project and say that for them architecture is a social art. They have a responsibility to people. They design for not just people that are here with us but to people that will live within our buildings for generations to come. They don’t see buildings as objects, they see them as spaces. And their goal here is hand in hand with HACEP’s which is that it is not a handout is a hand up. They are here to say that it is not just about housing people. It is about giving them a place to live where they can live in a rich and meaningful way as part of a vibrant and caring community. He thanked the Board for the opportunity to present their design. They will be happy to answer any questions or hear any comments.
Commissioner Coyle said that she is blown away; almost left speechless. It is pretty amazing. It is just incredible. She is sort of curious about the net zero option. It sounds like it would come in budget if we got the tax-credits. She said she does not know what those materials that they were referring to are.
Mr. Vigil said they are photo electric panels. They are about 3 x 4 feet and they generate electricity. They laid they out, as you can see this image, they create the cover area to the upper patio area. They have them on the roofs. The real critical thing here, because budget is critical to this, is that they are able to utilize the federal tax-credits. And there are a number of strategies that they can work on for that.
Mr. DeSousa said that obviously the value of the sun is very important. The fact that the sun is on the Housing Authority’s logo shows how important it is to this area. This has got a be one of the best locations in the United States to take advantage of all that free energy that strikes the earth coming from the sun and turn it to good use here.
Commissioner Quinn asked what the life expectancy of the roof is.
Mr. Vigil responded that the roof as proposed is a TPO roll down roof; it is white to help keep the units cool.
Mr. DeSousa added that we can get a 20-year minimum warranty on the roof. As it was noted in the project brief, often times is not the material of the roof that matters as much as the installation of the roof. And so it is the design and detailing of the roofing system as much as it is the material itself. The TPO roofing as Joseph just noted has a high alvito which means that reflects a lot of light that is very important in trying to keep the energy consumption down for the buildings. It is a very common and a very effective roof. They tried to keep the roof forms very simple, with very simple detailing at edge conditions and minimize all of the penetrations as much as possible.
Juan Olvera, Director of Development and Capital Projects, added that these are the same type of roofs that we are installing on the ARRA projects with a minimum 20-year warranty.
Commissioner Coyle said that it seemed to her that the gardens are very integral to the whole design. The gardens really make this design work because you have got people passing through them and being able to view them. Because it is super hard to have grass in El Paso, she asked if there is a system for catching water or how would that work.
Mr. DeSousa responded that there are a couple of things. One is that they have plan for roof catchments and storage to make use of the water that we do get although it is fairly limited. They are recommending subsurface irrigation for turf. So, instead of having irrigation heads that spray water across the surface with a lot of evaporative lost, they basically run a drip system four inches below the surface of the earth which both encourages the grass to be deep rooted but also avoids all of that evaporative lost. It has some really dramatic water savings capabilities. The further advantage is that because it is below the grass, you don’t have to worry about them getting broken. They felt the landscape was very important. They are aware that that represents an undertaking for the Housing Authority because those need to be maintained. They would like to do as much of it in a xeriscape method but they felt it important to provide some small area of turf. It is very versatile are relatively durable surface. They think that they can mitigate the water consumption issues with some of the technological things that they can do in terms of how they treat it.
Mr. Vigil added that within the courts they have utilized some swells and the images are on the right of their drawings. They do have catchments swells in there for run off. The roofs of the flat buildings will obviously collect quite a bit of water in a big event and they have provided places for that. They tried to really concentrate on plants that have slightly higher needs in those areas to utilize that.
Mr. Spurlock stated that one other thing that we might remember is that there is reclaim water available to that site as well. El Paso Water Utilities has an extensive reclaim water system and Mr. Olvera’s grant application included at least a small contribution from the City’s Public Service Board towards bringing reclaim water to that site.
Mr. Cichon said we have been looking at the design and it needs some further discuss |
|
|
|
|
