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Housing Action Committee presses staff over role in Northpointe and 2024 work plan
Summary
Committee members said they were excluded from early planning for the Northpointe housing development and urged staff to co-create agendas and work plans; staff said the development agreement is executed and invited committee involvement in defined next steps over the coming 90–120 days.
Members of the Housing Action Committee on July 16 pressed town staff for a larger role in planning and decision-making after staff presented a community guidebook and the 2024 housing work plan.
The committee’s frustration centered on the Northpointe development, a rental project staff described as a 170‑unit apartment development. Stuart, a committee member, said the advisory body had been “cut out” of early conversations and that volunteers’ time had not been incorporated into staff plans. “You have expressly cut us out of that at this point… That is not acceptable,” he said.
Sean Lanier, the town’s new assistant town manager, introduced himself and said his oversight includes planning and that staff will seek alignment with committee priorities. “My name is Sean Lanier. I’m a new assistant town manager,” he told the group.
Quincy, a town staff presenter, said the Northpointe development agreement has been executed and is a public document that can be shared with the committee, and outlined a 90– to 120‑day set of action steps to define how the committee can participate. “Now that there’s the development agreements in place…there’s a couple of action steps that we’ll take over the next 90 to 120 days,” Quincy said.
Committee members urged a stronger, ongoing line of communication between staff and the committee, asking that future agendas be co‑authored so the committee’s priorities are reflected. Staff agreed to work with the committee chair to make agendas more collaborative and to build clearer staff participation in newly formed work groups.
Why this matters: committee members volunteered to advise on workforce housing and said they expected to be involved in strategic planning. Several members warned that sidelining the committee risks wasting volunteer time and undermines the advisory role the council intended. Staff emphasized that the current work plan draws heavily from town council priorities already in motion and pledged more structured engagement going forward.
Next steps: staff outlined several near‑term work groups (Money Creek/Bryant Road, land acquisition and development, displacement mitigation and land management ordinance amendments) and limited each group to four members to avoid quorum pitfalls. The committee will receive updates and staff said the groups should meet in the coming weeks to prepare recommendations for the committee and, ultimately, town council.
