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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-12-14; City Council; 12501; Rental Housing Database - Develop & OperateRENTAL HOUSING DATABASE - AUTHORIZATION TO DEVELOP AND OPERATE RECOMMENDED ACTION: That City Council ADOPT Resolution No. 93-331 , APPROVING the concept plan for a RENTALS electronic database, authorizing staff to develop said database and, upon its completion, directing staff to maintain and operate it as a permanent, ongoing housing information resource. ITEM EXPLANATION This is a proposal for a new computer database (to be called RENTALS) which would contain information on all of the rental housing stock of the City. It was first called for by Program 1.4 of the City's Housing Element, adopted by the City Council on October 22, 1991, and certified by California Department of Housing and Community Development, June 1992. It is one of the work items contained in the City's over-all housing work program. The purpose of RENTALS is to provide a source of information for use in answering questions posed by parties concerned about rental housing in the City. RENTALS is to serve as a flexible, automated database of accurate and up-to-date information on all of the rental housing sites in the City of Carlsbad, including rented single-family houses and condominiums. Some of the data proposed to be maintained in RENTALS are not available from any other source. Once the database has been built, an important component of its maintenance will be an annual survey of rents and vacancy information and the tracking of rents and sales prices associated with new housing construction. These data will be requested from owners/operators/builders on a strictly voluntary basis. Data on individual sites will not be made available to users outside the City, however a range of reports containing aggregated statistical data will be made available to both private and public users. A fuller justification for the system, a description of its anticipated users and operating capabilities, a description of the data it will contain, all of the procedural and operating aspects of the database, and full cost estimates for its development and operation are contained in Attachment 2: "Concept Plan - RENTALS Database". The concept plan was developed by staff of the Building, Housing and Redevelopment, Information Systems, and Planning Departments. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Environmental review is not required as this action does not constitute a ltprojectlt under the California Environmental Quality Act. . . PAGE 2 OF AGENDA BILL No. i2501 FISCAL IMPACT Database Development: Total development costs for the database are estimated at approximately $33,700.00. All of these costs can be applied via departmental funds already budgeted for FY 1993-1994. $20,300.00 is for existing staff labor who would do the work. $4,000.00 is associated with interns who are budgeted to conduct field surveys. The balance of $9,400 is for non-personnel materials, and can be provided from the FY 93-94 budgets of the Planning Department and Housing and Redevelopment Department. Should it become necessary to move funds between accounts staff will return for authorization. Annual Oneratins Costs: Personnel-related costs are difficult to estimate and will fluctuate with a) the amount of database maintenance that is required in response to development activity and b) the volume of ad hoc reports and queries that users request of the system. However, no new costs for staff positions are proposed. Non- personnel related costs will be primarily associated with the annual rent/vacancy survey (postage, supplies, phone) and are estimated at $3,700 per year. The Planning Department proposes to include these costs in its future annual budget requests. EXHIBITS 1. City Council Resolution No. 93 -33/ 2. "Concept Plan - RENTALS Database" (distributed previously) (COPY ON FILE IN CITY CLERK'S OFFICE) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 $7 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 RESOLUTION NO. 93-331 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CARLSBAD, APPROVING THE CONCEPT PLAN FOR AN AUTOMATED DATABASE OF RENTAL HOUSING, TO BE CALLED "RENTALS", AUTHORIZING STAFF TO DEVELOP SAID DATABASE, AND, UPON ITS COMPLETION, DIRECTING STAFF TO MAINTAIN AND OPERATE IT AS A PERMANENT INFORMATION RESOURCE. WHEREAS, the City operates a Redevelopment Area, obtains and spends Community Development Block Grant and other federal and state funds, and is increasingly involved in a range of programs designed to increase housing opportunities for targeted groups: and WHEREAS, the City must prepare plans which establish numerical objectives and specific action programs, including but not limited to a general plan housing element and a Comprehensive Housing Affordability Plan, together with the preparation of status reports on the City's progress in implementing said plans, the preparation of which requires the collection of comprehensive and detailed information on rental housing; and WHEREAS, in recognizing these data collection needs the Housing Element of the Carlsbad General Plan (adopted by City Council on October 22, 1991, and certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development in June 1992) includes "Program 1.4 (Rental Stock Monitoring)" calling for the City to "maintain a data base of information on vacancy rates, rental rates and physical condition of the City's existing rental housing stock, and utilize this database to evaluate programs affecting rental stock"; and WHEREAS, City staff has developed a detailed concept plan for an automated database to implement Housing Element Program 1.4; - . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 31. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 NOW THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Carlsbad as follows: 1. That the above recitations are true and correct. 2. That the development and operation of an automated database, as described in ttConcept Plan - RENTALS Database" would be in the public interest, thereby justifying the expenditure of public resources for its development and operation. 3. The ItConcept Plan - RENTALS Database" is approved and staff is directed to develop a database in substantial conformance to said concept plan, and, upon the database's completion, shall maintain and operate it as a permanent housing information resource. PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Carlsbad, California, on the 14th day of DECEMBER ,1993, by the following vote, to wit: AYES: Council Members Lewis, Stanton, Kulchin, Nygaard, Finnila NOES: None ABSENT: None ATTEST: ALETHA L. RAUTENKRANZ, City Clei)k (SEAL) -2- C - C C C C C C RENTALS DATABASE CONCEPT PLAN RENTALS DATABASE November, 1993 Prepared by Interdepartmental Database Design Team Bill Baer - Information Systems Dept. Leilani Hines - Housing and Redevelopment Dept. Bobbie Hoder - Planning Dept. Pat Kelley - Building Dept. Dennis Turner - Planning Dept. With assistance from Reggie Harrison - Housing and Redevelopment Dept. Debbie Fountain - Housing and Redevelopment Dept. H:DBDesign.mnl RENTALS Database - Concept Plan Table of Contents - EXECUTTVESUMMARY ...................................... iii PART I: GENERAL SYSTEM DESCRIPTION ........................ 1 A. B. C. D. E. F. PART IL A. B. C. D. PartHI A. B. Tables Function and Purpose .................................. 1 Why do we need to develop this database? .................... 2 General Concept and Proposed Data Description ................ 4 Alternative Rental Data Concept .......................... 6 Hardware/Software/System Design ........................ 13 Queries and “Customer” Support ......................... 15 1. Customer contact .............................. 17 2. Cost Recovery ................................. 17 PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ....... 18 Overview ...................................... ..18 Procedures for Phase 2, Initial Data Load .................... 19 Phase 3: On-going Maintenance of the Database ................ 22 Phase 4: Data Clean-Up ............................... 27 RESOURCE UTILIZATION ........................... 28 Summary of Responsibilities by Department ................... 28 Costs ............................... ..a.........3 2 1. Start-up Costs ................................. 32 2. Recurring Costs ................................ 33 3. Phase 4 Costs ................................. 33 Table 1: RENTALS Database: Data Record/Field Descriptions. ..................................... .7 Table 2: Rents and Vacancy Rates Data Table. ...................... 11 Table 3: Income-Restricted Units Data Table. ...................... 12 Table 4: Estimated Start-Up Costs ............................. 32 Figures 1. RENTALS Database - Proposed General Concept Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv 2. RENTALS’- Logical Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 i Appendices 1. Costs of Rent/Vacancy Survey - Initial tid Continuing Cost Tables a. Table 5: Initial Database Set-Up ...................... 35 b. Table 6: Subsequent Years - ......................... 36 C. Table 7: Multi-Family Only Option ................... 37 2. 3. Draft It Carlsbad Rent and Vacancy Survey” 39 - ................... Draft ” Rent/Sales Price Disclosure Form” .................... 41 EXECUTIVESUMMARY - This is a design concept for a new City database to be called RENTALS. It was first suggested by Program 1.4 of the City’s Housing Element, adopted by the City Council on October 22, 1991. - The purpose of RENTALS is to provide a source of information for use in answering questions posed by parties concerned about rental housing in the City. RENTALS is to serve as a flexible electronic database of accurate and up-to-date information on all of the rental housing sites in the City of Carlsbad, including rented single-family houses and condominiums. Currently, some of the data proposed to be maintained in RENTALS are not available from any other source. Potential customers of the database will include staff of various City departments, elected and appointed City officials, other agencies, marketing and research arms of private business concerns (particularly developers and the rental housing industry), academic researchers, housing advocates, and the general public. In particular, with RENTALS, the city will greatly enhance its ability to respond to the reporting, audit, and compliance functions associated with a variety of state, federal, and other housing programs, including those which provide funding. Data Design - A data record will be kept on each rental ownership within the City. Initially the database will contain nearly 6,000 records, representing the estimated number of rental ownerships in the City. Each record will potentially contain 70 data fields, grouped as follows (Please see Figure 1: Proposed General Concept Design): Data kept for all records: Site location and contact person (11 fields), Site geo-data (APN, Thomas Bros. map page, etc.) (5 fields), C. Structure classification (10 fields), d. Tenure (rental, owner-occupied, condo.) (4 fields), e. Restricted income units (inclusionary, etc.) (2 fields), f. Monthly rents and vacancies, by bedroom, etc. (6 fields), Data kept for a sampling of records only - g. h. i. J Site Survey General Info. (3 fields), Site amenities (11 fields), Typical unit amenities (13 fields), Utilities included in the rent. (7 fields). . . . 111 - Figure 1 RENTAL HOUSING DATABASE Proposed General Concept Design Existing Sources of Data - PERMITS system - MetroScan/Assessor’s Records - H & R Dept. Program Records II New Sources of Data - Rent/Sales Disclosure Statement - Annual Rent/Vacancy SuIvey - Building Plans - Field Surveys Data Inputs (automatic & manual) I 1 Database of All Rental Stock All Records Samnle Records Onlv (as nossible) - Site (Address, Owner, Manager) - Geo-data (APN, Census, etc.) - Structure Category - Tenure (Owner/Rental/Condo) - Restricted Units (Special Programs) - Rents/Vacancy Data - General Site Conditions/Comments - Site Amenities - Typical Unit Amenities - Utilities Included in Rent Data Outputs (standard reports Bi special queries) ::. .. Data c+tomers ‘.. .“j ..:‘...I’ ” f!f ..j.;.. .: ,; City - Housing Element (Including 5-year program development and annual progress reports/audits) - CHAS (Including 5-year program development and annual progress reports/audits) - Sect. 8 (Ongoing) - CDBG (Ongoing) - Redevelopment Agency (Ongoing and annual progress report) - Coastal Zone demolitions (Ongoing) Other Agencies (Academic, schools, state, special districts) Private Sector (Devel. indust., rental indust., general business, C of C) General Public iv - Some information can be obtained from existing public sources. The other data which is not already part of the public record (rents, vacancies, site amenities) will have to be requested from builders and owners of rental projects. The provision of this information will be voluntary on the part of the builders and owners and this fact will be emphasized in all requests for data. Operation The operation and maintenance of RENTALS is conceived as a permanent, on-going program. Once the set-up phases have been finished, certain maintenance activities will require on-going staffing and funding. The principal on-going activities include: the continual up-dating of the database to reflect building activity, the conduct of an annual rent and vacancy survey, the periodic generation of a range of pre-defined reports, and the provision of assistance to data customers with ad hoc query needs. Data on the rents, vacancy rates, and amenities of individual properties will not be available to parties outside the City, although aggregated statistical data will be made available by .a variety of categories. Implementation Development of the system is envisioned to involve four phases: Phase 1. Design, receive authorization to proceed, and build the data system (no data entered, however). This is the current phase. Phase 2. Initial data load. Research, clean up, and load required data on all existing rental stock of the City. Phase 3. Maintain the database following the initial data load. (The project becomes an on- going program.) Phase 4. Data clean-up. On an “as-resources-are-available” basis, research, collect, and load that data which was unavailable with the Phase 1 data load. Phases 1 and 2 are estimated to take approximately six months to complete once an authorization to proceed is granted. Phases 3 and 4 will be on-going. V Cost Summary 1. Start-up (Phases 1 and 2): $33,700 No new funding will be necessary. Most of these costs are for labor associated with the use of existing budgeted staff. The non-personnel-related costs of start-up can be found from within the budgets of the Housing and Redevelopment Department and the Planning Department already approved for.FY 93-94. 2. Annual recurring costs (Phases 3 and 4 - primarily rent surveys) $6,400 Of these costs, only $3,700 would be new, non-staff related costs, requiring this sum to be included in the annual departmental budgets. These estimated costs are for the recommended design concept. The report discusses several options, which, if implemented, could reduce these costs, but with the result of reduced database utility. A full break-out of all proposed costs is contained in Part 1II.B of the report. - vi RENTALS Database PART I. GENERAL SYSTEM DESCRIPTION A. Function and Purpose This database shall be called RENTALS. The function of the RENTALS database is to serve as a flexible electronic repository for accurate and up-to-date information on all of the rental housing sites in the City of Carlsbad, including rented single-family houses and condominiums. For each site, information will be kept on its location, owner, types of structures, the number of total units, the number of any income- restricted units, rents, and vacancies. In addition, for a sampling of records, data will be kept on factors which affect rents, including site amenities and utilities which are included in the rents. - - The purpose of RENTALS is to provide a source of information for answers to questions posed by parties needing more information about the rental housing stock of Carlsbad. The information is intended for use by City staff in the operation of its housing programs, both for in-house analytical purposes and various reporting requirements. In addition, it is anticipated that other agencies and members of the business community and general public will also show a significant interest in the database, as it will supply information available from no other source. Roth City and “outside” interests would constitute the “customers” of the RENTALS database. Staff anticipates a customer need for both regularly scheduled “standard” reports and custom reports in response to unique or one-time questions. In general, reports generated from the database will supply aggregated statistical data, rather than information about individual properties. Although the City’s needs may from time to time require its use, data about individual sites - especially individual rents - will be considered confidential and shall not be made available to parties outside the City. - - - In the original project concept, staff considered keeping records in the database on all housing stock in the City, both non-rental as well as rental. However, it emerged that the resources necessary to build and maintain the database would not permit researching the data for some of the identified data fields for the thousands of existing non-residential housing units in the City. The only information available for these units is basic location and ownership data from the County Assessor’s records. As these data are already “on line” (accessible electronically via the Hewlett-Packard (HP) 3000 system), to transfer these data into another electronic database proposed to be situated on the same HP 3000 system would be redundant. So, a decision was made not to include non-rental housing in this database. It will be limited to known rental stock and possible rental stock (absentee ownerships); B. Why do we need to develop this database? The City operates a Redevelopment Area, obtains and spends Community Development Block Grant and other federal and state funds, and is increasingly involved in a range of programs designed to increase housing opportunities for targeted groups. As an offshoot of these activities the city must prepare plans that establish numerical objectives and specific action plans, together with status reports on its progress in implementing these plans. State and federal housing programs, particularly those providing funding, require the reporting of certain specific information (including rental information) as audit and compliance functions. For example: 1. 2. 3. 4. California state law requires each city’s five-year housing element to establish a comprehensive housing program, including numeric “regional share” objectives for creating new housing affordable to ,very-low, low, moderate and other income households. The housing element is required to describe the number, kind (owner/rental tenure), and condition of housing stock throughout the City: The law also stipulates that a report on the City’s status in meeting regional share objectives for new housing shall be provided annually both to the City Council and the California Housing and Community Development Department. _ _ _ As a condition of qualifying for CDBG funds and HUD grants for Section 8 vouchers and certificates, federal regulations require the preparation of a five-year Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) and subsequent annual progress and audit reports on the use of federal funds in carrying out this Strategy. Each City with a Redevelopment Agency is required to expend a portion of its property tax increments on a variety of housing preservation and new construction programs for very-low, low, and moderate income households. A Housing Production Compliance Plan must be produced annually to show progress in meeting statutory housing objectives, including mandatory inclusionary housing within the Redevelopment Agency. State housing law requires local agencies to keep track of all housing in which rents and sales prices are guaranteed to be affordable to target groups for a fix@ tenure of years in exchange for use of public funding in project construction or financing. We are required to track how many units each year are “at risk” of losing their affordable tenure, tied with the responsibility to replace them with other affordable units when lost. - Typical questions the City must be able to answer include: 1. What is the split of owner-occupied and rental housing units in the City? How does it compare with five years ago? Ten years ago? 2. What are the actual median rents, by size and type of rental unit, in the City, and how do these rents compare both to the Regional Fair Market Rents established by HUD and to California .median rents? 2 - - - - - - - 3. 4. 5. 6. How many units in a given newly constructed apartment complex are going to be offered at “affordable” rates (as defined), and can these units be counted towards specific numerical objectives under any of the above programs? When the owner of an apartment complex agrees to accept Section 8 tenants, are the rents for his units above or below HUD Fair Market Rents for comparable units? What specific amenities does he offer and how are they comparable to other local apartment units offered at the same rent? Therefore, what magnitude Section 8 certificate is required? Does the Redevelopment Agency have any special obligations toward, say, twelve old houses that have to be removed to build a new parking structure? (When a rental unit located in the Redevelopment Area is demolished or rehabilitated as part of a redevelopment project, the City has an obligation to replace that unit if previously it was affordable to lower income households, but afterwards it is no longer affordable or is lost altogether [Health and Safety Code Section 334131.) When an application is received by the City to demolish a triplex rental unit located outside the Redevelopment Area, but within the Coastal Zone, does this application activate a housing obligation on the part of the City? (Article 10.7 of the Government Code stipulates: “The conversion or demolition of existing residential dwelling units [in the coastal zone) occupied by persons and families of low or moderate income.. .shall not be authorized unless provision has been made for the replacement of those dwelling units with units for persons and families of low or moderate income.” Buildings with three or more units must be replaced. [Section 65590 (b)]). The answers to all of these questions require knowledge about the rental housing stock of the City. In particular, information is needed on rents which have been (or are to be) charged, by size and type of unit, for the rental buildings involved in certain questions. In the past the City has often just ignored these questions, to the detriment of its housing programs or reporting obligations. In other instances (usually ad hoc) it has attempted either a) to estimate specific figures from other sources (financial or real estate industry estimates), or b) to research retroactively the answers (for example: earlier rents charged for a unit after it has been demolished and the previous owner has disappeared). Neither of these latter approaches produces accurate, dependable data and both are inefficient in terms of staff time and other City resources. . . A better approach is to establish a database of housing information, updated via an ongoing monitoring program. RENTALS is proposed to fill this need. The data will be more accurate and will be at-hand when it is needed (often via standard&d periodic reports), requiring a minimum of effort to respond to a broad range of queries. These improvements will more than offset the allocation of resources needed to set up and maintain such a database. P 3 c. General Concept and Proposed Data Description Input to the recommendation which follows was obtained from Bill Baer - Information Services Dept. Debbie Fountain - Housing and Redevelopment Dept., Reggie Harrison - Housing and Redevelopment Dept. Leilani Hines - Housing and Redevelopment Dept. Bobbie Hoder - Planning Dept. Pat Kelley - Building Dept. Dennis Turner - Planning Dept. Karl Von Schleider - GIS Section It is proposed that the RENTALS database include the following design concepts and parameters: 1. General Concept: Certain basic data will be recorded for each rental site in the City, including rented single-family houses and condominiums. These data will include the address, other locational information, a basic description of the type of structure, the numbers of units, rents, vacancies, and the amenities associated with the site that affect the amount of the rent being charged. 2. The information kept in a database record will be for a residential property gwnershiq, as defined by the County Assessor and identified by Assessor’s Parcel Number. - - The original idea of using physical sites or complexes as the basis for a record had to be rejected because of the unique circumstance created when individual units in a complex of condominiums are rented out by absentee landlords. In this situation, we end up, in effect, with the possibility of multiple individual rental businesses within a single complex, each with individual “business owners”. Because we want to track rents, it is necessary ‘to treat these rented condos as individual sites so we can send a survey instrument to the condo’s absentee owner. - Therefore, records will be created for: each rented single-family home, each rented condominium unit, each rented mobile home (in a park or on its own subdivided lot), and each multi-family rental complex (from;duplex to lOO+ units, both with one and more than one building). 3. It is difficult to estimate the number of records that the database will initially hold. From the 1990 Census and subsequent building records we know that there are about 28,200 legal housing units in the City at this time. The 1990 U.S. Census enumerated 9,400 occupied rental units (about one third of the 1990 housing stock), of which 3,100 were either detached or attached single-family homes. 4 - - - - - The number of rental ownershins (i.e.: potential rental database records) can be estimated from data about absentee owners. For example, Trans America’s MetroScan property record system suggests the initial number of absentee ownerships may be only about 6,000, (but involving over 10,000 units): Assessors’s Parcels With Absentee Owners Tvpe of Unit No. of Parcels (Min No. Units. a. Single family 2,363 b. Condominiums 2,916 c. Duplex/Double 213 d. 2-4 units 174 e. 5-15 units 86 f. 15-60 units 63 g. 61 and up 45 h. Mobile homes 87 (2,363) (2,916) (426) (x 2 = 348) (x 5 = 430) (x 15 = 945) (x 61 = 2,745) (87) Totals 5,947 min (10,26(I) This table also suggests that 90 percent of the rental ownerships are individual homes (5,300 single-family units, condominium units, and mobile homes), as opposed to duplex and multi-family apartments (580). Therefore, about 90 percent of the rental records will be for individual homes. These figures have suggested an alternative concept for the rental records, which concept is discussed below, in section D. 4. So staff can determine when adjustments need to be made in calculating average rents and other matters, RENTALS will keep information about the number of units at a site participating in rehabilitation programs, the Section 8 program, inclusionary housing, and other special financing programs. Beyond this, it was decided not to keep detailed information about housing finance programs in the database due to the relatively limited number of sites participating in such programs. Consequently, detailed financing program information should be maintained separately by the relevant department. 5. Generally, once a given structure has been built and a record created, the data for it will be updated periodically via either a) a mail-out survey (for rent and vacancy information) or b) (as resources permit) a field visit for information on amenities. Demolitions, structure conversions, or moves will usually require major modifications to, or deletion of, the record. Please see Part II.C.2., below, for more information. 6. Rent and vacancy information will need to be kept from year-to-year and/or survey-to- survey for making comparisons over time. Therefore annual “pages” of data will need to be kept permanently, although historical data wouldn’t necessarily need to be kept “on line”. 5 7. In response to the above, each record will potentially contain 70 fields of data, grouped as follows: Data kept for all records: a. b. i. Site location and contact person (11 fields), Site geo-data (APN, Thomas Bros. map page, etc.) (5 fields), Structure classification (10 fields), Tenure (rental, owner-occupied, condo.) (4 fields), e. Restricted income units (inclusionary, etc.) (2 fields), f. Monthly rents and vacancies, by bedroom, etc. (6 fields), Data kept for a sampling of records only !: i. i Site Survey General Info. (3 fields), Site amenities (11 fields), Typical unit amenities (13 fields), Utilities included in the rent. (7 fields). See “Table 1: RENTALS Site Database: Data Record/Field Descriptions” for a more- detailed description of the field name, data type, frequency of update, source of information, and comments on each field. See also: “Table 2: Rents and Vacancy Rates Data Table”, and “Table 3: Income Restricted Units” for a description of prototype data entry screens and/or survey forms. D. Alternative Rental Data Concept As was shown in section C, above, as many as 5,366 (or 90 percent) of 5,947 potential rental gwnershins are likely to be single-family (SF) houses, condominium units, or mobile homes. Further, out of the probable total number of rental units in the City (9,400 occupied rental units were identified in the last census), these individual homes represent about half). A question has been raised about the effort that would be expended in collecting data on the individual homes and condos. An alternative data design concept has been suggested in which rental data would m be collected on the 5,400 SF houses, condos, and mobile homes, but, rather, such collection would be limited the 580 or so duplex and multi- family apartment sites. The benefits of this concept would be significantly reduced data collection efforts and costs, especially those associated with the ongoing rent/vacancy surveys. An example of the costs which might be saved can be obtained by comparing estimated costs for the rent/vacancy survey with and without the individual homes included. With the units included, the cost of the initial survey is estimated at $11,700 (Appendix 1, Table 5). With the units excluded, the cost of the initial survey is estimated at $1,400 (Appendix 1, Table 7). 6 *- s 0.z i .zg 1 EO 0 0 zj.CJF ( : ‘= qp, I ;o,gE I = b 0,. P gm2- 1 ac zpo$ s5fc Eq32 $4 g” P L =$jr cmQE so E, ; 6 :: .= X&z 3 I Ppg ! 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Ij / I I I T; z $ t s UI 0. ---l-- 5 ii a v 0 2 L ‘S ‘5 5 .- F i!j * ! i i =4 . Table 2: Rents and Vacancy Rates Data Table (Data to be provided for each rental complex) - - nrtr n4 l IIvwIY- lrlSt.1 I”._ “. W”. ‘W,. L”“.“, By no. of bedrooms Studio By no. of bathrooms One No. of units *Income-Restricted: Market-Rate: To tat Units: Average Rent for Market- Rate Units: l ‘Vacant units No.of units off-market: No. of units onmarket which are vacant : One One IS1 Ilntegerl One Four Two Three Four l Income-rsstrictad units are those for which the rent is limited to a level which assures that tha unit is affordable to and restricted for the use of specified income households. Usually such units are participants in a government-sponsored housing progrem, including H.U.D. Section 8 vouchsr/certificata program, Carlsbad inclusionary housing program, and other programs involving federal, state, or local funding. ‘* Vacancy information should combine data for both income-restricted and market-rate units. ‘Off-market’ units are units which are not occupied and are temporarily unavailable for occupancy because of damage repairs. maintenance, or other reasons. “On- Market” units are vacant and, as of the date of survey, are available to be rented. Table 3: Income-Restricted* Units Data Table 1 I Number of Restricted Units by II NumC One w of Be Two Dams Three Redev. lnclusionary Mortgage Bond Rehabilitation. Section a [text1 [Integer Four T No. of Restriction Restricted Expiration year8 Date [Real no.1 [date] l Income-restricted unita era those for which tha rent is limited to a level which assures that the unit is affordable to and restricted for the use of specified incomr households. Usually such units are participants in a government-sponrored housing program, including H.U.D. Section 8 voucher/certificate program, Carlsbad inclusionery housing program, and other programs involving federal, state, or local funding. C - 11 It is also true that some of the statutes establishing obligations to replace demolished “affordable” rental units exempt single-family stock unless large numbers of homes are involved. Therefore, maintaining rent histories for individual homes is less critical for single-family stock than it is for multi-family complexes. The down-side of this alternative is the loss of significant information on an important component of the City’s rental stock, amounting to perhaps half of the total units. These units are likely to have significantly different characteristics from traditional apartments and duplexes. For example, the City’s development standards for condo amenities are higher than for apartments, and single-family homes traditionally have individual lots and greater floor areas for the same number of bedrooms. These homes are also likely to have a higher number of bedrooms on average. Therefore, the rents are likely to be higher. It would not be possible to make accurate statements about median or “typical” rents in Carlsbad without including rented SF homes and condos. - E. Because the benefits of having a complete rental database are great, the Design Committee is not initially recommending the Alternative Data Base concept. However, if resource considerations become critical in the management decisions to implement RENTALS, this alternative could realize significant cost and staff savings. Hardware/Software/System Design _ 1. Hardware/software “platform” The hardware for the database will be the Hewlett Packard 3000 Model 70 mini- computer (running the MPE/V (v. lp) operating system). The database will be developed in IMAGE, Hewlett Packard’s hierarchical database product. Together, these form the “platform” already in use with the existing “PERMITS” (construction permit tracking and fee system) and County Assessor’s databases. Powerhouse, a fourth-generation programming and database query language, will be used in the design of the database, and also in the queries once the database is up and running. Most of the City’s PC networks are tied via direct line to the HP 3006 system and can access databases loaded there. This is important, because it is anticipated that active users may be located in several areas of the City. Departments with known access needs - either for data maintenance or query capability - include: Housing and Redevelopment, and Planning. Other departments that m desire access at a later time include: Building Department and Finance Department (business licenses). Additional users and departments may be identified later (However, see Section I.F., Queries and Customer Support, below, for a further discussion about direct access ‘to the database). 2. Input/Output Generally, the city’s existing equipment (PCs, HP laser printers, plotters, etc.) will serve for anticipated input and output needs. All terminals and PCs now capable of accessing the HP 3000 system will be capable of accessing the new database, again, on an authorized, “need to” basis. - - -, 12 - An exception is created by the fact that while the Housing and Redevelopment Department can currently interact with individual records from the HP 3000 databases on its PCs, it does not have the ability to print reports from the databases. Adding the capability to print reports would be very desirable, but would require the expenditure of approximately $2,CK)0 for the necessary hardware and software. 3. Data transfers/linkages The City’s new MetroScan CD ROM database contains data on existing parcels, structures, and land uses. These data will be highly useful for the initial data-load of the database. Therefore it is critical that data (in ASCII or other format) be transferrable from MetroScan to the new data base, (See also, procedures section, below.) Data will also need to be passed from the existing PERMITS system to the rental database. It is proposed that the creation of new records be triggered by the final . inspection for the first new building at a site. As the final inspection is completed, the PERMITS system will automatically pass site and owner information, not directly to RENTALS, but first to an intermediate data register. Within this register, information from PERMITS will be manually inspected and cleaned up. Data will be scanned for accuracy, other data will be added, duplicate records will be deleted, and records created from non-rental building permits will be deleted. Upon completing of this fine-tuning process the record will be passed finally to RENTALS. (See Figure 2 and Part II.C., below.) - - - There will m be a need to download record-level data from the HP 3000 to a PC for further manipulation in a spreadsheet or statistics software package. Most of the analysis can probably be done via the sorting and reporting capabilities of the database, via Powerhouse. Further manipulation of information in PC-based software will likely occur only for summary data, available from standard or custom reports out of the housing database. Some of the initial data load and most of the subsequent record maintenance will be done via manual data entry at a keyboard. F. Queries and Yhstomer” Support - Several issues need to be resolved with regard to making queries of the system. These have to do with customer contact points, system access responsibilities, system security, and cost recovery. 1. Customer contact - As was indicated in the first section of this report, once the RENTALS system is “on line”, a variety of parties will want to make use of the data. These “customers” will include the staff of various City departments, elected and appointed officials, other agencies, marketing and research arms of private business concerns (particularly developers and the rental housing industry), academic researchers, housing advocates, and the general public. The following is recommended: 13 Figure 2: RENTALS - Logical Design Data Sources Activities [ Auto-create new base record 1 A-1 on completing final inspection 1 [Metro Scan] - site address/owner I ) - geo data - structure category Manual input lHousing . IAnn- Field surveys (samples) Demolition/conversion report from PERMITS Add: - tenure (own/rent/condo) - number of beds/baths - prospective rents t- -HAdd: - restricted unit info.}- - check for duplicate sites/ consolidate if necessary - check for/delete non-rental site records d Data Records Temporary Data Register f-l Completed Record I RENTALS Update: - ‘. rent-1 + +I Add: - site/unit amenities - utilities info I-- - modify data as called for / --) - add/delete records as called for + I L 14 - - - - a. In order to handle more efficiently requests for database information, and to better ensure the confidentiality of sensitive financial data held by the system, it is proposed that all requests for data be routed to a limited number of staff specially designated and trained for customer/database assistance. These staff members should be located in both the Planning Department and Housing and Redevelopment Department. Other departments may have a need determined later. b. Customers seeking answers to housing-related questions would contact one of the designated customer assistance staff who would determine if, and how, RENTALS can be used to formulate an answer. Data would be taken from standard reports, or, if necessary, the staff member would help formulate a custom database query. The programming and running of special reports in response to customer queries ‘would be the responsibility of staff of the Information Systems Department, upon the request of the Planning or Housing and Redevelopment assistance person. 2. Cost Recovery For customers from outside the City, the issue of cost-recovery is relevant. At this time it is not possible to determine what the actual staff and computer costs would be for a typical query of the system. Do we wish to recover our costs incurred in providing a response to a query ? What about recovering our costs incurred in building the system and maintaining it ? This issue pertains to information services provided by the City from a range of information sources (PERMITS, GIS, library, etc.) and is a policy issue which extends beyond the RENTALS database. Therefore, no recommendation is offered with this concept design. 15 PARTII. PHASESOFDEVELOPMENTANDIMPLEMENTATION A. Overview In general, there will be four phases of database development and implementation, as follows: Phase Design and build the data svstem (no data‘). This is the current phase, consisting of the following steps: a. Development and approval of this Concept Plan, b Development and approval of a Work Plan setting out detailed implementing tasks and assigning them to responsible parties, together with a schedule. C. Carrying out those work plan assignments which are necessary to program the data structures so they can receive the initial data load. Phase 2 The initial data load of existing rental stock. needed to set UD the database. - - - - - a. As was indicated in Part I.C. there is no ready source of information identifying individual existing rental stock ownerships. Instead, we will begin with data about absentee owners, identified from County Assessor’s records. First, a basic record will be created for each existing absentee ownership in the city. Limited data on our existing stock exists in the County Assessor’s files, and can be accessed via the MetroScan system. Other data on existing housing built since 1989 is, available from the PERMITS system. We will load what can be transferred electronically from the County Assessor’s records and our PERMITS system, such data being limited primarily to location, contact, and gee-data (Data Groups a and’b as outlined in Part 1I.B.). Initially, we will have basic data for some 6,000 records for absentee ownerships. b. Once absentee-owner records are moved into RENTALS, a mail survey questionnaire will be sent out requesting information which will allow staff to distinguish actual rental sites from unrented vacation and second homes. The records for these latter units will then be deleted from RENTALS. Phase Maintenance of the database following the initial data load. a. Establish procedures to capture and enter data on the on-going creation, demolition, and conversion of residential structures, reported via the building permit process or other sources, and b. Establish general maintenance procedures for query, audit, and quality control functions. 17 Data Ckan Up: Collect and load that data on rental housing stock which was Phase 4, unavailable with the Phase 1 data load. This will entail field work and a variety of research tasks. The four phases will require different sources of data and different staff responsibilities and procedures. B. Procedures for Phase 2; Initial Data Load Following is a more detailed description of generalized issues about and procedures needed for Phase 2, the initial data load. As was mentioned above, although RENTALS will eventually contain data records for all rental ownerships in the City, the initial data load will focus primarily on the identification of and collection of data about existing rental properties. Procedures for each of the ten Data Groups follow: 1. Site location and contact (Fields l-l 1. Please see Table 1) Trans America’s Metro-Scan CD ROM subscription database contains the needed information to get basic site address and owner name/address information. MetroScan is based upon the San Diego County Assessor records. These data will be transferred electronically to the database from MetroScan for all existing parcels identified by MetroScan as having absent-owner residential usage. One problem is that some multi-family rental “sites” or “complexes” will consist of multiple parcels. Because the initial data load from MetroScan will identify parcels, some sites will be identified more than one time - once for each parcel. We will want to consolidate these multiple parcel-level records into single “site” records. Therefore, once the basic parcel load is completed, it will be necessary to develop a procedure to. identify records with common ownerships and similar address ranges, and, from this determination, to identify those parcels which may be part of the same complex. This second phase of the initial data load will have to be done manually, augmented perhaps, by field checks. Bill Baer of Information Systems will have lead responsibility for the programming. The Planning Department will have the lead in carrying out this consolidation work. 2. Site Geo-Data (Fields 12-16. See Table 1) The PERMITS system has the capability to match Assessor’s Parcel Numbers (APN) - - - - 18 - with ValiOUS pre-defined geographies. The initial RENTALS record skeleton will contain the APN, obtained from MetroScan. Using the geo-address matching capability of PERMITS the remaining four fields of geo-data can be transferred to RENTALS electronically . Bill Baer will have the lead responsibility for the programming. 3. Structure Data (Fields 17 - 26. See Table 1) Because most of the historical records in PERMITS do not carry structure information with any accuracy, it will be necessary to obtain this information from other sources, perhaps in Phase 4. 4. Tenure (Fields 27-30. See Table 1) - MetroScan has the capability to report absentee owners identified by the County Assessor. Once RENTALS has been loaded with the skeleton data for all existing residential structures, a second pass of this data can be done electronically to identify absentee owners. The ‘data will be stored temporarily in field 27 (rentals) as a temporary substitute for rental units. Since some of these properties will actually be second homes/vacation homes, not rentals, it will be necessary to send out a mail questionnaire to the absent owner to ask if the parcel is really rented or not. This questionnaire may be combined with an initial rent survey. Once the surveys are returned, manual corrections will be made by Planning Department staff to fields 27 - 29. Data for field 30 (condo) can be obtained from PERMITS and passed electronically to RENTALS. A preliminary draft of the survey questionnaire is enclosed in Appendix 2. 5. Restricted Units (Fields 31-32. See Table 1) In the near-term, relatively few project sites out of the entire database will have any restricted units, but this will change with time. Field 30 will indicate that the site has restricted units. A separate “page” will display a table modeled after Table 3 (“field” 32)) with.blanks to record information about the number of inclusionary , mortgage bond, rehabilitation, Section 8, and “other” types of housing restricted to designated income groups or other parties. The data for the table will be entered manually by Housing and Redevelopment Department staff from existing records. 6. Monthlv Rents and Vacancies (Fields 33-36. See Table 1) The problem is to determine which existing residential sites are rentals. A survey instrument will be sent to all existing residential properties with absentee owners, as identified by MetroScan (see “tenure” section, above) to determine if the site is a rental site. This survey will be used to corroborate data from the business license list of 19 property managers (this list is limited to rentals with two or more units). If the response indicates that the site is a rental, information will be requested (either with the original or a follow-Up questionnaire) about the rents and vacancy rates for market-rate units, by number of baths and bedrooms. Data will be recorded on a separate “page” of the data record, modeled after “Table 2”, together with the date of the survey from which the data were obtained. This page of data will be kept permanently, and new “pages” of data will be recorded with data from subsequent periodic surveys. The Planning Department will be responsible for conducting the initial survey of absentee owners and entering the responses, together with initial rent and vacancy information. A preliminary draft of the initial survey questionnaire is enclosed in Appendix 2. Thereafter, an annual rent and vacancy survey will be conducted of all rental ownerships (See Phase 3). 7. Site Survev General Information (Fields 37 - 39. See Table 1) - These data will come from the initial field survey (see 8.) and will be entered by Housing and Redevelopment Department staff. Subsequent surveys will update the data as resources are available. 8. Site Amenitia (Fields 40 - 50. See Table 1) As there is no other source of complete and accurate information, the data for existing rentals will have to be obtained from field surveys. A start on these was begun this summer by the Housing and Redevelopment Department staff using lists of business licenses to identify the larger rental projects. Field surveys will be conducted as Housing and Redevelopment Department resources become available. The data will be entered into RENTALS by the Planning Department. 9. Twical Unit Amenities (Fields 51 - 63. See Table 1) (Same as for data group 8.) 10. See Table 1). Utilities (Fields 64 - 70. (Same as for data group 8.) C. phase 3: On-going Maintenance of the Database Once the initial load of data has been completed for existing housing stock, the next phase of development is concerned with setting up the procedures for the addition of new records or modification of old records in response to building permit activity for the on-going creation, 20 - - - - - - - - - - - - demolition, or conversion of residential buildings. In addition, other procedures will heed to be established with regard to making queries, monitoring, and quality control. This description of Phase 3 will be broken into three parts: 1. Responses to permits for new construction; I 2. . Responses to permits for demolitions and conversions from residential to non- residential use. 3. Other database maintenance issues and procedures. RESPONSES TO PERMITS FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION As new residential developments are approved, it will be necessary to create records for these sites. The existing PERMITS system is to be modified to trigger automatically the cre&on of a new record in RENTALS upon completing a final inspection for each new residential structure. In fact,, newly created records will not pass immediately to RENTALS. Instead, each new record will be held in a temporary data register until several things can be done to make the data as complete and accurate as possible. Only then will the completed record pass into RENTALS. Periodically (weekly?), a report will be run of all new records created in the temporary data register. Planning department staff will use this report to identify the new records and will conduct the necessary data maintenance (See Figure 2: RENTALS - Logical Design). For example, a problem that has been identified is the situation in which a new “site” has multiple buildings. Permits for each new building will trigger the creation of a new RE9lTALS record, thus creating the potential to end up with multiple records for the same “site”, each of which would contain data for only one building on the site. The solution is to match records in the temporary data register with existing RENTALS records for the same APN and/or address range. Then, if it is confirmed that similar records are really associated with the same site, we will manually consolidate the data for these records into a common “site” record. Other data validation work will also be undertaken in this temporary data register before the records are transferred permanently to RENTALS. It is proposed’that the Planning Department take on this ongoing maintenance responsibility. Following is a description of what will be required for each of the ten data groups. 1. Sites (Fields l- Il. See Table 1) Data for all of the fields except the manager name and phone number (fields 14 and 5) should be found in PERMITS, and can be. transferred automatically when the creation of a RENTALS record is triggered in response to a structure’s final inspection. Fields 4 and 5 will be obtained later from a rent survey or a field inspection. 2. Site Geo-Data (Fields 12-16. See Table 1) Similar to the initial data load, geodata can be transferred electronically to RENTALS from PERMITS’ geo-address matching capabilities. It may be possible to program this 21 I 3. to occur with the automatic creation of RENTALS records upon completing of the final inspection in PERMITS Structure Data (Fields 17 - 26. See Table 1) Recently, procedures and programming were developed to capture in the PERMITS system, the data needed in fields 18 - 22 of the structure data group. The data will be collected at the time a building permit is submitted for plan check (see also 4. Tenure, below). It will be possible to automatically transfer structure information from PERMITS to RENTALS. Fields 23 - 25 (“second unit”, “row house” and “walk-up”) will not exist in PERMITS via permit plan checks. Therefore, the information will have to come from another source, such as the field visits undertaken by Housing and Redevelopment on a sample basis. Field 26 (table of units by bedrooms and baths - a portion of Table 2) will have to be obtained from the annual rent and vacancy survey. 4. Tenure (Fields 27-30, See Table 1) - - The City is obligated to begin obtaining rent and sales price information for all new residential units in order to determine the affordability of new housing to a range of income groups. Because of the rules used to categorize the “affordability” of units, it is necessary to collect information on the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, as well as the actual rent and sales prices. Under a separate proposal it is planned to request this information as part of the plan-check process for residential building permit processing. Builders would be requested to volunteer information on the number of units, bedrooms, bathrooms, and rents/sales prices. These data (including prospective rents and sales prices) would be collected by the Building Department counter staff and be passed to Planning Department staff. It would be held for some months until the final inspection triggers the creation of a record, at which time the Planning Department would manually entered the data into the new record being held in the temporary data register. This would become a permanent, ongoing maintenance procedure. A preliminary draft of the Rent/Sales Price Disclosure Form is enclosed as Appendix 3 at the end of this report. One of the on-going maintenance problems will be to identify single-family houses and condominiums that are converted from ownership to rental tenure at any time following their construction. If the tenure of an owner-occupied property changes, we will want to begin tracking it as a rental, including the collection of rent data. It will be necessary to develop and periodically carry out a procedure similar to the one that will be used to identify rentals for the initial data load. Using MetroScan’s ability to identify absentee ownerships, it will be possible to program a standard report that will compile and compare the list of absentee owners against rental properties identified in RENTALS. Where an absentee owner’s property is not recorded as a rental, it will be flagged as a 22 - - - possible rental. Then staff Will send a letter to the owner to determine if it has been converted to a rental, or, alternatively, has become a vacation home or is subject to some other non-rental circumstance. Such a match comparison could be undertaken annually as part of the preparation for the rental survey. The Planning Department would take on this responsibility once the standard database report has been programmed by the Information Systems Department. 5. Restricted Units (Fields 3 l-32. See Table 1) All new housing projects are now subject to inclusionary housing requirements, and, thus, must either pay a housing impact fee or provide a Housing Agreement establishing how the inclusionary obligation will be met for the site. Data from the Housing Agreement will be entered manually into these fields by Housing and Redevelopment staff for those units which will be income-restricted, once the database record is created. Other City programs may also create income, restrictions on housing units. These restrictions will also be recorded here by Housing and Redevelopment staff. (See Table 3) 6. Monthlv Rents and Vacancies (Fields 33-36. See Table 1) As was indicated above, under “tenure” ‘(fields 27-30), the City will be setting up a procedure whereby information on the tenure of each new residential structure will be requested from the builder at the time of building permit plan-check. In addition to declaring if a building will contain rental unit(s), the builder will be asked to indicate the “prospective” rents (or sales prices of for-sale units). These data will be collected on a form at the beginning of plan-check and then stored by the Planning Department. When the final inspection is scheduled, thus triggering the automatic creation of a new record in the temporary data register, the prospective rent information will be taken from the stored form and entered manually by the Planning Department. For information’in subsequent years, it is proposed that an annual rent and vacancy survey be conducted by the Planning Department of all rental sites indicated in the database. The survey will utilize a mail-out/mail-back survey instrument, the data from which will be entered manually into RENTALS. Initially, it is estimated that approximately 6,000 rental ownerships will have to be surveyed annually. (However, see Part I, D., above, for a discussion of an alternative data collection approach for rental ownerships.) A special report will be needed from the database to assist in preparing the survey instrument each time the survey is conducted. For each rental site, the report will need to generate: ii: C. Mailing label of the site address; Mailing label of the owner or manager; and A print-out of the number of units (by bedrooms and bathrooms) at the site, in a form which can be attached to the survey instrument. (replica of Table 2) 23 At this time it is not proposed to track subsequent sales price information for either rental or non-rental buildings. Therefore, no subsequent-sale data collection procedure is needed. - 7. Site Survey General Information (Fields 37 - 39. See Table 1) A sampling of sites will be field-surveyed from time to time for the data needed in data groups 7 - 10. The sample size and frequency will be determined on an “as-resources- are-available” basis. Group 7 data fields record information from the last field survey (if one has been conducted), including its date and an evaluation, of the condition of the site (both numeric and text data). The Field surveys will be conducted by Housing and Redevelopment Department staff and the data will be entered into RENTALS by Planning Department staff. - 8. Site Amenities (Fields 40 - 50. See Table 1) For many (most?) records these data fields will contain no data, because of the sampling strategy discussed, above, for data group 7. While some data may be obtained from an inspection of building plans, most would have to come from site surveys. Sample data collected with the surveys will allow observations of “typical” values from these database fields. The Field surveys will be conducted by Housing and Redevelopment Department staff and the data will be entered into RENTALS by Planning Department staff. 9. Twical Unit Amenities (Fields 51 - 63. See Table 1) (Same as data group 8) 10. Utilities (Fields 64 - 70. See Table 1) (Same as data group 8) RESPONSES TO PERMITS FOR DEMOLITIONS ANDCONVERSIONS When a residential structure is approved for either: a) a full or partial demolition, or b) a conversion to a non-residential usage, it will be.necessary to carry out maintenance to the site’s RENTALS record to reflect the, loss. On the other hand, when a non-residential structure is converted to a residential usage, it will be necessary to create a new RENTALS record . Because the exact nature of a,demolition or conversion can take many forms, especially with multi-family ownerships, it will be necessary that changes to RENTALS records be done manually. It is proposed that a periodic (monthly?) report be generated from PERMITS which lists approved demolition and conversion permits by permit number for the preceding period. By inspecting the PERMITS data, staff will be able to determine what changes then need to be made to the RENTALS record. In the case of some demolitions and conversions, the entire RENTALS record may warrant deletion. In other cases, the record will only need to be modified. (For example, the demolition of one four-unit building on a site of 30 units would require only changes to the structure data group and, possibly, the amenities data groups.) In 24 some cases, new records will need to be created. Once it is clear what changes have been permitted, the database would be modified. - The periodic report would be programmed by Bill Baer. - The Planning Department would receive the report and carry out the appropriate maintenance to RENTALS records. - . QUALITY CONTROL - A database has value only if the data contained within it is of high quality (it is accurate, complete, and up-to-date). Procedures need to be developed to test and assure the integrity of the information held within database. Basically, three areas need to be examined: 1. Data Collection - Data to be put into the database will come from a range of primary and secondary sources, including: - a. b. ii: Field surveys (from both initial data-load and on-going maintenance of new construction records); Developers (prospective rent and sales price data, via a form taken at time of plan check); Rental owners, via mail-out/mail-back surveys; and/or Other existing electronic and paper databases (MetroScan, PERMITS, Affordable Housing Agreements, records of housing assistance programs, etc.). - The integrity and accuracy of the data from each source will have to be examined, and, wherever the City can exert control, steps should be taken to optimize its accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. Sometimes it will be a challenge to determine what is the correct information. Highly motivated staff are desired, staff who will take the extra step, and can communicate the sense of mission to third parties so as to enlist their active assistance and participation in data collection. - 2. Data Entry Some data will be added to RENTALS electronically, and some will be entered manually. Both methods of entry pose their own risks of introducing errors into the source data. Deletions, extraneous insertions, transpositions, and omissions of numbers,characters, or entire fields of data are possible. Generally, manual data entry represents the greater hazard to accurate data entry. 3. Storage and Back-Up of Records The electronic files of RENTALS will be subject to the same back-up and storage procedures now used for other data files. This will be the responsibility of the Information Systems Department. 25 A range of hard-copy (paper) reports will be generated. Many of these will be standard reports produced on a periodic basis. Others will be copies of reports prepared on an ad hoc basis for City or “outside” customers. If these reports are collected into an archive library, the collectionwill serve as a useful reference tool. Staff anticipates that a significant number of customers will want to compare data from one time period to another. A library of previous reports will be very useful to such comparisons. Therefore, it is recommended that storage capacity be allocated in the Planning and/or Housing and Redevelopment Departments for such archives. The quality controls needed for storage and back-up have primarily to do with consistency of action, accuracy, and maintaining the appropriate longevity of stored records. It cannot be overemphasized that the number one key to effective and accurate collection, entry, and storage of data is highly motivated staff. Staff must be led into a correct sense of the importance of the database “mission”. They must be well-trained in appropriately designed procedures. They must be given standards and they must understand that they will be held to those standards through the use of performance plans and performance cheeks and reviews. They and their work assignments must be supported by their supervisors and department management through the provision of adequate resources and by acknowledgement of their efforts. D. Phase 4: Data Clean-Up After the initial data-load of Phase 2 and the establishment of on-going record maintenance procedures in Phase 3, gaps will remain in the records of some existing rental stock. It will be desirable to fill-in these gaps by implementing a work plan to collect and enter the missing data. This likely will involve a significant amount of field work and/or examination of historical building plans. The program will be undertaken as time and resources are available and may take several years to complete. The details of this work plan will be developed at a later time. - - - - 26 Part III. RESOURCE UTILIZATION - A. Summary of Responsibilities by Department - To implement RENTA,LS a coordinated effort will need to be undertaken by several departments. These include the Building, Information Systems, Housing and Redevelopment, and Planning Departments. Following is a summary of the major responsibilities each department would be asked to undertake. 1. INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEPARTMENT Phase 1: System Design a. Participate in developing Concept Design Plan and Work Plan. b. Program the data structures (including field 32, (Table 3) and multi-page capability for fields 33-36 (Table 2)). - - - - Phase 2: Initial Data Load a. Program the electronic transfer from MetroScan to RENTALS of data for all existing Assessor’s parcels with “residential” designations. Create RENTALS records for all existing housing ownerships. b. Program the electronic transfer from PERMITS of geo-code data for all the records created in RENTALS, via a. C. Generate a listing of APNs with common ownerships d similar address ranges to enable consolidation of multiple parcel records common to one site/ownership. d. Program a job to list from MetroScan all absentee owners of residential properties to aid in identifying rentals. Using this list, electronically give inputs to RENTALS record, field 29, absentee owners. Print the list by type of residential use, APN, owner name, site address. Use this list to print mail labels for use in the initial mail-out rental survey. e. For all residential APNs in PERMITS identify “condominiums” and pass matches to field 30 of RENTALS records. a. Program the capability for the auto-creation of new RENTALS records, triggered by completing the final inspection in PERMITS. Include the auto load of all relevant data from PERMITS into newly created RENTALS records. 27 b. Program a weekly (?) report of all new RENTALS records created in the preceding period to be used by Planning Department staff to conduct the maintenance of new RENTALS records held in the temporary data register. Give: APN, address, owner. . - C. Create a program to periodically report records with common APNs (each new structure permit at an APN will trigger another record). Consolidate with the report called for by b. - d. Program a report which would identify MetroScan absentee owners and then match this list against RENTALS field 29 (absentee owner) to detect the conversions of houses and condos from owner-occupied to rental use (absentee owner). Phase 4: Data Clean-UD This phase has not yet been planned. The responsibilities of Information Systems will likely be minor. 2. HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT Phase 1: System Design a. Participate in developing the Concept Design Plan and Work Plan. Phase 2: Initial Data Load a. Input data on restricted units to field 32 (Table 3) for all existing rental stock, once records are created. These data identify sites with inclusionary housing, section 8, mortgage bond, or special funding units. Manual input. b. As resources are available, conduct field surveys of a sample of existing rental sites to obtain data on: structure types (fields 17-26), general site data (fields 37- 39), site amenities (fields 40-50), typical unit amenities (fields 51-63), and utilities (fields 64-70). “Field survey” means a combination of telephone contacts and actual site visits. Prepare data for manual entry into the database by Planning Department. Phase 3: Ongoing System Maintenance a. Enter the data in Restricted Units fields 31-32 (Table 3) as Housing Agreements (inclusionary housing) and/or other housing assistance programs are implemented at a site. - b. As resources become available, develop and carry out a program to field-survey a sampling of rental sites so as to “ground truth” the accuracy of data held in RENTALS records. 28 Phase 4: Data Clean-UQ - - a. The details of this phase have not been planned. The Housing and Redevelopment Department may have a major role in collecting and entering data missing in rental housing records. This work may be combined with the rental field survey discussed above, Phase 3, activity b. 3. BUILDING DEPARTMENT Phase 1: System Design a. Participate in developing the Concept Design Plan and Work Plan. Phase 2: Initial Data Load The Building Department has no special responsibilities in this phase. Phase 3. On-going Svstem Maintenance. a. Because the creation of new records in RENTALS will be triggered by the completion of final inspections for new permits, Building Department staff may need to introduce a minor procedural change to implement the trigger. On the other hand, it may be possible to automate the entire trigger process. b. Continue to enter accurately and completely into PERMITS that data which is automatically transferred to RENTALS records. C. As part of the new procedure to collect housing affordability information at the time of applying for building permits, encourage builders to fill out and return Prospective Sales Price/Rent Disclosure Statement forms. Then transfer the forms to Planning Department staff for later data entry. Phase 4: Data Clean-Up The Building Department has no anticipated special responsibilities in the phase. 4. PLANNING DEPARTMENT Phase 1: Svstem Design a. Participate in developing the Concept Design Plan and Work Plan; take the lead to draft the reports for both plans. 29 Phase 2: Initial Data Load. a. Use a RENTALS report to identify multiple parcels on the same site, for which records have been created. Manually consolidate the data from these multiple records into a single site record. b. Prepare and conduct a mail survey of “absentee owners” (identified by a report from MetroScan) of housing sites in RBNTALS, corroborate with business license data, and determine which sites are rentals and which are second/vacation homes. Enter the data into tenure data fields (27-30). C. Either separate from, or as part of the mail survey in b., conduct a rent/vacancy survey of existing rental sites. Enter this data into fields 33-36 (Table 2.). d. Receive data from Housing and Redevelopment Department from sampled site surveys and carry out data entry to RENTALS. Phase 3: On-Going System Maintenance a. Receive from Building Counter staff and store the Prospective Sales Price/Rent Disclosure Statement data forms collected at the time of building permit plan check. Periodically run a report to identify recently created records in RENTALS. Use the stored rent/sales price forms to enter the tenure data (fields 27-30), and rent data (fields 33-34) for the new records. b. Periodically, run a standard report to identify records with similar addresses or APNs to identify new structures for which records were created, but which are on the same site as structures recorded in older records. Consolidate the data for these records into a “common” record. - C. Conduct the annual rent/vacancy survey and record the results in fields 33-36 (including Table 2.). d. Periodically, run a report identifying recently approved demolition and conversion permits. Research the changes that need to be made to RENTALS records and make the changes for each issued permit. e. Receive data from Housing and Redevelopment Department from periodically sampled site surveys and carry out data entry to RENTALS. f. Prepare procedures to ensure quality control of data collection, data entry, and storage/backup. Phase 4: Data Clean-Up a. The details of this phase have not been planned. The Planning Department may have a major role in’ collecting and entering data missing in owner-occupied housing records. - 30 - - - - B. Costs The RENTALS database system represents a major new program to the City of Carlsbad. Costs associated with it will include both significant one-time start-up costs as well as permanently recurring maintenance costs. Estimates of these costs follow. 1. Start-up costs (first two phases) Please see Table 4. Table 4: Estimated Start-h Cos@ Initial Rent Survey (See Table 5) Input/Output Enhancement (Database Printing Capability for Housing & Redevt. Dept.) Initial Field Surveys (Intern) Staff labor (database design and set-up) Total Sub-Item Mail/Postage Phone Materials Labor Info Systems Planning H&R Building Sub-Cost Total Cost $4,800 $11,700 $2,ooo $600 $4,300 $2,ooo $4,ooo $9,ooo $16,000 S5,ooo $l,ooo $l,ooo $33,700 No new funding is necessary. $20,300 of the estimate is for “sunk” labor (design, programming, and the initial rent survey) for staff already employed by the City. The only impact is the deferment of other possible work assignments while time is spent working on the database. The $4,000 cost for the intern doing initial field surveys is money that is already encumbered for work underway summer 1993. This work would have been undertaken with or without RENTALS, as this information is necessary to the City’s Section 8 Housing program. The staff costs have already been funded with approved FY 93/94 departmental budgets. The remaining start-up costs can be found from within the approved FY 93194 budgets of the Housing and Redevelopment Department and the Planning Department. 31 2. Recurring Costs (annual) With the exceptions of costs associated with the annual rent/vacancy survey, recurring costs will be associated almost exclusively with staff time. Staff will be involved primarily in doing: data entry, data cleanup, assisting data users with the making of inquiries, and programming data queries and special reports. The amount of work will vary with: 1) the volume of new construction activity, and, thus, need for creating/maintaining records, and 2) demands for queries and special reports from the system. Consequently, the recurring labor costs will vary from year to year. Without actual experience, it is not possible to make reliable estimates of these costs. - The estimate of annual costs associated with subsequent-year rental/vacancy surveys is $6,400 (See Table 6), of which approximately $3,700 would be non-personnel related. 3. Phase 4 costs (data clean-up program) What will constitute this program is not yet determined (See Part II for a discussion). The Housing and Redevelopment Department will desire to update data groups 7 - 10 periodically as resources are available. This work may be pushed over into Phase 4. If interns are used to carry out this work there will be some additional non-staff costs, the amount of which cannot be estimated at this time. - 32 - - - Appendix 1 Costs of Rent Vacancy Survey - Initial and Continuing 33 P . - - - TABLE 5 Rent/Vacancy Survey Costs - Initial Database Set-Up F:RSrvvCti.xh Item Sub cost cost Mail/postage Annual postal acct fees (flat rate) Initial mail OUT Initial mail BACK Follow-Up mail OUT Follow-Up mail BACK $260 $1,740 $1,140 $870 $760 $4,770 Phone charges (Follow-up) Materials Paper Window envelopes Mail labels $2,000 $584 $144 $338 $101 Labor (Word Processor II) Mail Prep. (stuffing, affixing labels) hours = 90.0 Phone.follow-up hours = 83.3 Data entry hours = 100.0 Total $4,294 $1,414 $1,309 $1,571 $11,648 Assumptions Inputs Basic postal acct. fee (annual) Adv. postal deposit acct. fee (annual) Postage: out; 1 st class/piece Postage: back; BRMIpiece Initial no. pieces Initial fail rate Second attempt fail rate Second mailing Phone follow-ups (second failure) No. calls/site (avg) Length of call (avg. mins.) Cost/call (avg) paper: sheets/mailing paper cost: S/ream No 10 window envelopes cost: S/box (5001 Mail labels (5”xl”, 1 up) cost : S/box(5 MI Labor rate:WPII (wages, o/h, fringe) Mail prep. (pieces/hour) Data entry-rate {min/record) 35 unit/cost $75.00 $185.00 $0.29 so.38 6.000 50% 33% 3,000 1,000 2 5 $1 .oo 1 $2.31 $1 a.79 $56 $15.71 100 1 TABLE 6 Rent/Vacancy Survey Costs - Subsequent Years Item Mail/postage Annual postal acct fees (flat rate) Initial mail OUT Initial mail BACK Follow-Up mail OUT Follow-Up mail BACK Phone charges (Follow-up) Materials Paper $96 Window envelopes $225 Mail labels $68 Labor (Word Processor II) Mail Prep. (stuffing, affixing labels) hours = 60.0 Phone follow-up hours = 27.8 Data entry hours = 83.3 Sub cost $260 $1,450 $380 $290 $253 $943 $436 $1,309 cop $2,633 4667 $389 szlsaa Total 56/.377 ========================================= =I= = Assumptions Inputs Basic postal acct. fee (annual) Adv. postal deposit acct. fee (annual) Postage: out; 1 st class/piece Postage: back; BRMlpiece Initial no. pieces Initial fail rate Second attempt fail rate Second mailing Phone follow-ups (second failure) No. calls/site (avg) Length of call (avg. mins.) Cost/call (avg) paper: sheets/mailing paper cost: S/ream No 10 window envelopes cost: S/box (500) Mail labels (5”xl”, 1 up) cost : S/box(5 Ml Labor rate:WPII (wages, o/h, fringe) Mail prep. (pieces/hour) Data entry rate (min/record) unit/cost $75.00 $185.00 $0.29 $0.38 5,000 20% 33% 1,000 333 2 5 $1.00 1 $2.31 $1 a.79 $56 $15.71 100 1 36 TABLE 7 R&Vacancy Survey Costs - Multi-Family Only Option F:RSrvvCn.xb - - Item Mail/postage Annual postal acct fees (flat rate) Initial mail OUT Initial mail BACK Follow-Up mail OUT Follow-Up mail BACK Phone charges (Follow-up) Materials Paper Window envelopes Mail labels Labor (Word Processor II1 Mail Prep. (stuffing, affixing labels) hours = 9.0 Phone follow-up hours = a.3 Data entry hours = 10.0 Total Sub cost cost $260 $174 $114 $87 $76 $711 $14 $34 $10 $200 $58 $429 $141 $131 $157 $1,399 ================I=========================== Assumptions Inputs unit/cost Basic postal acct. fee (annual) $75.00 Adv. postal deposit acct. fee (annual) $195.00 Postage: out; 1 st class/piece Postage: back; BRMlpiece Initial no. pieces Initial fail rate Second attempt fail rate Second mailing Phone follow-ups (second failure) No. calls/site (avg) Length of call (avg. mins.1 Cost/call (avg) paper: sheets/mailing paper cost: S/ream No 10 window envelopes cost: $/box (5001 Mail labels (5”xl”, 1 up) cost : S/box{5 Ml Labor rate:WPII (wages, o/h, fringe) Mail prep. (pieces/hour) Data entry rate (min/record) 37 $0.29 so.38 600 50% 33% 300 100 2 5 $1 .oo 1 $2.31 $18.79 $56 $15.71 100 1 Appendix 2 (Draft) Carlsbad Rent and Vacancy Survey Form 39 - City of Carlsbad Rent and Vacancy Survey i, A New Service to the Rental Housing Industry in Carlsbad Your nameipostion: Subject Site Information Address: City, State, ZIP: Daytime Phone: (Please provide the above information in case w6 naed to contact you) The City of Carlsbad is preparing to provide a new service to the Carlsbed rental housing industry by annually collecting and reporting statistics on industry rents and vacancies. In addition to apartments, data will be collected on rental single-family houses and condos. These data are currently not available from other sources and should be of great interest to the industry and other parties interested in housing. Group statistics (only) will be published by a range of geographies and structure types. In order to begin, we need your help to establish a database of rental properties within the city. Public records indicate that your property (indicated to the right, above) may be a residential rental property. Please provide additional information about this property, as indicated below. Your help is greatly appreciated! Inatruction6: q If the subject property is an owner-occupied vacation home or second home, not beina rented, please check the box to the left, STOP, and return the questionnaire. We are interested in rental property only. Thank you. q If the subject property is a rented house, condo, guest house, or rental apartment complex, please check the box to the left. Then provide the informatron requested below. I Pkare provide rent and vacancy data 66 of: joct. 00, 1993 I No. of bedrooms No. of bathrooms Jo. of units at this site, IS follows: *Income-Restricted: Market-Rate: TotB1 Units: iverage Monthly Rent or Market-Rata Units: ‘*Vacant units, as ,ollo ws: No.of units off-market: No. of units on-market which are vacant : Three One / Two 1 Three 4-r Four 7 ’ ; I I l Inooma-rertricted units 6re those for which the rant is limited to 6 level which 6ssuras that the unit ir affordable to and restricted for the use of 6pacified incom6 households. Usually such units are participsting in a government-sponsored housing proarsm. including H.U.D. Section 9 voucher/certificate program, Cadabed inclusionary housing program. and other program6 involving federal, 6t6te. or local funding. l ’ Vacancy infonn6tion should combine data for both income-restricted and market-rate units. “Off-market units are units which 6r6 not occupied and ere temporedly unavaileble for occupancy because of damage repairs, maintenmcr. or other rearons. “On-Market” units 6r6 vacmt and. aa of the date of survey, sre availeble to be rented. - You may own other rental properties in the City of Carlsbad. If you receive a similar form for those properties, please fill out and return one for each property in Carlsbad. If you don’t receive a form for your other rental properties, please call for one (see phone number below) and supply the appropriate information. (Alternatively, make copies of this form and change the property address in the “Subject Site” space at the top right of this form.) If you no longer own this property, please write a note so saying and giving the name, address, and phone number of the party to whom you sold it. Thank you. q Please check the box to the left if you are interested in obtaining reports containing data from the City’s rent/vacancy surveys. This is a prepaid BeIf-mailer; no stamp is necessary! Please fold this form so that the City’s address shows, close with tape (only), and mail. PI6a6e return to th6 City of Carl6bad by Your assistance with this information is greatly appreciated. Thank you1 Ow6tione7 Call: Dennis Turner, Principal Planner Tele: (619) 438-l 161 x 4443 41 .- Appendix 3 (Draft) Rent/Sales Price Disclosure Form . - - - City of Carlsbad PROSPECTIVE SALES PRICE/RENT DISCLOSURE STATEMENT PURPOSE In order to monitor the affordability of new housing in Carlsbad, the State of California has directed local jurisdictions to collect and report information on rents and sales prices of all new housing. We would like to request your assistance in collecting prospective rent and sales price information for the residential project for which you are now seeking building permits. Please complete this form with the indicated information and return it to the Building Department prior to the completion of your plan check. Your voluntary participation is greatly appreciated. (Please type or print) A. SITE INFORMATION BUILDING PERMIT NO: PROPERTY ADDRESS: PARCEL NO: TOTAL NUMBER OF UNITS PROCESSED UNDER THIS PERMIT: NAME OF PERSON COMPLETING THIS FORM (print) RELATIONSHIP TO PROJECT PHONE:j 1 NAME OF DEVELOPMENT UNDER WHICH .UNITS WILL BE MARKETED B. USAGE. Check the appropriate “house”. Initially, this (these) unit(s) will be: b Rented (Tenant occupied) fi Sold (Buyer occupied, possibly condominium) 0 Owner/Builder occupied (custom home) a Other (describe). C. RENT and/or PRICE INFORMATION For each apartment or unit please indicate: the unit’s number (or address if there is no unit number), the number of bedrooms and baths in the unit, and either the monthly rent or sales price you anticipate at this time will be requested when the unit completes construction and is placed on the market. If the development is a single unit and is to be occupied by the owner/builder, please give your best estimate of the final combined land and construction price. Thank you. of No. of No. Prospective Monthly Apt. or Unit No. for Site Address) Model (if aoplicableZ Bedrooms Baths Rent or Sales Price