Candidate Questionnaire — Ward 3 — Chris Tolbert

Candidate Questionnaire — Ward 3 — Chris Tolbert

Ward 3 contains the neighborhoods of Highland Park and Macalester-Groveland. It is currently represented by Councilmember Chris Tolbert. There are four candidates running: Councilmember Chris Tolbert and Patricia Hartmann. We have received responses from neither of the candidates.

1. How do you plan to increase housing affordability in St. Paul?

As Chair of the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, we have made affordable housing a top priority in Saint Paul. Our methods to do so are to first, produce more affordable housing, second, preserve naturally occurring affordable housing, and third, protect residents through tenant’s rights.

These three priorities are our focus and the lens through which we view our city budget. In just the past year I led our City’s efforts to address the affordable housing crisis by our passage of a $71 million investment for affordable housing over the next 3 years. We created the City’s first Affordable Housing Trust Fund (with a dedicated funding source that is not property taxes). I authored our first deliberate use of 4D Affordable Housing Incentive Program — a tool to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing, and we’ve been working towards 20% affordable housing at the Ford Site.

2. What do you see as the main cause for the shortage of affordable housing in St. Paul?

There are a multitude of factors that have led to our affordable housing crisis in Saint Paul, and we are not unique in the United States, as many cities are facing the same issues. We have continued to attract people to our city and our population is increasing, while the housing stock has not increased accordingly. Additionally, larger economic factors, such as stagnant salaries that aren’t increasing to keep pace with housing costs, and even the increased costs of building housing, all contribute to the problem.

3. How can the city eliminate homelessness?

All of the priorities outlined above (housing production, preserving NOAH, and protecting residents) are important elements in working towards eliminating homelessness. Additionally, wrap around services for individuals seeking housing, such as providing food security, educational opportunities, and affordable health care access, are needed. Finally, we must be able to provide living wage jobs for our residents. I led the efforts to increase our minimum wage to $15, in large part to to ensure our residents can afford to live in our communities.

4. Do you support changing the city’s zoning to allow quadplexes everywhere in the city? If not, please explain why.

We need to increase our housing stock if we are going to continue to grow and thrive as a community. Also, we need to be able to provide residents with a variety of housing options — everything from high rise apartments, to quads and duplexes, to condominiums — in order to ensure residents can stay in our communities as they age. Increasing density near transit access has the added benefit of reducing dependence on vehicles and encouraging transit use. Also, allowing for infill developments, like The Finn and The Grove in Ward 3, provide for increased density throughout our community. The Planning Commission is currently studying this very issue and I look forward to hearing their recommendations.

5. Do you support eliminating minimum parking requirements? If not, please explain why.

Eliminating parking minimums makes particular sense for buildings located in walking distance of high frequency transit, which is why we eliminated parking minimums within a quarter-mile of the green line. There have been instances where parking minimums had the effect of forcing a building to build more parking than their business needed and thus increased costs, and I have supported variances to reduce those parking restrictions.

6. Do you support funding the city’s 4(d) affordable housing program? If not, how will you preserve at-risk Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH)?

Yes. Our 4(d) program is a great tool to help preserve NOAH, and a program I was excited author and expand last year.