Entry Level Housing Update

Jeff Kenney’s Culver Citizen article on the Entry Level Housing decision by the Town Council popped up on The Pilot News website over the weekend.  (You can find The Pilot News version here or the Culver Citizen version in a previous post here.)  Unfortunately in the interim, the Council rescinded the decision to move forward this year and instead chose to delay our application until next year.  Thus like the wispy home I’ve shown multiple times in the past (see left), affordable housing in Culver has slipped from our grasp until at least 2017.  (Wow, that was one of the sappiest sentences I’ve written in a long time!)

I can’t help but be frustrated by this.  First because we had been working towards the grant deadline of November 2nd for the last 9 months.  Second, after the decision on September 22nd (the meeting in the Citizen article) I was asked to rush around to get the necessary items lined up which included a special Culver BZA Hearing and a tax abatement hearing with the County Council.  Both of which had been arranged prior to finding out that the plug had been pulled.  (The final piece was completed at 4:55 against a 5:00 deadline.  No stress there!)

The abatement hearing has been cancelled.  The developer has been told to cool his heels.  No follow-up meeting for the Entry Level Housing Task Force has been scheduled.  The only thing that is continuing forward is the BZA Hearing.  If the BZA is still willing, I plan to go ahead with that hearing.  I am thinking that it can’t hurt to vet the location ahead of time.  All the neighboring property owners have been alerted.

I hope our development partner hangs with us.  I hope we don’t lose opportunities with our target audiences.  I hope the grant availability is there next year.  I hope the County Council is still supportive next year.  I hope any changes in the Council following the election doesn’t realign the will of our leadership.  I hope the subsequent changes in the appointed boards and commissions doesn’t change their will to move forward.  That’s six “hopes” we now have in trade for the momentum we previously had.  Let me throw in one more for lucky seven and say I hope all this works out.

Image Source:  www.homeloanstoday.com

Image Source:  Unknown (found on Pinterest)