Tag:Affordable Housing
IU Housing Report says Sales Up
I ran across this on twitter posted from the IBJ (Indianapolis Business Journal): IU researchers say 2015 is banner year for housing sales “Home sales across the state increased more than 6 percent in the one-year stretch ending June 2015 compared with the previous 12 months. In fact, buyer demand proved so strong this summer that Hoosiers bought 9,080 existing homes in June alone—the state’s second-largest one-month sales tally in the past 12 years, according to the study.” Unfortunately, as one of the commenters states, it the data looks like it was a banner year for real estate agents, not necessarily home builders…
Granted, it is mainly talking about Indy, but some of the information is salient to the housing conversation in Culver as well.
I need to write a follow up on the BZA meeting last Thursday, but there hasn’t been enough time for me to get my thoughts in order. Suffice to say for now that it was interesting.
Image Source: Clipart Panda
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 Unfortunately in the interim, the Council rescinded the decision to move forward this year and instead chose to delay our application until next year.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)
Entry Level Housing Update
Jeff Kenny did a nice job on the coverage of the Entry Level Housing discussion at the Town Council. I’ve included the scans of the article here if you want to read it. (I only included the portion discussing Entry Level Housing.) I think you can blow up the scans on the right so they are legible.
I’m pleased that things are moving forward, but frustrated that they have moved as slowly as they have up to this point. All of the sudden we’re in a crunch to get things done since the grant deadline is November 2nd. Because the decision finally came down to putting the development on my property, I’ve been thrust into the position of getting the variances, abatements, etc. in my name. Most of this is going to require special meetings due to the timing. Not a big deal, but it’s all about time…
Jeff also did a side bar article on the property and my history with it. It was cut up a bit as it appeared in the paper, so I’ve included the text here instead of doing scans. That also let me put links into some of the things he mentions in case you want to follow up. The side bar article follows:
Entry Level Housing Committee
Culver’s Entry Level Housing Committee met again last night. It is apparent that everyone isn’t on board yet. I’m a bit frustrated that we’re treading over ground previously covered. The group decided not to make any commitments to the developer that is interested and further decided to try again to open discussions with property owners that have not participated to date. With the deadline fast approaching for a grant application, I don’t see this happening this year. It’s unfortunate, but there are diminishing returns when you try and push a rope. I guess I will just tie a knot in the end and hold on…
Entry Level Housing Sample
Earlier this month Bill Hollingsworth, an Affordable Housing Developer, made a presentation to some of the key leaders involved in Culver’s Entry Level Housing Task Force. The presentation was a combination of education for the Task Force members as well as an introduction to his company and the work he has completed in this arena. He is currently working on a building rehabilitation project for an artist enclave which he was able to fit under the Affordable Housing umbrella.
As part of his presentation, he included some pictures of a new construction Affordable Housing project. I thought I would share those pictures here. The Affordable Housing moniker has some negative connotations. This helped dispel that concern with the task force.
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- Site Sign
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- Parking
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- Balconies
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- Stairs
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- Office
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- Business Center
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- Kitchen
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- Laundry
The Sand Hill Farm property is under consideration for this project. It would require a PUD zoning in order to complete a project similar to what is shown here, but I think it would be a welcome addition to Culver’s housing stock. At this point Mr. Holllingsworth has made an initial contact and has shown interest in pursuing this project. The task force is hoping to leverage this into additional market based housing as well.
