Residential

Entry Level Housing Update

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Culver Citizen - Culver Chooses Site for Entry Level Housing DeJeff 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…

Culver Citizen - Culver Chooses Site for Entry Level Housing 2Jeff 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:

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Sand Hill Farm Update

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Sand Hill Farm
Sand Hill Farm

There have been several status changes to Sand Hill Farm this Spring.  The first was the retirement of the County drainage easement through the property.  It was replaced by a new easement to the Town of Culver.  This was part of the agreement with the Town that saw the relocation of the storm drain from running diagonally across the property to a new location along the property line.  This also included removal of a large area of brush and scrub trees which generally improved the property.  The second was the inclusion of Sand Hill Farm in the talks regarding Entry Level Housing for Culver.  I have served on Culver’s Task Force looking into this issue and helped with the Request For Proposals (RFP) that went out to developers earlier this month.  I have been contacted by one developer who has shown interest.  We shall see how it proceeds from here.  The goal of the RFP is to explore opportunities to obtain an Affordable Housing project that can be parlayed into additional market rate housing through an additional portion of the property.  

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Affordable Housing Task Force

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The Affordable Housing Task Force met on Monday the 27th to discuss the information Jonathan Leist, Culver Town Manager, had assembled through various meetings.  I attended four of the six meetings he reported on and was able to help fill in background.  In a nutshell, there are opportunities and developers that can be enticed to do work.

In a MCEDC site visit with Elkay, we were able to recruit Elkay’s management to assist us in our endeavors.  Two Elkay representatives attended the Monday meeting and brought demographics for our use.  They also volunteered to help with surveying to determine how many Elkay employees would be interested in relocating to Culver if housing were made available.

In the meeting with IHCDA, we learned that funds are available, but only for income based housing projects, not market based housing.  We did find that much of the projected income based rental rates are actually above the local market rate rents.

The Task Force agreed that it would be prudent to pursue both market based and income based housing to keep our options open.  The group tasked Jonathan to take a couple of things before the Town Council:  1)  A budget for a Needs Assessment Survey and 2)  A tentative agreement to consider tax abatement for the properties.  (Tax Abatement was requested by all of the developers Jonathan met.)  Jonathan accomplished #2 at last night’s Council meeting, but #1 was not approved as it would require an additional appropriation for the unbudgeted cost.

Image Source:  www.homeloanstoday.com

 

Marshall County Entry Level Housing Meeting

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I sit on the Affordable Housing Task Force for Culver and as part of that as well as wearing my MCEDC hat, I sat in on a meeting at the Culver Library with Darin Edwards, Underwriting and Closing Manager for IHCDA.  The meeting was arranged by Jerry Chavez, MCEDC Executive Director, and included representatives from the Marshall County communities of Culver, Argos, Plymouth and Bremen.

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Smaller Home Sizes

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My post regarding Starter Home Barriers sparked some conversation about the square footage of a starter home, particularly regarding the 2,000 minimum home size discussed in the Builder magazine article.  Many of the points about that possibly being unrealistically large for Culver were valid.  Since I was paraphrasing the article in the previous quote, it seemed appropriate to stick with their numbers and rationales.

3 bedroom/2 bathroom home Plan by Zero Energy Design

In any case, the discussion prompted me to do a little further research into smaller home sizes.  I did find the Zero Energy Design website which included several smaller residential footprints ranging from a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom at 624sf to a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom at 1120sf.  (Apparently in a ZED home no one watches TV as they don’t even appear to allow a place for one in their room furniture layout.)  While I know the boxy design is the most efficient, I would hope we can be a little more creative in our floor plans.

1-1/2 story house with porch and dormer from Hermann London

I also notice that almost all the small footprint homes are single story.  I don’t know if that’s because they are often geared towards the elderly and are trying to make them as accessible as possible or if there is just a predisposition to single story now.  Going back to a story-and-a-half design could provide some additional efficient space.  The boxy design lends itself well to prefabricated construction, but we have had good success with panelized construction which is also efficient where duplication of layouts is possible.

I think the infrastructure issues will be more telling than the house floor plan in what the end selling or renting point is.  As with their square foot home size, I think the lot buildout may be more economical here, but probably not by much.  Many of the same regulations apply and our Comp Plan pushes more measures such as “complete streets” which add costs.