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Denison City Council moves new affordable housing development forward
The Denison City Council moved toward filling part of the local need for new housing at their first regular meeting of April on Tuesday night.
Members unanimously agreed to terms on a development agreement with Jim Johnson and Healthy Efficient Homes for seven units in the Urban Renewal Area just north of Denison Middle School. Johnson and his company are expected to oversee the project from design to completion. He says a similar project worked well recently over in Storm Lake.
“I’m told Denison needs houses and with the success we’ve had in Storm Lake, with roughly the same size and demographics in the population, I think we can see that same success in Denison,” said Johnson.
The agreement says all of the housing units will be at least 1,120 square feet with three bedrooms and 1 bathroom plus and include a two-car garage. The document lists a selling price of $230,000 with potential city incentives and tax credits applied to that. At-Large Councilperson Jessica Garcia says the city considered many factors while discussing this item for several weeks.
“If we go into this agreement for a development of seven units and they get to the point that these single-family dwellings of $250,000 don’t sell, then what?” said Garcia. “I’m not saying they won’t. I’m just saying ‘have we looked at it realistically and whether or not it’s affordable in our area?’”
Johnson says the price example also factors in rising costs.
“What some people call affordable is less than $200,000 and that’s not a realistic number anymore just because of the present-day economics,” said Johnson.
The agreement says one or two units will be completed per year and each new house will be started when a completed house is sold. CDC Director Evan Blakley is also part of the housing board and says projects like this are critical to seeing growth in Denison.
“I’m aware of many instances where we had someone that wanted to move to the community and accept a job here and they were just unable to find suitable housing for their lifestyle,” said Blakley. “These are high-quality homes. I’ve toured these homes in Storm Lake. I was really impressed with them.”
Johnson says this is a local response to a widespread need for fresh living options.
“We’re limiting people to either substandard housing or apartments and I think it’s kind of a sad state that we’re in but I don’t see the government as such coming in to help people. The City of Denison is doing a great job trying to help me accomplish this,” said Johnson.
One recent detail that could lead to even more cost is a sewer hookup fee of around $4,000 per lot. The council expects to possibly make slight amendments to the agreement at their next meeting on April 19.
