News

HAC seeks city's OK for 84-unit development

By Bill Moss, Published: December 17, 2014

Six months after Henderson County commissioners rejected its plans for low-income apartments near Laurel Park, the Housing Assistance Corp. is preparing to seek approval from the city of Hendersonville for 84 residential units on North Main Street near Mud Creek.

The project, which the HAC has named Oklawaha Village, would include 18 single-family homes, 66 apartments and a community building on sloping property across from Yon Hill Road. The 18-acre site, about half of which is floodplain, is part of a larger 37-acre site owned by Glade Holdings, which nine years ago proposed a large mixed-use development on the site.
"We're proceeding as rapidly as we can to meet the deadline in order to catch the train before it leaves the station," Don Daines, the HAC's director of residential development, said on Monday. "We have been meeting and it looks like we're going to be able to meet the deadline for the development.
"The development consists of 18 single-family homes on quarter-acre lots and 66 multifamily apartments with a community center and a recreation area. We're also looking at possibly putting in a nonresidential building up at the front where our entrance intersects with North Main of 7,500 to 8,000 square feet," he added. "It is creating the opportunity possibly for some kind of day care or some kind of use that would be complementary to not only the residents of Oklawaha Village but the area."
The proposed housing development, HAC officials say, would fit well on the North Main Street property based on zoning the city approved nine years ago. At that time, developer Gus Campano proposed a large urban village development that would include 204 residential units and 110,000 square feet of office and retail space.
"We're like the western piece of that master plan," Daines said. "It's presently zoned urban village but the special use permit has expired. The 18 acres that we are using includes close to nine acres of the original 2005 plan plus about 9 acres of floodplain land going down to Mud Creek. This proposed development of 18 single family homes and 66 multifamily units is practically identical to what was already approved for this area in 2005."

'Self Help' homes envisioned

HAC estimates the development would cost $9 million.
The single-family homes would be built through the agency's Self-Help program, which requires prospective homebuyers to contribute "sweat equity" in the homes' construction and to take sources on household budgeting and home maintenance. The program, started in 1971 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, limits mortgage payments to no more than 30 percent of the family's household income. HAC has built 110 Self-Help homes in Henderson County. The program is for people whose income is 80 percent or below median income.
"The terms are made so they're not drowning in their house payment," Daines said.
The 66 apartments could be built under one of two options.
If the HAC receives approval to offer tax credits — as it had last spring with the Rosebay project — it would grant the tax credits to a developer who would build the project and receive the rent payments.
"That's why we are in such a race," he said, "because when the county commissioners denied the rezoning in May the Housing Assistance Corp. had to determine how it was going to fulfill its mission in light of that denial."
Daines, who came on board after the Rosebay project failed, finds himself in a similar timeframe — "racing to get Ocklawaha Village approved." The agency must submit a preliminary application in January and final application in May for tax credit funding. A decision would come in August of next year. If the project was funded through tax credits, "100 percent (of the units) would be affordable to families earning 50 percent of median income."
"If we do not (get tax credit approval), we can still move forward with the apartments because they're badly needed and they would be rented at maybe 50 percent to 140 to 150 percent" of median income, Daines said. "We want to hold the rent down for families that work in Henderson County but can't afford to live here. Our concern is there's a large percentage of people that work in Henderson County who can't afford to live here. They take their paychecks home and spend it out of the county."

Next steps

The housing agency plans to ask the city to approve the project as a planned residential development or PRD. The agency would start on the single-family homes as early as next fall and the apartment building in the spring of 2016.
"It's moving as quickly as possible trying to provide the badly needed housing opportunity that we had hoped to provide with Rosebay," he said. "We are trying to get these 84 homes delivered as quickly as we can because the unmet need just constantly grows."
Near three supermarkets, a Family Dollar, Lowes and other retailers, the North Main area is also on the Apple Country Transit line. Plans include a path linking the residential area to the Ocklawaha Greenway, which connects to Jackson Park and Patton Park and ultimately will extend to Berkeley Park.
"People will be literally able to walk to town," he said. "There's all sorts of grocery stores and services within a mile, and it brings these families into this part of our community, because it's all about community. It includes all of us."
A retired lawyer who also has an MBA, Daines moved to the Asheville area three years ago. Born into a construction family, he has worked on housing projects throughout his career, including affordable housing. He's worked in site selection and development, permitting and financing of housing projects in the Northeast, Tennessee and Indiana. He was vice president and chief legal counsel for the K. Hovnanian Companies, a New Jersey-based homebuilder with developments in 17 states and annual revenue of around $2 billion.
A unique engineering aspect of the project, Daines said, is the need to run the sewer line under Mud Creek to the city's new outfall line.
"We'll be starting on the sewer line and water line and what we hope is a public street in the summer of 2015," Daines said. "We hope reality follows the plan pretty closely."
Founded in 1988 by church members concerned about housing for poorer working families, the Housing Assistance Corp. works to provide affordable housing for lower income families and the elderly. Besides local support from the United Way, Community Foundation, city and county governments, churches, businesses, civic clubs and private donors, the HAC receives support through USDA Rural Development, HUD, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency and other government agencies.

Close to parks

Noelle McKay, HAC's executive director, said the agency completed the agreement to option the land last week and now is hoping to get the city's OK.
"It had zoning approval for an urban village," she said. "It was on the cusp of the recession and all development at that time slowed down and eventually ceased like it did throughout the nation.
"What's kind of nice about this is even though the special-use permit has expired and we have to go through the process again, we're not requesting something that's greatly different than what had already been approved previously. There's definitely some similarities in how the project is intended to be used over time."
Like the proposal on Pisgah Drive off U.S. 64 west of Laurel Park, the North Main Street site is close to grocery stores and other retailers and on the Apple Country Public Transit line.
"This one definitely has several amenities as well — its proximity to the downtown area and the two parks," McKay said. "Patton Park and Jackson Park are close by and of course the Oklawaha Trail. And we also know that there's going to be a lot of growth on Seventh Avenue with Park Ridge and some of the other things going on there, and those are new employment centers for the kind of people that are likely to live in these apartments. There's growth happening in the kind of work that a lot of these folks would be likely to do."
McKay is hopeful that this time the project will come to fruition.
"There is a demonstrated need for this kind of housing," she said. "It has been several years since one of these low-income housing tax credit developments has gone in in our county for workforce-type housing, and the location is appropriate. It's close to services and it's close to jobs. It's a nice site, there's a need in the community and we're trying to see if we can't get an award coming into our county and get some of those home funds. That's a coup for our county to be able to get those kinds of housing to create this housing."