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New housing proposed for downtown
Ohio company outlines plan to construct a 100-unit ‘affordable’ development
By DAVE SHELTON
Article published on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 |
LARGO – A company claiming to be the nation's largest developer of affordable housing has proposed a 110-unit project for the Downtown Redevelopment Area on Missouri Avenue.
During a June 10 workshop meeting, Tim Morgan of The NRP Group of Cleveland, Ohio, said the 4-acre development would be located across from Largo High School.
Morgan said the site was chosen because it is in walking distance of shopping, near several schools and is served by public transportation. He said evidence of the city's receptiveness to the proposal also contributed to the decision.
Vice Mayor Harriet Crozier said the city was honored to have been chosen by the developer that was looking for sites throughout Pinellas County.
Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala last month said that the county has lost hundreds of affordable housing units because mobile home park properties are being used for condominiums.
“Largo is at the vanguard of this area's efforts to build affordable housing,” Morgan said, pointing to the positive reception he has received from city staff and elected officials. “We have received help and have been given clear direction from your planning department. Largo is a place where we want to do business.”
Morgan said the cost of rent for approximately 70 of the new units would be determined by income. He said plans call for the company to take advantage of any federal, state and local subsidies available to offset its costs.
Largo Community Development Director Carol Stricklin said the site is within the city's “blighted” West Bay Drive Community Redevelopment zone, qualifying the plan for that zone's redevelopment incentives. Morgan said the plans would require the city to allow a density of 30 units per acre.
NRP has been recognized for the past two years by an affordable housing industry publication as the nation's largest builder in that category. Last year NRP built 1,580 affordable housing units. In 2006, it built 1,765.
Morgan noted that his company's nearest project to Largo is in New Orleans where NRP is helping to restore housing for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
This is the second affordable housing project suggested during recent months. The owners of The Palms of Largo have suggested they might raise some affordable housing units on a site adjacent to Alternate Keene abutting their senior housing and assisted living development.
Commissioner Robert Murray asked if the city was sacrificing land in a highly lucrative commercial area by allowing residential development. Stricklin responded that the city has previously designated the area for mixed-use development to break-up expansion of strip malls along Missouri and West Bay.
Commissioner Rodney Woods said, “I can be nothing but excited about this.”
Stricklin said that, having gained the nod from the city commission, her staff would begin negotiating a development agreement with NRP that would outline how the project is built, its restrictions and requirements. She said it was anticipated that money from Largo's annual allocation from Florida's State Housing Incentive Program would be used to pay the development's impact fees and permits.
The developer said the company would seek low income housing tax credits in 2009. That would require that at least 70 percent of the units be rented under the affordable housing guidelines tied to a renter's income.
In other matters, the commission gave the nod to most of the fee increases proposed by city departments for services. Few of the increases are significant but, together, would generate an additional $75,000 according to City Clerk Diane Bruner.
The commission balked, however, at a proposed $100 fee for developers to meet with city staff to introduce new proposals.
Commissioner Woody Brown led the objections, saying he felt this could be seen by developers as “anti-business” and turn them away from the city. Stricklin argued that such meetings, one every two weeks, consumes a lot of staff time.
Other commissioners joined Brown and the staff was told to abandon that fee entirely.
Of concern to many city residents, however, is a county school board move that will increase the cost of day care run by the city before and after school hours. City Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Joan Byrne explained that the schools will next year charge Largo $21,000 for use of schools for the day care programs.
Commissioners agreed that this added cost would have to be passed-on to parents who use the programs. Byrne said this would increase the charge for after-school care by $181 per year and for before-school by $109 per year. Before school programs, depending on the time span it is used, will cost from $530 to $870 per child.
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Article published on Wednesday, June 11, 2008
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