Parkersburg considering affordable home initiative
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PARKERSBURG -- City Council will consider an initiative to build three affordable single-family homes on blighted properties when it meets tonight as the Urban Renewal Authority.
The agenda for the meeting, scheduled to start following the conclusion of the 7:30 p.m. City Council session, includes a resolution authorizing Council President and URA Chairman Mike Reynolds to sign a letter of intent with property owner Harold Johnson for the city to purchase three properties from him for $7,000 and accept the donation of two others.
"We'll clean up some slum and blight and replace it with some new, low-to-moderate-income housing," Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce said.
The money to acquire and demolish the existing structures and build new ones would come from the HOME funds the city receives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administers on behalf of Wood County.
"HOME dollars can only be used for low-to-moderate-income housing," Joyce said.
Members of City Council have talked the last couple of years about the need for an affordable housing initiative. A proposal last year would have changed the URA's membership from all nine council members to a seven-person body with one councilperson and six appointees, three of whom would have come from the banking, real estate or development/planning communities.
That was rejected by council, so this proposal represents the city's attempt to take on the initiative itself, Joyce said.
"We're going to stick our toe in the water from an infill standpoint," he said.
There is a need for affordable housing units in the city, the resolution says, citing more than $20 million invested in the construction and rehabilitation of senior apartments and multifamily housing units since 2015, along with a majority of the city's housing stock being more than 60 years old.
"Our community needs more one- and two-bedroom units," Development Director Rickie Yeager said. "It's consistent with what the needs are in the community."
Two of the lots are at 1115 and 1115 1/2 E. 12th St., where a vacant one-story house stands with foliage growing over a large portion of the rear section. Those lots would be combined and a one-and-a-half story, two-bedroom house would be built there.
With a 10 percent contingency figured in, the construction is estimated to cost $185,955, with the total cost including acquisition and demolition projected at $201,955.
Also proposed for purchase is a house at 908 15th St., which would be demolished and the lot combined with an adjacent property already owned by the URA. Acquisition, demolition and construction of a similarly sized house there is projected to cost $187,480.
Under the proposed agreement, Johnson would donate lots at 804 and 806 19th St., where two vacant homes were damaged by fire in late 2017 and eventually torn down by the city. A lien was placed on the property for the $30,000 demolition cost, but the city will forego collecting that because the property is being donated, Yeager said.
Those lots would be combined and a two-and-a-half story, two-bedroom house built for an estimated $200,585.
The 19th Street house would be the largest of the proposed structures at 1,042 square feet. The others would be less than 1,000 square feet.
Joyce said the houses will appraise for less than what it will cost the city to build them. But he noted no money will come out of the general fund.
"It doesn't hurt the city financially," he said.
The goal will be for the homes to become owner-occupied rather than rentals, Joyce said.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.