Cost of affordable housing project likely to be debated again; update on senior living project; Downtown Lawrence Inc. launches new gift card program

This is the season where I’m reminded that we definitely can have differences of opinion about the idea of what’s affordable. (This is also the season where I’m reminded that the First Amendment protects my right to have an opinion, but does nothing to keep me warm while sleeping in the garage.) All this is to say that a difference of opinion may be brewing again on an issue related to an affordable housing project.

I’ve seen a city memo that indicates city commissioners next week once again will consider allowing the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority to purchase a six-unit apartment building at 1725 New Hampshire St., near Dillons, to convert into rent-controlled housing units.

If you remember, the City Commission was asked to approve the purchase this summer, but a majority of commissioners balked because they thought the $485,000 purchase price was too high. The county had the property appraised at about $180,000.

Commissioners asked the Housing Authority to get a private appraisal of the property done. That appraisal has been completed and it comes back with a value of $290,000, based on it being used as a residential property.

The proposed purchase price of the property, however, hasn’t changed from the $485,000 mark, and the Housing Authority still wants to buy the property.

A couple of things to keep in mind here: The Housing Authority is not seeking city tax dollars to buy the property. The authority has reserve funds that it gets either from federal programs or that it accumulates through rental income of its other properties. But, with the way the authority is structured, city commissioners have to sign off on any purchase of real estate made by the authority, even though city tax dollars aren’t involved.

A second point to keep in mind is the location of the property. It shares a property line with the Dillons store on Massachusetts Street. The apartment complex easily could be demolished, and Dillons could use the property for additional parking. Rob Farha, who leads the local group that owns the property, has told me Dillons has a strong interest in purchasing the property. Farha’s preference — it seems — is to keep the property residential, but he’s not willing to take significantly less than what Dillons may pay for the property.

So, commissioners find themselves with an interesting question: Do you allow the Housing Authority to essentially overpay to get more affordable housing units in its program? The Housing Authority has made several points about why it believes the property is worth the money.

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• The property is adjacent to Babcock Place, a large apartment complex already owned by the authority. The maintenance staff at Babcock will be able to maintain the property. If the authority were to buy a similar property elsewhere in town, it may have to add a new maintenance staff member to care for it.

• Residents of the six-unit apartment complex may be able to use some of the amenities — like a computer lab — that are available at adjacent Babcock Place.

• Owning the property may allow for the Babcock Place parking lot to be reconfigured and reduce the number of Babcock residents that are currently parking on neighborhood streets.

• The apartment building’s location next to Dillons and other services would be beneficial to low-income residents that would live in the apartment building.

If allowed to purchase the property, the Housing Authority hopes to work out a deal with KVC Health Systems and the Department for Children and Families that would allow youth who are aging out of the foster care program to live in the apartments. The Housing Authority is proposing to charge rents that range from $300 to $600 a month, depending on the income levels of the tenants.

The request comes at an interesting time. The commission is hearing more about the issue of affordable housing. The faith-based group Justice Matters is still actively calling for more to be done on the issue, the city has appointed a task force on affordable housing, and talk of a demonstration project to prove what could be done with city resources is underway.

This project at six units isn’t that large, but it may serve as a bit of a test to determine what commissioners are willing to do to add more rent-controlled units to the community’s affordable housing inventory. The past commission seemed pretty willing to provide incentives or make other accommodations for affordable housing projects. The most prominent projects have been in the Warehouse Arts District, where the past commission provided more than $1.2 million worth of infrastructure improvements to assist the Poehler Lofts and the 9 Del Loft projects, which both are rent-controlled affordable housing projects. The projects also have received some property tax rebates.

Commissioners are tentatively scheduled to discuss the latest request from the Housing Authority at the Dec. 15 City Commission meeting.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Some of you have asked me about the construction work that is underway behind the United Way building. As we previously have reported, that’s also an affordable housing project.

Tenants to Homeowners is constructing 14 living units that will be rent-controlled units available seniors who meet the necessary income guidelines. When I last checked with Tenants to Homeowners a few weeks ago, the project was going well. They hoped to have six of the units ready for occupancy by about March and the other eight ready by June.

Rents will range from $545 to $795 per month, depending on the income of the tenants.

The project — which is called Cedarwood Senior Cottages — is at 25th and Cedarwood. It is being built on a 2.2 acre site that Douglas County previously owned. In addition to the cottages, the approximately $2.3 million project also will include a small community center that will host a new piece of technology that will allow for residents to meet with their physicians via broadband connections. In other words, it will be telemedicine in action.

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• If I don’t start getting some holiday gifts bought, even telemedicine won’t be able to save me. Well, there is news of a new gift card program in Downtown Lawrence. Members of Downtown Lawrence Inc. have launched a new program that allows them to replace their old paper gift certificates with plastic gift cards like you find from most major retailers these days.

Sally Zogry, executive director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., said Downtown Lawrence Inc. traditionally sells more than $100,000 in gift certificates each year. But the association has been looking for a way to make the program more efficient. With the old paper certificate, when shoppers redeemed the certificate, any unused amount was returned to the shopper in dollars and cents. That meant that money may not end up getting spent in Downtown Lawrence. The new card program, much like at any other retailer — keeps the unused balance on the card, meaning that money will have to be spent at participating retailers. The cards can be redeemed at more than 100 downtown businesses, Zogry said.

Posted by Downtown Lawrence on Monday, November 16, 2015