By Jay Lawson
Mike Mitchell addressed the Town of Webb Board with an update on his Moose River Commons housing project at the former Old Forge Hardware Lumber Yard.
He spoke on Tuesday, May 12, at the board’s regular monthly meeting.
Following is Mike’s description of the housing project to date.
“It’s now been three years that the project’s been moving forward. Fifteen approvals have been gained with about two remaining, one from the Department of State and a final one from the Department of Health, once sewer and water is tested on the site. All utilities are in the ground—water, sewer, electric, cable and phone. None are truly functional, they aren’t completely plugged into the system or tested, but soon will be now that the ground is thawed.
“I want to thank the Town Board for its participation in putting together the offices, which have been extremely cooperative, in particular the Code Enforcement office has been incredible. The Tax Assessor has been incredible, and the Highway Department has been very cooperative.
“The target audience for these houses are a wide variety of people, but in particular teachers, police officers, volunteer firemen. But based on the size and the fact that they are new homes, they will probably take someone who earns in the upper echelon of income in our community, or two wage-earners in a single home.
“While we probably need additional reasonably-priced housing, closer to the $75K or even $50K price range, it’s almost an impossibility to build those structures new, without some kind of subsidy.
“Currently the target rents are about $800 a month for one-, two-, and three-bedroom homes, with a target price of $155,000 for sale. That’s about half the national average from a rental standpoint; slightly less than half from a purchase standpoint.
“Typically when a project’s built, only 30 percent of the homes are required to be dedicated for reasonably priced housing. In this case, 100 percent of the houses have been set aside for that.
“There have been many challenges along the way. One is the fact that it has taken three years. Most government agencies are adversarial from the beginning, so it’s difficult to get each of these permits.
“Permits are required for everything from Department of Homeland Security, right down to the local Planning Board.
“Some of those permits, although very simplistic, took anywhere from one, two, three, or four months. Some took in excess of two-and-a-half years.
“When you add up that time, it makes the practicality of a project like this almost impractical.
“And if you didn’t have someone who is interested in the community, who lived here and was willing to sacrifice margin for, in effect, a housing area, you probably wouldn’t have it.
“I think that’s true, based on the fact that there are no others in the Adirondacks.
“So, it’s a unique opportunity. And with the cooperation of the community and efforts of all those involved, it’s possible. But I think outside the Park, and our special little community here, it would almost be impossible.
“One of the concerns is the target audience. It’s for young people, while also reserved for retirees and older people. Those young people typically have lesser credit or they have an unfavorable income-to-debt ratio. In particular teachers, who have significant student loans or car loans.
“So, while we may have an excess of ten homes come on line this year, we may not have ten qualified candidates that are ready to move into those homes.
“Provisions have been made within the rules surrounding the homes to rent them temporarily, perhaps even to tourists.
Just as if a retired person was there, they have the opportunity to rent it temporarily to a tourist, but that certainly is not the intent. And the priority would always go with qualified candidates.
“So, if you do see something other than twenty-something-year-olds living there with young children, it’s probably a result of an insufficient number of qualified candidates at the time.
“Any person outside our target audience would be signed on to a limited lease, perhaps six months at most. So, at the end of six months, if we did have a qualified candidate, they would have priority in the houses.
“This would only be set up for the beginning of this project, because over time we will certainly have 100 percent qualified candidates—but not on Day One.
“And there is some importance to keeping the cash flow positive on this project. We have an association to maintain, plus a debt service.
“While future projects like this are a possibility, it makes it very difficult to do for two reasons.
“One is, we probably only have 20-or-so people who would have a need for this type of housing in a $150,000 price range or $800 a month rent point.
Anything below that, we would really have a difficult time building structures for less than that, especially when you consider the cost of land in the Town of Webb.”
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Webb Board members asked questions following the presentation with Mike providing additional information.
Mike said government regulations prohibit the sale of homes in the development at this time, until all permits are in place.
The advertising of their availability is also prohibited at this time, he said.
“While we have a long list of people who are very interested, it would be illegal for us to go any farther [at this time],” he said.
Mike said he expects most permits to be in place within the next month, barring any unforeseen difficulties.
There are ten homes in place currently. Four additional homes will be set in early June.
Another five are yet to be built.