City housing plan suffers setback

Tom Joyce/The News

Craig Stone, an central of Wynnefield Properties, announces a rejection of taxation credits indispensable for a due Edgewood Place unit formidable during a Thursday night assembly of a Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

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Plans for a 56-unit unit formidable in Mount Airy have been stalled for during slightest a year due to appropriation issues.

“I do have some disastrous news to report,” Craig Stone of Wynnefield Properties — a association seeking to build a housing — announced during a Thursday night assembly of a Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

The Jamestown firm’s Edgewood Place formidable targeted for a site nearby Walmart was relying on a receiving of taxation credits, fundamentally a form of financing for a $7.4 million project.

“We were not successful,” Stone told city officials of an focus a organisation had presented to a North Carolina Housing Finance Agency for $590,264 in credits.

“This year, there were 127 applications that were submitted to a Housing Finance Agency … for 32 positions,” a Wynnefield Properties central pronounced of a accessible appropriation slots.

Mount Airy already has annexed and rezoned skill during 1476 and 1510 Edgewood Drive to accommodate a housing, as good as practical for $250,000 in sovereign Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. That income was sought to compensate for infrastructure improvements associated to a development.

Stone explained Thursday night that a rejection of a credits was due to a ongoing financial crunch, that has increasing direct for a singular supply of such funding.

“The economy’s not a best for everyone,” he said. “The foe this year (for taxation credits) was some-more than it’s ever been.”

While they would have authorised a construction to ensue during a initial of subsequent year — that Stone had foresee if things went according to devise — a taxation credits also would have available cheaper rents not possibly otherwise.

Each focus for taxation credits was scored on a accumulation of factors, and Edgewood Place unsuccessful to grasp adequate points for this year’s cycle, Stone told city officials. It was judged among projects in a state’s western region, where usually 4 applications were successful.

City officials seemed unhappy in a announcement, with Commissioner Jon Cawley indicating out that 3 of a 4 western North Carolina projects tapped for credits will yield housing for a elderly. He asked if that eminence undermined Edgewood Place’s chances.

Stone pronounced that given a internal formidable is geared toward families wanting two- and three-bedroom units — also deemed a priority — focusing on aged housing wouldn’t have altered a scoring.

But a Wynnefield properties central is carefree a improved box can be done for a taxation credits in 2012. “There is a need for new housing batch in a community,” he said. Mount Airy’s let marketplace has been singular in new years, especially due to a miss of new unit complexes being constructed.

Meanwhile, upkeep of some comparison properties has depressed off since of factors including a economy.

Stone told Mount Airy officials Thursday that grants and other possibilities will be explored “to have a improved possibility for subsequent year” per a credits.

“Sometimes, unfortunately, it does take dual years,” he said.

“We don’t have a final diversion plan,” Stone added. Wynnefield Properties hopes to get an prolongation on an choice to buy a Edgewood Drive skill “until we get a diversion plan.”

Plans denounced progressing for Edgewood Place call for a formidable to enclose 7 buildings, counting a clubhouse. Other amenities would embody a aptness center, walking trails and space for residents to lift gardens.

Also during Thursday night’s assembly of a city commissioners:

• No antithesis was uttered to a due shutting of an unopened apportionment of Junction Street. Two skill owners, Brenda C. Reece and James Gary Holt, have petitioned for a closing. The city house will opinion on a matter during another meeting.

• Three members of a Mount Airy Library Board whose terms recently lapsed were reappointed: Cooper Adams, Kelly Merritt and Judy Rhoden. Each was tapped for another three-year tenure to finish on Jun 30, 2014.

• Also re-upped to new terms on a city Historic Preservation Commission for a same length and death date were Barbara Oliver, Steve Talley and Glenda Creech.

• Members of a third city supervision group, a Mount Airy Appearance Commission, also had dual members re-appointed to new terms failing on Jun 30, 2014: Mimi Patterson and Linda Kniskern.

Contact Tom Joyce during 719-1924 or tjoyce@mtairynews.com.