Northwood Place's developers aren't waiting for the close of construction in October to plan their next affordable-housing project.
A 0.25-acre, city-owned parking lot at the corner of Leadville Avenue and Sixth Street is already under consideration for Ketchum's second lower-income housing development. The local nonprofit Ketchum Community Development Corp., which planned Northwood Place, and Seattle-based Vitus—formerly Allied Pacific Development that oversaw Northwood Place's construction north of the Wood River Community YMCA—held a meeting Wednesday evening in City Hall to gauge the community's reaction.
"There will be a lot of resistance," said Lynn Knudson, owner of the 511 Building, just south of the proposed project. She agreed with Vitus representatives that the site is "gorgeous."
"But 'gorgeous' housing isn't necessarily going to go up," Knudson said, arguing it should be placed elsewhere in town.
Vitus Director Greg Dunfield said the reason for the meeting is to "listen to the resistance," emphasizing that the project is at the very beginning, no decisions or designs yet made—only general ideas.
"The objective of this meeting is to just put it out there and get a reaction," Dunfield said.
And, Dunfield explained, the public parking lot wouldn't be lost. He said three floors—starting at Leadville Avenue's higher elevation—would cover the ground-level lot. More parking, accessible from Leadville Avenue, would dominate the first floor. He said the slope of the lot was one benefit over the flat, city-owned property at Second Street and Washington Avenue, another possible site for affordable-housing construction. Development there would require a ramp extending up from the ground level to second-floor parking, an expensive addition.
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This project, like Northwood Place, would be funded with federal tax credits, meaning a limited budget, Dunfield said. Northwood Place received about $9 million in credits.
However, the competitively sought tax credits aren't yet in hand, according to Rebecca Ralston, Vitus senior project manager.
"It's not a guarantee," she said in an interview following the meeting.
The conceptual design calls for one building standing 35 feet above Leadville Avenue. A few of the 26-30 units would share the Leadville floor with a second level of parking, but the majority of apartments would be on the second and third floors. And 65 percent of the units would be one-bedrooms, something CDC Executive Director Jon Duval said he saw a lot of demand for with Northwood Place, which had only 37 percent one-bedroom units, just 12 out of 32 units.
About 30 percent of the units would be two bedrooms and 5 percent would be three bedrooms.
Dunfield also laid out a rough project timeline, showing a City Council presentation in mid-October, a follow-up neighborhood meeting in late October and a second council presentation in November or December. The feedback would then be used to develop a design next spring and summer, drafting construction documents in the fall and winter of 2011 for the start of construction in spring 2012. As it did with Northwood, construction would take a little less than a year, finishing in early spring 2013.
Besides Knudson, two others also voiced their words of warning. John Wells represented Leadville Terrace's eight condo owners across Leadville Avenue from the site. He said they are concerned the affordable housing wouldn't fit into the neighborhood and would also obstruct the million-dollar Bald Mountain view they paid to have.
Real estate agent Dick Fenton said the neighbors wouldn't be the only ones seeing the apartments. Anyone passing through town would see it because of the open park separating it from Main Street and the one-story Silver Creek Outfitters next to the park.
"I caution you that you have an extremely sensitive site," he said.
Duval said he's aware of that, mentioning that the CDC's goal isn't only providing affordable housing in town. The CDC also has a Town Design Team tasked with "fostering physical improvements within the downtown, its gateways and transportation corridors," according to its mission statement.
"These two are definitely a balancing act," Duval said.
A balancing act the community will be taking part in.
"There are many meetings to come," Duval said.
Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com
Lynn Knudson
