Wednesday, March 7, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
5
Affordable housing project to break ground soon
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
Provided a compromise
can be reached between the
City’s attorneys and Tom
Kemper of HousingWorks
and his partners, ground will
be broken next week for the
48-unit affordable housing
apartment complex to be
built on two separate parcels
of land along Brooks Camp
Road, north of McKinney
Butte Road.
At last week’s Sisters
City Council meeting, an
agenda item called for dis-
cussion and approval of an
agreement between Central
Oregon Regional Housing
Authority (CORHA) dba
HousingWorks and the City
of Sisters for a $300,000
grant for the development and
construction of a multi-family
affordable-housing develop-
ment at Village Meadows
Phase 2 and authorize the
City manager to execute the
agreement subject to legal
review and approval.
A legal glitch in the lan-
guage of the agreement sur-
faced that could delay the
beginning of the project,
given the fact there are nine
layers of financing and five
different groups of attor-
neys involved in the project.
However, Council approved
the agreement with some
contingencies, and the City
attorneys are still fine-tuning
the agreement to make sure it
works for all parties involved.
On September 8, 2016,
City Council approved the
allocation of $300,000 to
the project in support of
Council’s number-one goal
for the year – securing afford-
able housing in the city. Other
Central Oregon cities have
made contributions to afford-
able housing in their commu-
nities with monetary contri-
butions, providing land for a
project, and services such as
paving of project streets.
Kemper has been working
with City Council and City
staff for over a year-and-a-
half to bring an affordable
townhouse rental project,
similar to Tamarack Village,
to Sisters. The 33 units at
Tamarack Village have an
average waiting list of one
year.
The new project will con-
sist of six buildings and be
offered for rent at 60 percent
of adjusted median income.
There will be seven three-
bedroom units, nine two-
bedroom units, and 32 one-
bedroom units. The site plan
has been approved and the
building permit is nearing
final approval for issuance by
the County.
Kemper estimates the
entire project will cost $5.5
million. The Land Innovation
and Fast Track Housing
(LIFT) Program money will
provide about $38,000 per
unit. Many different fund-
ing sources are essential in
order to build the new project
because it costs just as much
to build affordable housing as
it does to build market-rate
apartments, and the costs
aren’t offset enough when the
rents need to be affordable for
people who make 60 percent
of the adjust median income
in Deschutes County.
The $300,000 will cover
most of the project’s sys-
tem development charges:
SISTERS LES SCHWAB
600 W. HOOD AVE. • 541-549-1560
REDMOND PRINEVILLE
845 NW 6th
1250 East 3rd
541-548-4011
541-447-5686
GRAPHIC PROVIDED
water $99,111.75; sewer
$127,974.30; transporta-
tion $30,236.16; and parks
MADRAS
La PINE
BEND-SOUTH BEND-FRANKLIN BEND-NORTH
1412 SW Hwy. 97 52596 N. Hwy. 97 61085 S. Hwy. 97
541-475-3834
541-536-3009
$57,264. The balance of SDC
fees due ($14,586.21) will be
paid by the developer.
541-385-4702
105 NE Franklin
63590 Hunnell Rd.
541-382-3551
541-318-0281