SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 | 9A HOUSING from page 1A According to Day, there have been significant delays to the original start-up date of the project due primarily to a backlog of documents that must be reviewed by the Oregon Department of Justice and the start to a funding program known as the LIFT (Local Innovation and Fast Track) Housing Program. “We assumed that we would be breaking ground roughly six months after the award, because that’s kind of typical of housing projects that are using some kind of public subsidy,” said Day. “It turns out we were optimis- tic in that timeline and we underestimated the amount Ginny Verville Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show Winner! Best of Breed & Best Opposite Sex of work that it would take OHCS (Oregon Housing and Community Services) to stand up the program.” The lot size is 1.73 acres or 73,359 square feet, with the plot zoned as Multi-Family Residential. The plan is to locate 12 homes there, in- cluding a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, simultaneously. The property will be placed in a Land Trust, which is a form of owner- ship where the land is legal- ly separated from the struc- tures and held in trust by a nonprofit, in this instance NEDCO, and the buildings are owned by individuals. In 2018, Lane County de- termined the value of the property at $245,522 and a similarly zoned property sold in Florence recently for $213,333 an acre. The NEDCO develop- ment is referred to as a “cottage cluster,” which is defined as a development of smaller homes centered around a common space. The homes will all have some individual space — perhaps a patio or small garden — and will share the common areas. The hope is the devel- opment will eventually be able to offer homes for sale at prices that are below the current median average, ac- cording to Reiman. “Erin did a quick study of 86 homes that were sold in Florence in the last six months and the average sale price was $230,000. So, there is a just a really basic disconnect between what moderate income families can afford and the homes that are available for them in the market, which is real- ly driven by the cost of cre- ating new housing,” Reiman said. The delay in starting the Airport Road project was a concern for Florence Mayor Joe Henry, who voiced his 0LUDFOH(DU+HDULQJ&HQWHUV DUHORRNLQJ IRUTXDOLILHGSHRSOHWRWHVWWKHLUODWHVWSURGXFW * 7KH0LUDFOH(DU Š 0LUDJH 5,6. )5((! +HUH¶VWKHFDWFK