City Council reviews affordable housing and how it will affect Athens citizens

Athens City Council. Graphic by Maggie Prosser.

Athens City Council debated potential amendments to an ordinance Monday night regarding progress on the Affordable Housing Commission.

Councilmember Sarah Grace, who largely led the discussion, presented a change to the ordinance. Cornerstone Builders told the commission that since material cost has skyrocketed, the developers need more funds from the Council to build units as previously discussed.

“In 2020, the cost of lumber for construction increased about 130%,” she said. “Our original agreement had said that we would be setting the initial sale price of each unit at an amount not to exceed $220,000.”

According to Grace, however, Cornerstone Builders has asked to increase the base sale price to $240,000.

“If we want this development to go forward, we have to give them the flexibility to do this," she said.

Grace said when the Affordable Housing Commission was first discussing this topic, there were few homes on the market within the targeted price range. With few homes within $220,000 to $240,000, Grace said she believed that having new, energy efficient, quality townhomes will be beneficial to the city. 

This amendment opened up questions and concerns from other council members, specifically about what is considered “affordable.”

Mayor Steve Patterson added that there is still untouched land in Athens. With this, they will continue to look at ways of expanding and developing land into what the Council can all agree is affordable housing.

A common theme of concern among the discussion was the steep increase in material price.

“We will eventually come out of the pandemic and once we do, again, we will have taken this particular process through its steps to see how it works to where we can use it as a template moving forward,” Patterson said. “But we are definitely looking at other projects around the city that would be more within that $140,000 and $150,000 range. We need it all.”

City Planner Paul Logue explained that in order to be able to cover the funds for that infrastructure, houses must first be sold above the targeted price range. He said City Council has seen this with University Estates in the past, as well as other places in the city where roads, sewers and sidewalks need to be built.

Grace explained that the Affordable Housing Commission is not specifically focused on low income housing, but on bringing business development to Athens County. She claimed that businesses say there aren’t enough homes, and there are also senior citizens of the city looking to be able to safely age in place.

One of the issues that the Council has been “grappling with,” according to Councilmember Chris Fahl, is affordability within the city, and a solution is being taken from the comprehensive plan and from the housing plan. 

Councilmember Beth Clodfelter expressed concern for the tension within the community over the commission. She voiced a “respectful request” to not call this an affordable housing development.

“$240,000 would be laughable in a town that actually needs affordable housing. I fear that this would also hurt the credibility of the Affordable Housing Commission,” Clodfelter said.

She said she believed that with the decline of enrollment at Ohio University and the assumption that the freshman class will be looking for apartments in 2022, far fewer students will be seeking rentals.

Clodfelter added that many landlords will want to sell their buildings instead of leaving them vacant as well. With all of this in mind, she said she believes that around next year, there will be an exceptional amount of houses on the market.

Grace reiterated Fahl’s point that this will not be a high risk for the city, but a higher risk for the developer to do this efficiently and effectively with their own finances. She explained that the market, according to a real estate agent on the commission board, is very competitive and that houses are selling quickly in Athens with the average price continuing to increase.

Councilmember Sam Crowl echoed his concern about the term “affordable.” 

“Affordable to a CEO in New York is different to me," he said.