If the county is going to buy land for future housing development, a developer needs to be found first.
That was the general consensus of Allen County Commissioners, who got more clarification about a recent proposal from Thrive Allen County.
Thrive wants to apply for a state housing grant to purchase between 10 and 12 vacant properties they could use as an incentive to developers. The grant requires the participation of a city or county.
When Thrive’s economic development director Jonathon Goering first approached the county last week, they had a lot of questions and not much time to find answers. The county’s weekly meeting was moved to Monday, rather than Tuesday, so commissioners could decide before the 5 p.m. deadline.
After reassurances that the county would not be stuck with properties they couldn’t sell, commissioners agreed to sign on to the plan, giving Goering the go-ahead to apply for the grant.
If awarded, Thrive would receive $50,000. The county would be allowed about $15,000 for any maintenance, title insurance and surveys. That would leave $35,000 to purchase properties.
A KEY sticking point for commissioners last week was the financial risk of buying up to a dozen properties.
The county would be stuck maintaining them — such as mowing — until they were sold to a developer.
The county also would likely be responsible for property taxes, and potentially lose revenue. Those amounts were small, from about $20 to $100 annually on each of the properties Goering had in mind.
But Goering was able to ease commissioners’ minds by agreeing not to purchase any properties until a developer was willing to sign a contract.
At that point, the county would essentially become a “pass-through” buyer: Thrive would use the grant money to help the county buy the property, and then it would be gifted or sold at a steep discount to the developer.
Any maintenance and other costs during that process would be covered by the grant.
If developers could not be found, no properties would be purchased and Thrive would give back any unused funds to the Kansas Housing Resource Corporation.
Assured that the county’s financial risk was essentially zero, commissioners agreed to participate on the condition that Goering include those stipulations in a memorandum of understanding.
GOERING also cleared up some misunderstandings from his presentation last week.
