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By Lynn Hotaling
With two unanimous votes county leaders Monday (Jan. 5) paved
the way for an elder housing complex and relinquished title to
a facility constructed with state mental health dollars.
The resolution allowing Mountain Projects to move forward with
their application for tax credit funding to construct housing
for low-income elderly on 2 acres of county-owned property is
contingent on two things.
First, the units must be compatible with a site master plan for
the 30-acre former Sybil Reed tract near Webster, and second,
the project must comply with Webster's zoning ordinance should
the complex be located on land that is part of the town's extraterritorial
jurisdiction.
Commissioner Roberta Crawford excused herself from voting because
she is a member of the Mountain Projects Board of Directors.
"I'm excited about the potential to bring more affordable
housing opportunities to Jackson County's senior citizens,"
Mountain Projects Director Patsy Dowling said after the vote.
"I'm thrilled."
Jackson County Commissioners Dec. 9 delayed consideration of Mountain
Projects' request to locate the proposed elder housing on county
property until Tuesday's special meeting. Officials expressed
concern that the complex might not be compatible with a site master
plan, currently under development, and that it might not meet
the requirements of Webster's zoning code.
Dowling requested county leaders allow the agency to construct
an elderly multifamily community on a portion of the N.C. 116
tract that will house the Department of Social Services building.
Consensus among commissioners last month seemed to be to assist
Mountain Projects, but they stopped short of any decision in the
absence of their attorney, setting the special meeting instead.
Mountain Projects needed a commitment from the county by Jan.
9 in order to meet application deadlines for tax credit funding
to construct the proposed complex.
The agency applied for and received tax credit funding for a similar
complex planned for land the agency purchased on Walter Ashe Road,
Dowling said. Borings revealed the presence of rock, and the project
at that site had to be abandoned. Money allocated to fund the
elder housing units reverted to the state, Dowling said.
The county's plans to construct DSS offices and relocate Jackson
Transit and the Golden Age Center to the N.C. 116 site is another
reason Mountain Projects hopes to locate elder housing there,
Dowling said.
Jackson County has a critical need for such housing, Dowling said.
"Jackson County ranks near the top in need. The county has
more than 7,000 elderly individuals, with some 1,500 who are low
income," she said in December.
If the project moves forward, 2 acres of the county's property
would be transferred into a limited partnership that would hold
title to the complex, said Mel Milton, owner of Gem Management
of Charlotte, who accompanied Dowling to both commissioners' meetings.
Dowling and Milton have asked commissioners to consider allowing
the project to be constructed off Nanny Lane, which joins single-family
residential housing.
"We felt like an elderly, multifamily community would be
an ideal transition between single family and county institutional,"
Milton said.
The area targeted by Mountain Projects falls within Webster's
ETJ, leading commissioners to include language that makes project
approval contingent on compliance with Webster's zoning rules.
County Manager Ken Westmoreland told commissioners Jan. 5 that
it was his understanding that Webster board members would likely
act to remove the county property from the constraints of the
town's ETJ.
The portion of the property that lies within the ETJ is zoned
for single-family housing only. The complex proposed by Mountain
Projects would require a variance if it falls within the ETJ,
Webster Mayor Steve Gray said last month.
Buildings owned by Jackson County would be allowed in the ETJ
through a special use permit, Gray said. The mayor confirmed Tuesday
that informal discussions about the possibility of removing the
county land from the ETJ had been held but that he didn't expect
any action until Webster officials have an opportunity to view
the county's master plan for the site.
Westmoreland said Tuesday that the preliminary master plan might
be available as early as next week.
Funding for the proposed housing complex would come to Mountain
Projects through the N.C. Housing Finance Agency. Large corporations
purchase tax credits through the agency to use toward the development
of low-income, affordable housing.
Tax credits are made available to individual states by the federal
government through a formula that is based on the state's population.
In other action during their Jan. 5 special session, Commissioners
voted unanimously to donate Infinity House, located in Dills Cove,
to the Smoky Mountain Center Foundation. The home for troubled
youth was constructed with state funds, but SMC (then Smoky Mountain
Mental Health) was not permitted to hold title to real property
at the time the facility was built.
Commissioner Crawford, who also serves on the Smoky Mountain Center
board, again excused herself from voting.
Action on Infinity House was also postponed from the Dec. 9 meeting
in order for county officials to ascertain whether the proposed
action would fall within state guidelines for mental health facilities.
No written lease agreement has ever existed, and the money to
build and maintain Infinity House had simply "flowed through"
Jackson County, said Commissioners' Chairman Stacy Buchanan.
Commissioners will next meet Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m. A previously
scheduled 5 p.m. subdivision ordinance work session, which was
to have preceded the meeting, has been rescheduled to Tuesday,
Jan. 27, at 5 p.m.
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