(Red Oak) -- Red Oak city officials continue to explore ways to increase the housing stock in the community.
That's the message from Red Oak Mayor Shawnna Silvius, who informed the Red Oak City Council at a special meeting recently of a few different housing projects that are currently on the city's radar. The city's financial advisors have recently stated that it could finance such projects as their general obligation debt is expected to decrease dramatically in the coming years. On top of the StudioOne Townhome project introduced late last month, Silvius says local entities are also considering renovating the old Webster building.
"Basically, I've been tagged with a couple of assignments that I've been looking into with regard to 'slum and blight' and/or if an area is 'tiffed' (Tax Increment Financing)," said Silivus. "The maps we have, I'm not sure if they're conceptualized or approved, and we're still trying to get to some of those."
Additionally, Silvius says there is still the old Red Oak Middle School project which is anticipated to create 25 affordable housing units near the downtown square. Silvius says one of the project's leaders is expected to update the council later this month on the progress.
"I feel like it's there (update) to give and not mine, but it is moving forward -- I will say that -- and we're just waiting a little bit longer here," she said. "I've also been in contact with the trailer park as well and possibly taking a tour of a couple of plants that built some houses at different locations -- one nearby in the Nebraska-Kansas area and one in Tennessee that we'll potentially see."
Silvius says they hope to gauge the quality of the mobile homes better and whether they would be helpful in the trailer park in Red Oak.
In related business at the special meeting, the council also discussed applying for the new "Iowa Thriving Communities" designation. Silvius says the new designation offered through the Iowa Finance Authority and the Iowa Economic Development Authority will provide communities leveraging innovative methods to attract housing for their workforce with an opportunity to be recognized for their efforts.
"Some of the things that we have to acknowledge is that we have completed our housing readiness assessment, that we have a housing committee, that we've designated housing as a priority, and there's some workforce things," Silvius explained.
Silvius says the designation comes along with highly sought-after scoring points for federal housing tax credits such as the low-income housing tax credit program, which is currently in use on the middle school project, and the workforce housing tax credit program, which is now being sought on the StudioOne townhome project. Silvius adds there are a few other requirements to be eligible for the project ranging from assessments to allocating finances to housing projects.
"Proposed neighborhoods or sites for housing development, strategic leadership and partnerships with workforce attraction and retention," said Silvius. "The state has really just wanted communities to submit applications to show their readiness for these particular types of projects."
The council plans to potentially take action on a resolution of support for a workforce housing tax credit application to the Iowa Economic Development Authority for the StudioOne Townhome project west of Woodland Hills Subdivision at 2nd and Ratliff Road in Red Oak at its regular meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m.
