(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a request to extend an urban renewal district from 10 years to 15 years for a new residential development on the south side of Spirit Lake in the Southern Hills Area.
Spirit Lake City Attorney-Administrator Gregg Owens says a developer is planning to build 55 single family homes in a three-phase project scheduled for completion in 2029. Owens says the land on the south side of 36th Street a little bit west of Sunner Avenue, has been sitting idle since being platted about 24 years ago…
“Phase three I think you’ll remember was done 2015-’16 timeframe, I could be a little more recent in terms of the date, it might have been more ’14-’15, but the rest of it hasn’t built out, been waiting for somebody to buy the property, it takes a willing buyer and a willing seller and all of the things that go with the market. In the meantime the city and the county have divided pennies in property taxes for 24 years on that property and until this opportunity came along I’d say it’s fair to say it was destined to keep going nowhere.”
Owens says extending the lifetime of the urban renewal district an additional five years will help the developer recover a little more than $2.3 million in public infrastructure costs to help keep the prices of the homes in check…
“Take a half million dollars which is entirely possible that he’s not going to be able to get covered with a 10 year TIF, what happens if that’s not covered? Well you’ve just added about $100,000 to the cost of every house that he’s selling. And so if you’re interested in whether it’s low income, moderate income, affordable housing, it’s a moving target. Extending the opportunity for that rebate also extends the opportunity for the housing it provides to be more affordable.”
The developer plans to construct 19 homes in the first phase, 20 in the second and 16 in the third phase. Owens says the extension request now goes to the Spirit Lake School Board for consideration.
