York's housing gap to shrink with new Countryside Estates development
December 24, 2024
Original Article by R.J. Post with York News-Times
York has a housing gap, and it’s not difficult to define.
For Lisa Hurley, executive director of the York County Development Corp., it’s the 542 housing units the community needs to build by 2030.
For Nate Eldred, sales manager at Champion Homes and partner in the Countryside Estates development, it’s the gap between a 100-year-old house and one priced over $300,000.
“We need housing under $300,000, under $400,000, that doesn’t require renovation,” Hurley said.
“We’re the working class,” Eldred said. “We need houses we can purchase.”
He pictures a family in which the father might be a welder, and the mom might be a paraprofessional in the local schools.
“They want to live in a new, nice neighborhood,” Eldred said. That family needs to “have skin in the game, not rent,” to begin building generational wealth.
So, what’s the challenge in closing the housing gap?
“You can’t stick-build something for that anymore,” Nic Sieler, the other partner in Countryside Estates, said of the $300,000 mark. Sieler also owns Hillcrest Homes, a retailer for Champion Homes’ modular houses.
For starters, a lot in York costs about $30,000 to $40,000, Eldred said.
In takes a partnership, multiple players with skin in the game, to make it happen.
Enter Player 1.
The York City Council on Dec. 5 approved a purchase agreement between the city and Countryside Estates to sell 20.7 acres of land for $238,050, plus infrastructure costs. The land in question lies over the city’s well field, and housing is an acceptable use as part of the well field protection plan, City Administrator Sue Crawford said. “A longtime city goal has been to get more housing going up,” she said.
Enter Player 2.
The York County Development Corp. will provide financing from its $1.5 million revolving loan fund. The money came from a $1 million grant from the Nebraska Rural Workforce Housing Fund and $500,000 raised locally from the city, YCDC and several businesses. As houses in Countryside Estates are sold, the revolving loan fund will be reimbursed.
Enter Players 3 and 4.
“We meet the criteria for affordable housing,” Eldred said of his project with Sieler. “That fund will get the development off the ground.” Money from the revolving loan fund will pay for infrastructure, such as streets and utilities, and the first few houses, Eldred said. “These will all be retail sold units,” he said.
Maps at local banks will show the development on an extension of East 15th Street north and east of the York Family Aquatic Center.
Homebuyers will be able to choose the lot and floor plan they want. Because the houses will be built in Champion’s York plant, they’ll be completed in 10 days from order. “The factory builds them quick,” Eldred said.
Champion’s modular houses meet International Residential Code, which sets minimum requirements for the construction of single-family homes, duplexes and townhouses.
“Almost all of them will be three bedrooms, two baths on the main floor,” he said, with two-car garages and a full basement. Lots will be 75 feet wide by 120 feet deep.
The homes will have different designs but a unifying look. Features such as dormers and bump-outs will break up the facade. “They won’t have flat fronts,” Eldred said. The houses won’t have what he called that “Kleenex box” look. “We want them to be sort of indistinguishable from the existing community,” he said.
A total of 64 houses are planned at a rate of 20 per year, Eldred said. The houses will be priced at $275,000 to $320,000. “There’s a reduced profit on this to make it work,” he said.