By Lizzie Stone, city council reporter
After a public hearing Tuesday night, the Harrisonburg City Council voted to sell city property at 2410 Reservoir Street to local developer Frank Gordon, who plans to build affordable housing.
The property is the first of five parcels the city listed for sale in February based on a council-approved process for selling off real estate. City officials are creating sale contracts for the selected applicants.
The council will sell the 0.47-acre lot for $74,600, lower than the assessed value of $108,700 as a way to promote more affordable housing in the city. Gordon plans to build five multifamily rental units. Under the sale contract, he will commit to 30 years of affordability at 80% of the area median income.
Council members thanked Gordon for effort to design projects to meet housing needs.
“Local incremental affordable housing is wonderful to have in the city,” council member Laura Dent said.
Council voted to support applications to two VDOT grants
Harrisonburg will apply to keep receiving the VDOT Transportation Alternatives Program grant, and will apply for a revenue-sharing grant to finish construction at the I-81 Exit 243 ramp at South Main Street.
The city has used the transportation alternatives grant to fund the Safe Routes to School program, including hiring a full-time coordinator. The Safe Routes program provides education and events for schools, including sponsoring the Bike/Walk/Roll day in May, creating maps of safe routes and providing bikes for students.
Although the city has received the grant before, VDOT has lowered the amounts it provides, and the city will be limited to only four more years of funding.
For the first two years, Harrisonburg would request $78,000, and in the final two it would request $114,000. The city would be required to match 20% of the funding from VDOT.
The city will also apply for a 50/50 revenue sharing grant for I-81 construction at the Exit 243 because construction estimates are projecting a much higher amount than existing funding, which is coming through a VDOT SmartScale grant. With the new estimate, there is a $3.8 million funding deficit.
VDOT will provide $1.8 million of the additional funding. To cover the remaining $2 million using this grant, Harrisonburg would pay $1 million with the other half matched by VDOT.
Council members voted to support the city’s application for both grants at their Tuesday meeting.
Council heard presentation of Northeast Neighborhood Small Area Plan
CHPlanning presented the finished Small Area Plan for the Northeast Neighborhood of the city, intended to help guide future growth and investment based on the community’s vision. It is the final piece of the Community Connectors project, and is intended to eventually be added to the city’s Comprehensive Plan.
The Small Area Plan received the greatest amount of funding from the Community Connectors grant from Smart Growth America. The same project implemented a Complete Streets demonstration to temporarily redesign North Mason Street, and brought in historians to research the impacts of Urban Renewal infrastructure projects on the historic neighborhood.
Community feedback went into the plan, along with information from the historical research. It is organized into six sections: an introduction to the plan and its goals, an acknowledgement of the neighborhood’s past, an understanding of the neighborhood in the present, an overview of community engagement feedback, a synthesized plan for the future organized under priorities, and an implementation plan with specific steps.
Presenters from the project emphasized that the plan has actionable steps, and they intend to use it.
Council member Monica Robinson called her time with the project “transformative,” and said she was “working with folks who sincerely care about all citizens.”
Amy Snider, deputy city manager, said the project and the work to rebuild the neighborhood is not over even though this grant’s funding has ended.
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