MT. VERNON - An estimated 360 to 719 homes are going to be needed between now and 2016 to accommodate job growth, according to a housing needs assessment presented Monday to the City Council.
"In the 1980s and 90s, the city didn't make an effort to make sure homes were there when the jobs were being created," explained City Manager Ron Neibert. "At the time we were creating jobs, you weren't keeping up with creating the homes to have those people live in the city."
The housing study was presented by Joe Zanola of the Zanola Company LLC.
"You can demonstrate there is a market for homes here," Zanola said. "While there is opportunity (for home developers and builders) here, in other markets, there is an excess of lots available. ... You have to understand that although there is a market, you have to look at things like cost tolerance for builders and developers and make sure you know what it will take for them to build before giving any incentives."
Zanola also said the needs for housing could not only be provided from new subdivisions, but also from building and expanding existing neighborhoods. In addition, the city needs to work to increase its Census numbers by keeping new employees in the city, instead of forcing the employees to go outside of the city for its housing needs.
"Attracting people to live here needs to be as aggressive as the efforts to attract developers," Zanola said.
Zanola said Mt. Vernon is in the unique position of having a good economy, new jobs available, but a lack of housing — a condition which also came from the collapse of the new housing market which started the recession. As homes were lost to foreclosure in many areas, Mt. Vernon remained relatively unscathed by the housing crisis, which helped keep the local economy steady. However, because the city didn't experience the housing construction boom prior to the market failure, there aren't homes available now, either.
The study encompasses several hundred pages of data, and members of the council expressed a wish to study the information closer. Neibert said the next step in the process is to develop a strategy to go after developers and builders.
"We have the demographics now, we have the statistics we need," Neibert said. - http://goo.gl/0MdBb
