County explores use of Brookshire property
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

Watauga County’s first affordable-housing project moved one step closer to hammer and nails Tuesday night.

Scott Eggers, representing the Watauga Housing Opportunities Group, gave a report to the Watauga County commissioners on the group’s work and the goal of developing townhouses on county property near Boone.

Eggers said, “We’ve spent five or six years doing a lot of talking,” referring to the group that has been meeting regularly to discuss the lack of affordable housing.

Eggers said with land available at the Brookshire Road property, the county was ready to address the finer issues of establishing housing protocols and ways to protect the county’s interest in the property. He listed water and sewer availability, land deed transfers and a partnership with a non-profit group as the next hurdles.

Eggers referred to the housing as “workforce housing,” designed to serve people who don’t qualify for federal Section 8 vouchers that help the poor find shelter. The shortage is for workers who often have to live outside the area because of high property values.

“This is the single largest issue for large employers and (business) recruiting,” Eggers told the board. He said while private wells could be drilled on the property, it would need sewer service from the town of Boone, which would cost an estimated $276,000. Eggers expressed optimism that the town would participate in some way, since it has also discussed affordable housing and has several representatives on the opportunities group.

“That will be the single largest expense,” Eggers said, adding that community wells could serve the project, which has previously been discussed to include 10 to 12 townhouses, though no formal site plans have been developed. Eggers also proposed the use of a land trust to ensure the properties remain in use as affordable housing instead of allowing the original homeowner to sell the property at a large profit after the county subsidized some of the construction cost.

Eggers encouraged the development of an action plan and the group has recommended Affordable Housing Group of Charlotte as the project’s developer. Other partnerships and grants could help the project, and using a land trust to regulate property transfer would establish a formal model of regulating private profit for homeowners who presumably will buy the property at low market value.

Eggers said the local housing opportunities group represented a wide cross-section of the community and cooperation with county and town planning boards would help the process.

Commission chairman Jim Deal said cooperation with the town of Boone was important to the project’s success and said using a land trust would help protect the county’s interest in maintaining the development as workforce housing. The commissioners directed the county attorney to research the use of land trusts as a way to regulate private sale of the properties.

The commissioners also approved a change order for the Brookshire Road property on a portion currently under development as a soccer facility.

Contractors found wet soil that must be removed and replaced, and the work will cost around $72,000.

Planning director Joe Furman said the wet soil was not a surprise, but the extent of the work and the cost couldn’t be determined until crews began digging.

Furman said a geotechnical engineer had advised the county on the wet soil, which will be removed and replaced. The wet soil will dry on the site and could later be used for fill dirt elsewhere. Furman said the replacement soil would be moved from the other side of Brookshire Road, part of the parcel the county plans to develop for commercial and industrial use. The commissioners bought the 75-acre property in 2006.