The head of a non-profit Community Development Corporation out of Kansas City was in Gering this week, answering questions and concerns about their proposed housing development in the southeastern part of the community.
Oikos Development is proposing a phased affordable housing project involving duplexes and quadplexes for about 30 acres of land they purchased east and northeast of McClellan Park.
When asked if the rental properties would be completely low income, company President Michael Snodgrass said tenants would be thoroughly vetted, and come from a mixture of socioeconomic backgrounds. “Not all these people are going to be low income; in some places, they’re going to be moderate income, some of them will be market rate. We believe in a mixed-income approach to development. I don’t want all low income in one single area, it’s a recipe for disaster long-term,” said Snodgrass. “So when you put in anybody, you know, you have people that aren’t income-qualified, they can just be, you know, Elon Musk could come in and rent a place if he wanted to.”
Some attending the Civic Center gathering Wednesday voiced concerns about the condition of the properties, given existing single-family homes in the area, and the potential impact on property values. Snodgrass responded that having new construction taking place next to existing housing should not have a negative impact on the housing market in the area, and he reassured them good property management was a priority.
“We will select a property manager, we will have an office there to actually watch the property manager. The property manager will be in the (office) building as well. And so we would provide all the lot maintenance, right? We provide all the trash (collection), is provided by the owner. So if somebody violates the lease and doesn’t say their keep their property… Well, first of all, we probably will never have a problem with that. Anything on the outside, we can certainly maintain and we will,” Snodgrass said.
A similar project that’s in progress in Garden City, KS was pointed out as a comparable property and development as that proposed for Gering. Snodgrass provided a screenshot from live video surveillance of that location, which showed clean and orderly streets in the type of housing combination that will be built locally, and said Oikos has similar surveillance on the neighborhoods of all their properties.
He said development of the property, which would also include a daycare in the office building open to all, would come in phases dependent on funding available generally from the USDA.
A zoning change request from medium to high-density residential that would allow the project to move forward goes before the Gering City Council for a public hearing Monday night.
Should the rezoning be approved, Snodgrass says the company would move forward with making an application for funding in April or May for the first phase of the project.
