The Dayton City Plan Board voted 5-0 to OK the first phase, and the proposal will go to Dayton City Commission on Aug. 31 for final approval.
“We see Germantown Village as a way to preserve affordable housing, so much of which has been demolished,” Weller said, pointing to similar projects her company has built in the New Orleans and Chicago areas.
“Affordable housing” properties are rented only to people who make less than 60 percent of the area median income. The local AMI for a family of four is about $61,000.
The 60 attached townhomes would be built in a four-acre area north of Germantown Street, between Broadway and Williams, just on the outskirts of the Wright-Dunbar neighborhood. The development would feature an equal mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom townhomes, along with a parking lot, playground and community room.
Developers hope to begin construction this winter and be completed in early 2013.
The block is largely vacant land today. A few vacant homes would be razed, while four occupied properties will remain, with the development built around them. City documents say the developers tried to acquire those properties as well, but the owners declined. Scott Puffer, project manager for Model Group, which will handle construction, said his company is still in negotiations with a barbershop on Germantown Street.
Puffer said the first phase of the development would cost $11.4 million, with much of the funding coming from Ohio Housing Finance Agency tax credits.
“We will go into the difficult areas that, frankly, most developers wouldn’t touch,” Puffer said. “We pride ourselves on building affordable housing that is indistinguishable from market-rate.”
Weller said future phases of Germantown Village could have market-rate, or unsubsidized housing, as the development aims for a mixed-income approach.
Plan Board member Jeff Payne urged developers to do the first phase right, including attention to social services, or any future of the project would be doomed.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2278 or jkelley @DaytonDailyNews.com.
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